The real price of file sharing

Twenty-three British people have agreed to pay thousands of pounds in compensation to the music industry for using file-sharing sites.

They are the first people in the UK caught up in a global campaign against illegal downloading of music and movies over the internet. In common with many of the cases in the US and Europe, the 23 users have agreed to settle with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) out of court.

BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said: "Unauthorised file sharing is against the law. It effectively steals the livelihood of musicians and the record companies who invest in them. We will not hesitate to protect the rights of our members and the artists they represent."

The average settlement for the 17 men and six women is more than £2,000. Two illegal file sharers are paying more than £4,000 each to settle their cases.

Average settlements in the US are around $3,000 but in Europe the fines have often been more severe and ranged from around 3,000 to 10, 000 euros, although one person has been fined over one million euros.

BPI General Counsel Geoff Taylor said: "We have no desire to drag people through the courts. So we have attempted to reach fair settlements where we can".

However a further three cases are still being negotiated and if the BPI and the alleged file sharers can't agree on a settlement, the cases are likely to end up in court.

Neither is the blitz about to end. The Recording Industry Association of America has already launched legal action against over 9,100 people since September 2003 and the BPI warned it plans to step up its campaign.

It said it would bring 31 new cases against file sharers from across the UK and is broadening its sweep to target users of eight different file sharing networks - KaZaA, eDonkey, Grokster, Soulseek, DirectConnect, Limewire, Bearshare and Imesh.

BPI General Counsel Geoff Taylor said, "We are determined to find people who illegally distribute music, whichever peer-to-peer network they use, and to make them compensate the artists and labels they are stealing from...we can and we will enforce the law. No one should be in any doubt that we will continue to do so."