It's been a busy week over at BPI towers. Yesterday the industry association confirmed that, working with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, they have successfully instigated an international anti-piracy action against a Russian based download platform leading to the removal of over 50,000 tracks from said download service.
As previously reported, Russian based JetGroove.com was positioned as a legal digital music service through which consumers could access downloads of specialist dance music. Although the website's owners had initially approached some music organisations, including the UK's Association Of Independent Music, in a bid to properly licence music for sale via the site, no agreements had been made before JetGroove open a beta version of its website to the general public earlier this week.
JetGroove insisted they would pay record labels for any tracks sold via the platform, but key players across the dance music industry stressed concerns that their artists were being included without permission. There was also concern that some artists were promoted as being available via the service, but after music fans had paid to subscribe they were told these were just artists JetGroove hoped to offer soon. Others also reported that the MP3s being sold were of poor quality, seemingly recorded off vinyl releases rather than the original master tapes.
Following a cease and desist letter from the IFPI some 50,000 tracks have reportedly been removed from the JetGroove platform. David Martin of the BPI's Anti-Piracy Unit told CMU: "Whether it's individuals illegally uploading files to peer-to-peer networks or companies seeking to make money out of our members' copyrights without permission, the BPI's anti-piracy unit is here to protect our members' rights"
Although none of the current remaining tracks and albums are believed to be infringing their members' copyrights, the BPI and IFPI say they will continue to monitor the site.