Internet pirates face legal action, warns BPI

Owen Gibson
Wednesday January 14, 2004

The comments from the British Phonographic Industry, the trade body that represents record labels including EMI, Sony and Warner Music, were the strongest signal yet that it will follow the lead of its American counterpart and sue individuals who download copyrighted tracks

"The BPI has made no final decision on taking legal action against people using music over file-sharing networks illegally. But the disturbing increase in the illegal copying and distribution of unauthorised music files ...

over the internet is making legal action increasingly likely," said a BPI spokesman today.

"Nobody should be in any doubt that such uses of file-sharing networks are illegal and are harming the health of British music. We will take legal action if we are forced to," he added.

The statement follows remarks made last night by the BPI director-general, Andrew Yeates, at a parliamentary advisory forum. Mr Yeates said that similar prosecutions by the Recording Industry Association of America had "helped create awareness about illegal downloading"...

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 Guardian Unlimited