Articles
Intellectual Property: IFPI threatens to sue ISPs
| Release Date: |
12 February 2007 |
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents record groups worldwide, has threatened to take action against internet service providers.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents record groups worldwide, has threatened to take action against internet service providers that allow customers to illegally share significant amounts of files over their networks.
The IFPI stated that it would prefer to work in partnership with the ISPs, but has been disappointed by many ISPs' lack of co-operation and failure to disconnect users who refuse to stop sharing music files illegally.
Last year the IFPI took legal action against 100,000 individuals in 18 countries. The IFPI said its policy of taking action against individual uploaders had been successful, and was "the second best way of dealing with the problem" after pursuing ISPs and websites. It plans to continue to pursue such litigation this year.
The ISPs' response to this recent threat is that taking legal action against them is inappropriate. They stressed that illegal music downloading was a complex international issue, they derive no revenue from illegal music and that in allowing files to be shared via their service they were acting as "mere conduits", something they cannot be held liable for under European law.
In the meantime, there has been talk of a group of national music licensing and royalties collection organisations meeting to discuss possible joint action against file-sharing websites that include YouTube, MySpace and Dailymotion. According to the Bureau International de l'Edition Mecanique (BIEM), the international organisation representing mechanical rights societies, unpaid royalties that relate to files downloaded from these sites total several hundred million euros.
Amidst this campaign against illegal file sharing, Apple has sparked controversy by demanding that record companies do away with copyright protection, or "digital rights management", for songs they sell online, suggesting that this would help legal music stores compete equally with pirate services. Apple's stance has led to a rift within the music industry as record companies attempt to develop a successful strategy for selling music in the digital age. EMI is reportedly considering selling its entire digital music catalogue in MP3 format, which contains no DRM, while Warner and Sony have reacted negatively to Apple’s suggestion.