Given that the main aim of suing music fans who illegally share music on the internet is to win PR rather than legal victories, then mission accomplished for the BPI who grabbed the front pages on Friday by announcing their anti-P2P legal campaign had completed stage one. BPI bosses confirmed that 23 of the people the industry association was targeting for evil file sharing activities had agreed to out-of-court settlements. Between them they will hand over £50,000 in hard cash to the record labels to compensate for sharing some 9000 tracks via P2P networks like Grokster, Imesh, WinMix, BearShare and good old Kazaa.
Just because it's kind fun to do so, let's list the details of the 23 guilty parties:
Mr
R - Swanley, Kent - Kazaa user
Mr S - Chatham, Kent - Grokster user
Ms C - Romford, Essex - Kazaa user
Ms C - Glasgow, Scotland - Kazaa user
Mr G - Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland - Kazaa user
Mr C - St Leonards, Sussex - Grokster user
Mr D - Chatham, Kent - Kazaa user
Mr R - Andover, Hampshire - Imesh user
Mr J - Bristol, Avon - WinMx user
Mr R - Highbury, London - Kazaa user
Mr J - Cwmbran, South Wales - Kazaa user
Mrs L - Hastings, Sussex - Kazaa user
Mr C - Fife, Scotland - Kazaa user
Mr A - Brighton, Sussex - Imesh user
Ms F - Welwyn Garden City, Herts - Kazaa user
Mr M - Loughborough, Leics - Imesh user
Mrs P - Lytham St Annes, Lancashire - BearShare user
Mr T - Liverpool, Merseyside - Kazaa user
Mr S - Barnstaple, Devon - Kazaa user
Mrs M - Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland - Kazaa user
Mr M - Marlow, Bucks - Kazaa user
Mr I - Canvey Island - Imesh user
Mr N - Stoke on Trent - Kazaa user
Confirming the legal settlements, BPI general counsel Geoff Taylor told reporters: "We are determined to find people who illegally distribute music, whichever peer-to-peer network they use, and to make them compensate the artists and labels they are stealing from. We have no desire to drag people through the courts. So we have attempted to reach fair settlements where we can. We hope people will now begin to get the message that the best way to avoid the risk of legal action and paying substantial compensation is to stop illegal file-sharing, and to buy music online, safely and legally, instead."
The compensation payments will go back to music copyright holders, although the BPI admits the payments are more about "deterrence than compensation". The BPI is still in talks with three more alleged file sharers, and has confirmed they will now begin legal action against 31 more P2P users suspected of copyright violation.
The
British music industry, of course, has some way to go before equalling the Recording Industry Association of America, who have now issued over 9000 such lawsuits. However the BPI were keen to stress that their legal action was one part of a wider global legal campaign against the illegal distribution of music online - a campaign which, they claim, has started to have a real effect on the usage levels of P2P networks, with a 45% decline in activity reported on Fast Track, the file-sharing network used by Kazaa. That claim is, of course, debatable given that other statistics show no real sign that less people are using P2P networks now than before, while others argue any decline in P2P usage is as a result of the growth of legitimate download platforms like iTunes rather than the draconian legal campaigns of the industry bodies.