BPI starts legal action against UK P2P uploaders

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has begun legal action against "major file sharers" in the UK who it claims have illegally made copyrighted music available on peer-to-peer networks.

The UK record industry trade association said that it is beginning the process of legal action against 28 UK file sharers, with more cases expected to follow.

It plans to seek damages and injunctions to stop people illegally uploading recordings onto file sharing networks.

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

BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said in a statement: "We have been warning for months that unauthorised 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."

The BPI pointed out that it issued a final warning in March 2004, when it stated that legal action would follow if the problem did not improve.

Since then it has sent 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. We have done everything we can to raise awareness of this problem," said Jamieson.

"But we would be derelicting 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."

News of the first actions in the UK forms part of a move by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry to file a total of 459 new legal actions against file sharers across six European countries.