JURIST - Paper Chase: British music industry threatens legal action against song-swappers

The British Phonographic Association (BPI) warned Thursday that it would take legal action against file-sharing song-swappers in the UK who persisted in downloading music illegally off the Net. Citing statistic suggesting that 92% of downloaders accessed illegal websites, BPI noted that "A comparison of the buying behaviour indicates that downloaders spending on albums was down 32%, and spending on singles was down 59% over the previous year", providing "no clearer evidence of the damage that illegal downloading is doing to British music and the British music industry." The BPI press release is here. In the US, the counterpart Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) has already filed hundreds of suits against alleged illegal downloaders, including a recent set against students on university networks, as reported Tuesday on JURIST's Paper Chase.