DailyTech - 3,500 People Charged for Music File Sharing

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Internet 3,500 People Charged for Music File Sharing
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - May 23, 2006 5:31 PM

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17 comment(s) - last by Wonga.. on May 25 at 5:28 PM

File sharing networks are receiving increased law enforcement monitoring

The RIAA isn't the only organization going after users that share music. Over 3500 users in Germany have been charged with illegal music file sharing. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in Germany did a massive investigation and have found that many users were using the eDonkey file sharing client.

The eDonkey users were found to have been sharing more than 8000 files each, most of which were all copyrighted material. The investigation was performed and expanded over 130 areas across Germany. The recording industry of Germany have so far charged more than 7000 people over the past three years, with this investigation being the largest in its history. The report said that some users ended up paying an average of 2500 euros for file sharing activities.

eDonkey is also known to be used to share files other than MP3s. Interestingly, the RIAA is currently going after XM Satellite for allowing subscribers to download tunes onto their portable XM players. XM said that it had not violated any copyright laws because its players do not allow users to transfer music off the devices. The RIAA says that it wants to charge XM $150,000 per song that is downloaded.

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Huh?

By kextyn on 5/23/2006 8:36:17 PM , Rating: 3

Anyone else read it like this?

"The International Federation of the Pornographic Industry (IFPI) in Germany"

RE: Huh?

By kmmatney on 5/23/2006 11:59:58 PM , Rating: 3

Yep - I had to read it twice!

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RE: Huh?

By MarkHark on 5/24/2006 7:27:50 AM , Rating: 2

I could not properly read "phonographic" until AFTER I read your post.
And all the way through the article I was wondering what the f*** (no pun intended) the pr0n industry had to do with sharing music :)))

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RE: Huh?

By PrinceGaz on 5/25/2006 3:50:01 PM , Rating: 2

Yes. I always read our equivalent (the BPI) as the British Pornographic Industry.

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Really news anymore?

By segagenesis on 5/23/2006 5:34:30 PM , Rating: 3

I'm unsure if this sounds asenine, but arent "(random number) users sued by organization xyz for ripping stuff off" stories a bit commonplace now?

RE: Really news anymore?

By boredstudent on 5/23/2006 7:16:29 PM , Rating: 3

If "random number" was on an order of magnitude of say 10, then this would not be significant. However, I think the sheer number of users being charged in just this investigation is certainly worth noting.

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Facts

By Trisped on 5/23/2006 6:55:21 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Interestingly, the RIAA is currently going after XM Satellite for allowing subscribers to download tunes onto their portable XM players. XM said that it had not violated any copyright laws because its players do not allow users to transfer music off the devices. The RIAA says that it wants to charge XM $150,000 per song that is downloaded.

I can see mentioning, but that only takes a sentence and a link. Otherwise it sounds like you are on a personal vendetta to preserve your investment in XM.

RE: Facts

By mikeblas on 5/23/2006 9:00:08 PM , Rating: 2

Of course they're trying to protect their investment. What's wrong with that?

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RE: Facts

By Dev17 on 5/23/2006 11:44:05 PM , Rating: 1

I hate intellectual propperty rights on digital media. Open Source is the way forward. RIAA can't sue morality into people. Steps such as what Fox and ABC are doing with streaming media over the internet with unskippable adds so that both parties win. They get the money from advertising and people get to watch what they want to watch. If done properly I could see this really taking off.
A similar approach should be taken with music . See music genome project and visit pandora.com. Its worth checking out. The fact is RIAA will never fully stop priacy or filesharing.

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Hahaha!

By Josh7289 on 5/23/2006 6:00:39 PM , Rating: 4

OWNED!

Creating Crooks

By techntoons on 5/24/2006 12:41:08 PM , Rating: 2

Do these companies not realize what they are doing to their population? Germany has just created 3500 criminals who could do a fair amount of jail time. This is not going to discourage worldwide downloaders from continuing to pirate the music in the future.
Instead of putting people behind bars, why not try and give them what they want? Strip the files of DRM, put them for sale at a cheap price, and watch the money come in.

Bryan Henry
http://techntoons.blogspot.com

RE: Creating Crooks

By Wonga on 5/25/2006 5:28:26 PM , Rating: 2

Ummm... noone is talking about jail time here - just a nice big fine from a civil court.

Anyway, I have to disagree with you about whether it will discourage people. The prospect of jail time (if that was actually the punishment, which it isn't for the vast majority of people) certainly puts me off the idea of considering file sharing.

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Workaround

By Aquila76 on 5/24/2006 10:19:45 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
sharing more than 8000 files each

That's the problem right there. Share less than your entire history of DL'd files (still share, tho) and you won't even blip their radar.

I'm surprised they were checking eDonkey for music

By PrinceGaz on 5/25/2006 3:48:43 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
eDonkey is also known to be used to share files other than MP3s

Damn right it is. In fact music is much less common on the ed2k network than larger files like movies, TV shows, games, large applications, etc. In my experience, most music isn't distributed on it as individual MP3s but as RAR archives of a complete album containing MP3 (or better audio format) tracks. I'm not saying I download any of them though, it's quite possible to only use the ed2k network to download open-source and other genuinely free stuff.

Sharing 8000 files? I think the most I've ever had shared is two or three hundred and that was covering all types of material; anyone who shares that much of one thing is asking for trouble I guess. I'd need one helluva large drive to store 8000 files of the size most of my shares are; that 750GB Seagate certainly wouldn't be enough!

I think these copyright-police groups like the MPAA, RIAA, and equivalents should have to announce in advance exactly when they are going to monitor particular networks and what they are looking for, to allow law-abiding citizens like myself to do a quick check and ensure nothing infringing has accidentally been copied into the shared folder.

- Gaz.