British Phonographic Industry to start sueing individual downloaders?

Jamieson told his audience that the `anarchists would like to add
the internet to ..[a]..zone of free music` were `tipping the industry into
crisis`. Illegal copying of one form or another meant that the industry
was only receiving one third of the money due to it. Jamieson said of the
other two thirds, `One third is effectively counterfeiting, the
combination of commercial CD piracy - often linked to organised crime -
and home CD burning. And the other third is attributable to proven
internet piracy. No business can survive on that basis.`

He outlined some of the steps that have already been
taking to halt the advance of the pirates saying that the BPI's
Anti-Piracy Unit has been responsible for the taking down of 363
infringing websites or FTP servers. BPI action has been responsible for
two-and-a-half-thousand auction sites being taken down and over 150,000
infringing MP3 files being removed.

He also blamed the government for being ` slow to
implement' the European Copyright Directive' which includes cracking
encryption algorithms on CDs into UK law which is preventing the BPI's
members acting to protect their copyright. Jamieson stated clearly that `
I don't want to sue music fans. None of my members want to sue music fans.
We will do everything we can to avoid suing music fans. But I will
certainly not rule it out.'

Looking forward he saw three ways of turning the tide against
illegal copying. He admitted that prices would have to come down, as
Universal has already done in the US, the introduction of legal download
sites which would be given a boost by the introduction of an official
'downloads' chart later this year, and finally, the industry has to
address the issue of illegal downloads
themselves.