UK Record Industry Starts Suing Filesharers

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC has the story that the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has started a first set of lawsuits against UK file sharers. 23 people paid £50,000 to settle out of court. This is the first time people in the UK have been fined, and probably won't be the last. From the article: "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."

Comments

Re:Before the whining starts

[smooth wombat]

I wish I had mod points. That is exactly correct and spot on.

However, you and I both realize that there will be those who will say it isn't stealing, it's copyright infringement which isn't the same as theft and so your comments will be marked down as Troll or Flamebait.

*sigh* Since when did taking someone elses work without their permission and not paying them for it become acceptable?

Re:Ouch

[mark-t]

There isn't one.

I am a defender of the copyright holder's rights. Nothing more, nothing less. And if copyright infringement is tolerated, it weakens the value of copyright in general, which is a bad thing, IMO.

Re:Ouch

[geekee]

If I make a song a available for download, I am competing directly with legal sellers. These people must consider my service when setting their prices. My service devalues the song. The victim is the copyright holder because his property is worth less now. Simple economics.

Re:Ouch

[Rei]

Your second paragraph is about legality, which is not of question here. The question is victimization. You hint that there's breaking of the covenant to encourage works, and yet, the premise is again that we're talking about people who never would have bought the works to begin with, so that's hardly discouraging them.

So, the only real issue standing up is how accurate the concept that the vast majority of infringement wouldn't have been a purchase otherwise. If you've been around enough filesharers, I think you'd agree with that ;)
It would, however, be nice if we could get reliable numbers on this critical issue.