James Delahunty
10 Nov 2007 16:02
Four people were questioned on suspicion of illegally uploading music on the Internet in Italy, following a raid a raid near Milan. Along with facing criminal charges, the suspects were also handed an administrative fee of €12 million (approximately US$17.6M), levied under Article 174 of the Italian Copyright Act.
Officers from the Guardia di Finanza di Milano took part in Operation Genux which saw the arrest of four individuals aged between 30 and 45 in the town of Melgnano. They had been sharing more than 120,000 files containing copyright infringing music using the DirectConnect peer-to-peer service.
The raid led to the seizure of six computers, seven external hard discs and more than 2,300 CD-Roms, containing music from artists such as U2 and Madonna, and expensive software such as Vista retail discs. "This operation sends a very clear signal that the Italian authorities will not tolerate the mass uploading of copyright infringing material onto the internet," Enzo Mazza, Chairman of FIMI, said.
Mazaa added: "People are wrong to think they are anonymous when they post material onto peer-to-peer networks. In fact they can be located and legal action brought against them. The administrative fines levied in this case show that abusing copyright on a grand scale can be an extremely costly business."
Source:
Press Release