IP Democracy: Record Industry Files 8,000 P2P Suits

I’m a little late to this one, but the record industry filed an astonishing 8,000 P2P lawsuits against alleged unauthorized file-sharers a couple of days ago. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry filed the lawsuits in seventeen countries, bringing the total non-U.S. lawsuits lodged by the music business to 13,000, on top of the 18,000 already filed in the U.S.

The suits were the first of their kind in Brazil, Mexico and Poland. As evidence that these infringement lawsuits are turning into a new revenue stream for the record companies, IFPI data show that 2,300 people outside the U.S. have settled the suits rather than hassle with the painful legal process, resulting in an average payment of $3,028 per person. That’s a total of $6,964,400 in easy money for the record business.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 18, 2006 9:58 AM to IP Democracy