[TankGirl]

It seems that the UK and Australia music industries don't plan to follow the US example of suing their customers.

Newmediazero:

UK unlikely to sue P2P file sharers after US backlash
Yinka Adegoke

The UK and international music trade bodies have said they're unlikely to follow US colleagues in suing individuals for copyright infringement, following early signs of a media backlash in the US.

This week the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) fulfilled long- running threats to sue heavy users of file-sharing services who exchanged copyrighted material for free, and served notice to 261 individuals, including young children and some pensioners. There have already been accusations of heavy-handedness from some sections of the US media.

Plans for similar actions here are described as unlikely by the British Phonographic Industry and the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), but they refused to completely rule them out.

Allen Dixon, general counsel and executive director at IFPI, said the RIAA's action was 'entirely understandable' after several months of warnings to P2P providers, ISPs and users, but that the US market was a special case. 'At the moment we haven't any plans to bring these kind of actions as we're concentrating on educating users,' he said.

Andrew Yates director-general at the BPI, took a similar stand: 'It's a huge problem but we need to promote the legal services in the UK.'

However, some observers believe the industry is simply holding back until the implementation of the European Copyright Directive later year. This is believed to give the record companies more latitude to take legal action against offenders.

Ian Brown, director of the Federal Institute for Policy Research, said European citizens will be next in line if the directive comes into force as written.

'It's unlikely the music industry, which has been lobbying to get the powers to sue anyone thought to infringe intellectual rights, will get those powers and then not do anything with them,' he said.

news.com.au:

ARIA: We won't sue
Nui Te Koha (Herald Sun)
September 10, 2003

AUSTRALIAN record companies will not follow US leads and sue music file sharers.

The Recording Industry Association of America took court action against 261 Internet music file sharers yesterday.

It also announced an amnesty program for file sharers to confess to sharing music illegally.

Late yesterday, the Australian Recording Industry Association said it would not follow suit.

That decision comes amid research figures that show 3.4 million Australians illegally downloaded music over a recent six-month period. Last year, music sales fell by 8.9 per cent, from $629 million to $573 million.

The ARIA anti-piracy unit's Michael Speck said its web surveillance program was adequate enforcement. ARIA has worked with Internet service providers on copyright since 1997.

"We have been successful in identifying targets and dealing with them one way or another," Mr Speck said.

"We rarely find an Internet infringer who wants to argue the point. There is no grand philosophical debate about their right to be around.

"The minute we identify them, they disappear."

Mr Speck said the RIAA's actions "should not be seen as controversial in the least".

- tg