James Delahunty
16 Mar 2005 6:16
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is once again attempting to warn British P2P users off sharing copyrighted music online. This time the BPI has made a controversial comparison; they compared the fight against illegal file sharing to battling drunk driving. Last week, they also won a court ruling that is going to force six ISPs to hand over the identities of 31 subscribers that the BPI alleges to have shared copyrighted music on P2P networks illegally.
One BPI spokesman said this action will be part of a long-term process to attempt to deter people from illegal file sharing. "In terms of behavioral change, the U.K. government has broadcast the dangers of drunk driving, but people still drunk drive," said the BPI spokesman. The ISPs have less than two weeks to hand over the information to the BPI who will probably use it to sue the individuals. Usually these cases are settled out of court and it’s likely the users will hand over about £2000 each.
The BPI are relying on the publicity of their action to deter people from uploading music on P2P networks but do admit that it's a tough battle to win and it could take a very long time to see results. "We're reluctant to say, 'OK, the job's done. Let's spend money on making records,'" the BPI spokesman said. "I suspect that the problem won't go away just because we've launched two rounds of litigation." However comparing file sharing, which hurts nobody except maybe a major label executives bank account and drunk driving which leads to the death of many people annually is a bit careless of the BPI.
Source:
News.com