Music industry warns it will track and prosecute PC users for illegal copying

THE Irish music industry is to blitz computer users with Big Brother-style software to monitor illegal downloads that could land them in court to face fines of over €125,000 or five years in jail.

The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) said yesterday it would begin tracking Irish PC users who use so-called “file sharing” sites within weeks and would prosecute them if they continued to use the sites to copy music without paying for it.

IRMA director general Dick Doyle said file sharing was a form of theft and was costing the Irish music industry around €20 million every year.

IRMA will put software in place “very soon” that will automatically display a warning message on the computer screen of Irish users of sites such as KaZaA, which allows them to share files and potentially download music for free.

The message will advise users that what they are doing may be against the law and ask them not to use KaZaA’s technology if it involves a breach of copyright.

Mr Doyle said anyone who ignored the message left themselves open to prosecution and faced fines of €1,900 for every item illegally copied and up to six months in jail for a first offence, with heavier penalties for serial offenders.

IRMA’s software will monitor Irish activity on the site and identify the email addresses of alleged offenders.

Mr Doyle said IRMA would approach internet service providers to identify the people behind the email addresses and use this information in court if necessary. IRMA was willing to spend up to €500,000 on legal costs and had already spent €50,000 on a radio advertising campaign warning people about potential breaches of copyright law.

Mr Doyle dismissed claims that usage of file sharing sites was driven by excessively high CD prices in Ireland. PC users could legally buy music for around €1 per track from sites such as pro-music.org and Eircom’s recently-launched online music club, he said.

Parents also needed to monitor their children’s internet usage to make sure they were not illegally copying music, he added, because legal action could be taken against the person in whose name the internet account was registered.