BPI Lays File-Sharing Challenge at ISPs

U.K. record label trade body the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has written to ISPs Tiscali and Cable & Wireless to demand they close the accounts of 59 people it accuses of file-sharing music.

The BPI describes the move as a “significant development” in its campaign. Until now it has focused its fight against individual file-sharers, but this takes the irate industry up against the ISPs, which the BPI says “have so far failed to take effective steps to stop file sharers.”

BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said: “We have demonstrated in the courts that unauthorized file sharing is against the law. We have said for months that it is unacceptable for ISPs to turn a blind eye to industrial-scale copyright infringement. We are providing Tiscali and Cable & Wireless with unequivocal evidence of copyright infringement via their services. It is now up to them to put their house in order and pull the plug on these people.”

The BPI’s evidence has been culled from its work monitoring activity on file-sharing networks. The organization has been collecting users’ IP addresses, from which it can detect which ISPs handle the traffic. It can then request the identity of a user from the ISP.

The BPI has identified 17 Tiscali IP addresses and 42 Cable & Wireless IP addresses that have been used to upload significant quantities of music owned by BPI members. It is requesting that the ISPs suspend the accounts of the 59 individuals until they sign undertakings agreeing to stop unauthorized file sharing.

BPI General Counsel Roz Groome said: “Both Tiscali and Cable & Wireless state in their terms of use for subscribers that Internet accounts should not be used for copyright infringement. We now invite them to enforce their own terms of use.”

-Macworld staff, Macworld.co.uk

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