Top internet music pirates to be prosecuted

Today the High Court says it will allow six Irish Internet Service Providers (ISP) to provide the names and addresses of the 23 people who have are involved in illegal music file sharing and distribution.
Digiweb, BT, Smart Telecom, Irish Broadband, NTL, Eircom and Imagine will reveal the names and addresses of the 23 users, who have been distributing almost 180,000 music files between them.
Out of the 23, just five people are responsible for illegally sharing over 108,000 music files. One particular individual had over 37,000 files.
These 23 web users now face prosecution by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) as part of its continuing anti-piracy operation, which has involved 66 prosecutions so far.
Although 61 of those prosecuted had to pay fines, we’re guessing these weren’t quite as high as the €61 million that internet retailer CDWow was fined last week for illegally importing CDs to the UK and Ireland.
IRMA Director General Dick Doyle says that the music industry will no longer tolerate users sharing copyrighted music online.
“They are stealing from our artists and affecting the livelihood of many people in the music industry,” he says. “We will not tolerate this and will do everything in our power to ensure they are brought to justice”.