BPI to sue filesharers

forwarded from the Pho list.... as your Californian reporter this is 
probably old news....

mC~




 From the British Phonographic Industry... I hope someone fights this, 
so we can see the legality of all this in a British context. I do like 
the reference to the laughable 'Mycokemusic' service.

*London, October 7 2004, Embargo: 10.30am*

*BPI Press Release | BPI to sue ‘major filesharers’*


British record companies trade association the BPI (British Phonographic 
Industry) has announced it is to begin a rolling programme of legal 
action against ‘major filesharers’ who illegally make copyright music 
available to millions of people across the world on peer-to-peer networks.


Today the BPI is beginning the process of legal action against 28 UK 
filesharers. More cases are expected to follow. The BPI will seek 
damages and injunctions to stop these filesharers illegally uploading 
recordings on to filesharing networks.

The large-scale uploaders subject to legal action include users of the 
KaZaA, Imesh, Grokster, Bearshare and WinMX networks.


Breakthrough for legal music


The announcement comes against the background of a breakthrough year for 
legal online music services in the UK, with the launch of high-profile 
services like Mycokemusic, iTunes and Napster and the launch on 
September 1 of an Official UK Download Chart.


BPI chairman Peter Jamieson says, “We have been warning for months that 
unauthorized file-sharing is illegal. These are not people casually 
downloading the odd track. They are uploading music on a massive scale, 
effectively stealing the livelihoods of thousands of artists and the 
people who invest in them.”


After months of attempting to raise awareness about the dangers of 
unauthorized file-sharing, the BPI issued a final warning in March 2004, 
saying if the problem did not improve legal action would follow.


Since then it has sent out over 350,000 instant messages to uploaders’ 
computers warning them of the consequences if they continue.


“We have resisted legal action as long as we could,” says Jamieson. “We 
have done everything we can to raise awareness of this problem. We have 
encouraged legal services and launched an Official Download Chart.



“But we would be derelict in our duty to protect and promote British 
music were we not to take action to demonstrate that this activity is 
illegal and harmful to every aspect of the creative British music 
industry. We believe we have no alternative other than to enforce our 
rights through the courts.”

The announcement of the first actions in the UK forms part of an 
announcement from international record companies’ trade body the IFPI of 
a total of 459 new legal actions against illegal filesharers across six 
European countries.

< ENDS >





Contacts for further information



Matt Phillips, BPI



Switchboard - 020 7803 1300

Direct Tel: 020 7803 1326

Mobile: 07739 514963

Email: matt.phillips-WcQI5Ly86Rxaa/[email protected]



Steve Redmond, BPI

DT: 020 7803 1324

M: 07770 924720

E: steve.redmond-WcQI5Ly86Rxaa/[email protected]





*Notes*




For further information on filesharing, visit the *Illegal Filesharing* 
page in the anti-piracy section of our website.






Music Says No To Illegal Filesharing



"I find it extraordinary, given the fact that 60% of musicians in the UK 
earn less than £10,000 per year and 94% of songwriters, composers 
receive less than £10,000 per year in royalty payments that we are 
prepared to ask musicians and songwriters, to turn up to work everyday 
and not get paid for it. Especially since all that many of those 
musicians and songwriters are trying to do, is to make the world the 
rest of us live in, a much more valuable, much brighter place."

*Feargal Sharkey*



“I hate what’s happening with illegal downloading. People who love music 
shouldn’t do this. The music industry provides huge choice. By stealing 
music you deny other people that choice in the future. Some may say it 
does not affect new and eclectic music. The fact is that it is precisely 
this kind of music which gets displaced. For small businesses it’s 
particularly tough. Most of us came into this business not to get rich 
but because we love music. No one who loves music would steal it.”

*Paul Birch, Managing Director, Revolver Records*



"Record companies are the biggest investors in new music in the UK. In 
return for their investment copyright law gives them the right to 
authorise what happens to that music. People who take music without that 
permission are damaging future investment in music."

*Martin Mills, Chairman, Beggars Group*



“Breaking new artists can take years of investment and hard work. 
Illegal filesharing takes money from the business and from the artists. 
If it continues it cannot help but compromise our ability to invest in 
new British music.”

*Rob Stringer, Chairman & CEO, Sony-BMG Music UK*



"The serial uploaders who post thousands of music files free of charge 
onto the Internet are stealing this product in exactly the same way as a 
shoplifter in a Music store. Theft on this scale cannot be allowed to 
continue unchecked."

*Steve Knott, Managing Director, HMV Europe, and Chairman, British 
Association of Record Dealers*



"Alongside other record companies we have put a huge investment into 
making music available for legal downloading in a way which is 
convenient, easy and above all safe. Not only is there no excuse for 
unauthorised file-sharing, it simply doesn't make any sense any more."

*David Steele, Managing Director V2 Records UK*



"The internet has changed all our lives. It is revolutionising the way 
music is consumed. What it doesn't change are the fundamentals of the 
concept of intellectual property. Unauthorised filesharing is against 
the law. After several years of seeing it eat into our livelihoods, we 
reluctantly and finally have to resort to the law to protect our business."

*Tony Wadsworth, Chairman & CEO, EMI Recorded Music UK & Ireland*



“Once upon a time there was a shortage of fully working legal download 
sites. Now that’s gone. There are enough outlets for people to buy their 
music online and I mean buy their music online. I am always amazed the 
people who profess to love music are prepared to pay their council tax 
to politicians they don’t like, their bank charges to bankers they 
despise, but choose to rip-off and steal from the musicians who are 
supposedly the great influences in their lives.”

*Tony Wilson, founder of Factory Records and the In The City music 
convention*



“There is a worrying lack of understanding of the value and meaning and 
intellectual property. We need to move very swiftly from a climate of 
ignorance to one in which people understand that illegal uploading is 
fundamentally no different from shoplifting.”

*Jeremy Lascelles, Chief Executive, Chrysalis Music*



“Illegal uploading and downloading is theft. Independents lead in music. 
We must also lead the way in fighting copyright theft on the internet”

*John Craig, Managing Director, First Night Records*





Frequently Asked Questions



*WHAT IS FILESHARING?*



Filesharing is the activity of making music files available to other 
users to download over the internet. It usually follows the peer-to-peer 
(known as p2p) model, in which files are uploaded and downloaded using 
the personal computers of the users.



Although the technology itself could offer lots of potential for the 
development of legal services, the vast majority of songs currently 
available on file-sharing networks are copyrighted works that are being 
distributed illegally.



Users download software from the internet to gain access to a 
filesharing network. The best-known unauthorized filesharing network is 
KaZaA, but others include Bearshare, WinMX, iMesh and BitTorrent. When 
the software is in use, and the user’s connection to the internet is 
open, the filesharer can trade music files (by uploading or downloading) 
with others who are online.



This phenomenon effectively creates an enormous illegal library of 
stolen music.



*IS ALL FILESHARING ILLEGAL?*



Any file-sharing of copyrighted music without the permission of the 
copyright holder is illegal. In effect, this means the vast majority of 
all the songs that are available on peer-to-peer networks today.



This is absolutely clear in UK copyright law, as it is in virtually 
every other country as well.



And it is illegal for good reason. Record companies invest money in new 
artists, and recoup that by having the exclusive right to authorise 
copying and distribution of their recordings. The Copyright, Designs & 
Patents Act 1988 protects these rights, and people who distribute 
copyrighted recordings without permission are breaking the law by 
infringing those rights.



More specifically unauthorised file-sharing runs counter to:



 > Section 16, which reserves to a copyright owner exclusive rights to 
copy and to communicate their works to the public;



 > Section 20, which says communication to the public includes ‘the 
making available to the public of the work by electronic transmission in 
such a way that members of the public may access it from a place and at 
a time individually chosen by them”.





*WHO WILL FACE LEGAL ACTION?*

**

The more files that are uploaded to the internet – the easier it is for 
others to steal and the greater the damage to the music industry.



This act of distribution, or uploading, is illegal. The 15% minority 
that upload 75% of the illegal files are what we call ‘major uploaders’.



It is our aim to both remove the infringing files through litigation, 
and set down a marker to other major uploaders as a deterrent.



The 28 UK citizens who face legal action include some with thousands of 
files they are offering to others to download.





*HOW DOES ILLEGAL FILESHARING DAMAGE MUSIC SALES?*



Research from a range of respected research organisations such as TNS, 
Jupiter, Forrester, Enders Analysis, Edison, NPD and Informa all 
demonstrate that illegal filesharing has a negative effect on music sales.



For example, the TNS report (March 2004) indicated that year-on-year 
music downloaders spent 32% less on albums and 59% less on singles.



Research from Forrester suggests that while 10% of downloaders buy more 
music having sampled it via unauthorised filesharing, 36% buy less. The 
people who buy more buy a little more; the people who buy less, buy a 
lot less.



Simply put, any promotional or positive effect of sampling is massively 
outweighed by the huge numbers of filesharers who have stopped buying 
music.





*WHAT ABOUT STUDIES THAT HAVE FOUND TO THE CONTRARY?*



Very few studies suggest that unauthorised filesharing sells more music 
or has a minimal effect. The best-known, the Oberholzer & Strumph 
report, also known as the “Harvard Study”, concluded that filesharing’s 
effect on music sales is “statistically indistinguishable from zero”.



This often-quoted study is contradicted by virtually all other research. 
It was subsequently heavily criticised in an academic study (known as a 
peer review) by the Marshall Business School, which stated that its use 
of data was “highly suspect”, that its methodology was highly 
questionable, that its conclusions were the “most problematic of all” 
and that “at best, the study could say that it does not know if download 
piracy and sales are related”.



The “Harvard Study” has been seized on by apologists for unauthorised 
downloading. Otherwise it has been comprehensively dismissed.





*WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE THROUGH LITIGATION?*



Our main objective is to discourage illegal uploading.



With litigation elsewhere in the world we have seen the number of music 
files accessible using the most popular network, Kazaa, fall by 40% 
since the beginning of 2004.



In June 2004 an estimated 700 million music files were illegally 
available on filesharing networks, a decline from a 1 billion high in 
June 2003. The number of users has declined 40% from its peak in April 
2003 and 20% this year alone.



We are confident that our rolling programme of litigation in the UK will 
achieve similar results.





*WHERE DO PEOPLE FIND LEGAL MUSIC TO DOWNLOAD?*



The good news is that the UK is fast emerging as a leader in digital music.



There are already at least 30 legal online music services in the UK from 
MyCokeMusic, to Napster, iTunes and Download@Woolworths. Around 160,000 
single downloads are being sold in the UK each week, but add in 
‘bundles’ and complete albums and the weekly total is nearer 300,000. 
Over 1m different tracks are available to download legally in the UK, 
and often tracks are released for download before they appear on CD. 
Plus, the UK’s Official Download Chart launched in September.



Legal downloading has clearly entered the public consciousness 
remarkably quickly



The result is that the internet can now provide access to the equivalent 
of a megastore of music choices via every computer in the land.



Quick facts



*/< On illegal filesharing >/*



 > An estimated 15% minority of individuals are responsible for 75% of 
the music files illegally uploaded to the internet.



 > More than 6,000 lawsuits against illegal filesharers have been 
launched worldwide.



 > The industry’s long-running education campaign about illegal 
filesharing has successfully raised awareness. Seven out ten UK 
consumers are now aware that unauthorised uploading is illegal (IFPI, 
June 2004).



 > Litigation elsewhere in the world has successfully deterred major 
uploaders. The number of files illegally available on file-sharing 
networks has declined by 30%; from 1 billion in June 2003 to 700 million 
in June 2004. Meanwhile, the number of Fast Track users (the most 
popular p2p network - accessed using Kazaa) fell by 40% - from June 2003 
to September 2004 (IFPI).



 > It damages sales. After one year a TNS sample of music downloaders 
bought 32% less albums and 59% less singles.



 > This trend is reflected in sales figures. When Napster, in its 
previous incarnation as an illegal filesharing network, launched in 
1999, 80.1 million singles were sold in the UK. This market has more 
than halved, with 36.4 million sold in 2003.



*/< UK music fans want to download legally >/*



 > At the beginning of the year, weekly download sales were around the 
15,000 mark. Today, together with permanent downloads and album bundles, 
over 300,000 are being sold.



 > After launching in January, MyCokeMusic sold more than 100,000 
downloads in its first three months, while iTunes reported 450,000 first 
week sales after its launch in June.



 > There are now more than 30 high-profile legal services in the UK.



 > Even more high profile service launches are due to arrive – with UK 
launches of Real’s Rhapsody, Virgin Download and Microsoft’s MSN Music 
service expected to arrive. Countless artist and label sites offer 
downloads as well as numerous internet radio services.



 > There are over 1 million different tracks available to download 
legally in the UK today. This figure has more than doubled in less than 
a year.



 > More than 2 ¼ million single tracks have been downloaded legally to 
date in the UK.



 > On average, 40,000 different individual titles are downloaded each 
week in the UK, this compares with 7,000 at the beginning of the year.



 > The first Official UK Download Chart was launched on September 1 with 
a weekly chart rundown at 6pm on Scott Mills’ Radio One Show. Westlife 
claimed the top spot with Flying Without Wings (Live)


_______________________________



*Matt Phillips | BPI Communications Dept*
/Riverside Building, County Hall,/
/ Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JA/
T: 020 7803 1300
DT: 020 7803 1326
M: 07739 514963
F: 020 7803 1310
E: matt.phillips-WcQI5Ly86Rxaa/[email protected]


www.bpi.co.uk | www.brittrust.co.uk | www.brits.co.uk


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