HONG KONG (AP)
TOP HONG KONG record companies have launched their first legal battle against illegal music file sharing on the Internet as part of a global campaign against online piracy, an industry representative said yesterday.
The companies are seeking a court order asking Internet service providers to disclose personal details of 22 individuals who allegedly uploaded copyrighted music files onto the Internet, said Ricky Fung, chief executive of the Hong Kong branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
They are also hoping to seek compensation from the alleged offenders, he said.
The move is part of a world-wide effort to crackdown on illegal music file-sharing on the Internet in 17 countries, Fung said. Apart from Hong Kong, Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina and Singapore are among the latest countries joining the campaign to file civil lawsuits against online piracy.
The court document filed by the record companies, including Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Hong Kong), Universal Music and Warner Music Hong Kong, demanded the Internet service providers to disclose personal details of 22 file-sharers within 10 days of a court order.
The alleged offenders were uploading music files onto the Internet through WinMX technology, a peer-to-peer file sharing software widely used in Asia, Fung said.
Fung said they have not decided how much compensation to seek from the file-sharers, but offenders in the United States were ordered to pay an average of US$3,500.
"The recording industry has been compelled to take such legal action only as a last resort after our public education and awareness campaigns inviting public that every citizen should respect copyright has led to very limited success," IFPI Hong Kong said in a statement.
DROP IN REVENUE
Illegal online piracy has led to a more than 60 per cent drop in revenue in the sales of Chinese-language music albums since 2000 and a 20 per cent decrease in the number of people working in the music industry, the group said.
In Singapore, the Straits Times newspaper reported yesterday that at least 33 Internet users were being probed by the city-state's police. If convicted, they face up to five years in jail and a fine of 100,000 Singapore dollars (US$60,000).
Earlier this year, three Singaporeans were arrested after they were alleged to have distributed around 20,000 music files illegally through an Internet chat room.
The London-based IFPI said since it launched an international campaign to target illegal uploaders of music files in March 2004, more than 3,800 legal actions have been launched in 16 countries outside the United States.
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