Criminal complaints from the record industry target Portuguese swappers

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The Portuguese Phonographic Association (AFP) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) will proceed with the first criminal complaints in Portugal against users of the peer-to-peer not authorized. With the action, AFP wants to reach mainly the uploaders, ie those that make files available to third parties from data sharing networks.

The action is part of the Plan to Combat Digital Piracy announced two weeks ago by AFP that designed a black board for the music industry in Portugal, caused in large part by the increasing use of the peer-to-peer not authorized. «Never before has so much music been consumed in the world as it is now and the sector has never had so much difficulty in surviving,» said David Ferreira, president of the association at the time.

To submit criminal complaints to the Portuguese Public Prosecutor’s Office, the IFPI and AFP gathered information on those targeted by visiting the most popular P2P services, from which they collected IP addresses, the only identifying data they have to date, explained Eduardo Simões, director from AFP to TeK. It will then be up to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to request Internet access providers from the name of P2P users, based on these addresses.

Eduardo Simões added that some emails warning to uploaders Portuguese, but at random. «As we did our research on the websites peer-to-peer we were sending warning messages to the users we found, regardless of the volume of files made available «, stated the AFP general director. Those targeted by the phonographic association’s criminal complaints are swappers that provide «overwhelming amounts» of files, he guarantees.

Under Portuguese law, the accused may incur prison sentences of up to three years and fines ranging from 100 to 250 days. Unlike what happens in some countries, the illegal exchange of copyrighted content in Portugal is a public and non-civil crime, so the warning letters that were addressed and the social responsibility agreements that were signed in other cases are not possible. «At the most, AFP will be willing to negotiate compensation values,» said Eduardo Simões.

At a press conference tomorrow, AFP promises to release more details about the ongoing campaign against piracy online and make known other data regarding the integration of these actions in the international context and the experience and results already obtained in other countries.

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