Music industry's new piracy crackdown

STOCKHOLM--The music industry's top lobby group said on Tuesday it was launching new legal action against those who illegally share files over the Internet, which it blames for diminished sales.The International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said it was launching 2,100 legal cases and extending the action to five new countries in Europe, Asia and, for the first time, South America. It said file-sharers in Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Hong Kong and Singapore faced prosecution for the first time.

"It's the thinking of dinosaurs for anyone to believe that they can steal music after all the education and campaigns that we have had," IFPI head John Kennedy told Reuters. The group said it was taking further action against uploaders, people who put music out on the Internet via peer-to-peer software, which allows others to download the files.The group said the actions, which are either civil complaints or criminal prosecutions launched on Tuesday or brought recently, took the total number of legal cases against uploaders to more than 3,800 in 16 nations outside the United States.

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