Nicked UK music pirates forced to pay thousands

The 23 file-sharers caught uploading music to peer-to-peer networks illegally have been forced to pay thousands in compensation to the music industry.

The file-sharers, which range from a student to a director of an IT company, have each paid on average of £2000, with two illegal uploaders paying more than £4,000 each.

Of the cases originally brought in October of last year, three remain ongoing.

Music industry trade body the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has announced the cases may yet result in legal action taking place.

The BPI's campaign of litigation has not met its end yet. The trade body has announced it will be pursuing 31 more file-sharers and has requested the High Courts grant orders revealing the uploaders' identities.

According to the BPI's figures, traffic through illegal file-sharing networks is dropping.

The network Kazaa runs on, Fast Track, has dropped by 45 per cent between January 2005 and April 2003, the BPI says, while the number of eDonkey servers have dropped by 61 per cent and BitTorrent servers have decreased by 66 per cent.