Lawsuits against server operators in France, Germany, and the Netherlands have effectively cut off more than one million users of the popular P2P network.
The London-based International Federation Of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have managed to deal the eDonkey file-sharing network a major blow last Friday when court-granted injunctions were ordered to shut down seven of their servers in Germany.
Matters were further complicated by a recent court ruling by a regional German court in Hamburg (Az. 308 O 273/07). For the first time ever, a specific monetary value was established for which to hold server operators liable any illegal file-sharing of copyrighted music that occurs on their servers.
Even though a server may not contain any actual portion of a copyrighted song, if the mere facilitation of the copyright infringement is found to have occurred the server operator can then be held liable for 20,000 Euro (about $28,000 USD) per song!
Even though a server may not contain any actual portion of a copyrighted song, if the mere facilitation of the copyright infringement is found to have occurred the server operator can then be held liable for 20,000 Euro (about $28,000 USD) per song!
IFPI, a blanket organization representing about 1400 record companies across 75 countries, used its German unit to present the injunctions against the network in Hamburg, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Leipzig and Frankfurt’s courts. The shut down of the servers effectively cuts off the network’s service to about 1.3 million users worldwide, according to IFPI spokesman Alex Jacob.
This move marks the third time this year that the organization has taken action against eDonkey. The first came against the company’s linked servers in France followed by the Netherlands. "The bulk of eDonkey servers were in these countries," says Jacob. Operations against the P2P network have been underway since January, each being handled by IFPI’s national groups.
Jo Oliver, Head of Litigation at IFPI, says: "eDonkey servers drive a large amount of illegal traffic on the file-sharing network. They are run by individuals who are deliberately and flagrantly violating the rights of artists and record companies. If you are operating a server you are in effect painting a target sign on your forehead and will face legal actions if you continue to operate."
Founded by Sam Yagan and Jed McCaleb, eDonkey was considered the largest file-sharing service online, until Bittorrent overtook the majority of P2P traffic—50-percent to 75-percent of all P2P traffic on the Internet according to Ipoque GmbH, which specializes in traffic analysis. Many analysts believe eDonkey is a distant second, estimating it at 5-percent to 50-percent of P2P traffic, depending on the region.
IFPI, which is funded by member record companies, says it will continue to take legal action against servers as they are found. It also plans to deal with individual illegal uploaders separately, using local laws to prosecute as well as they can.
Jeremy Banks, Head of IFPI’s global Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, said: "These actions show the reach of the recording industry’s internet anti-piracy operation. IFPI has an expert team which traces the origin of illegal content on the internet and works with law enforcement agencies to get copyright-infringing content off the internet."
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About a year ago Rapidshare was also targeted by IFPI. I haven’t heard anything more. Anyone else?
I don’t think anything will happen.