The contentious crackdown of Irish file-sharers came to a head last week when eight of the first 17 individuals challenged, settled out of court. Some paid as much as €6,000.
They’ll also be forced to clean their PCs and discontinue their file-sharing.
Dick Doyle, director of the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), explained the organisation’s view of the result.
“It is in the benefit of both ourselves and the accused that it would be settled out of court," he says, "because otherwise we get involved in huge legal costs which the defendant would have to pay if found guilty – and the evidential information is quite conclusive.”
The landmark proceedings began in April when IRMA gathered evidence of 66 users who illegally shared music with others via peer-to-peer servers such as Kazaa and Gnutella.
They were then granted permission by the courts to receive the names and addresses of the 17 worst offenders in July, after which they threatened legal action.
But nine of the cases in IRMA’s first crackdown of illegal music-swapping are yet to find a conclusion: five individuals have not responsed and four are disputing the claims.
While pursuing these nine, IRMA are also preparing for a second wave. The evidence for this will be gathered by mid-August, after which details such as the number of challenges will be agreed by the IRMA board.
However, it already seems that their plan is working and the threat of legal action has led to an immediate drop in illegal downloads. Mr Doyle explained: “It would be very early days to say this, but since April when we announced we were launching litigation, the numbers have halved.
“I can’t make the assumption that litigation was the only factor, but other territories such as UK and Germany have also reported a steep drop in numbers once litigation starts,” he added.
“I believe that people are getting more aware that it’s illegal now and that we’re not bluffing – this is real.”
The reduction means that the number of offenders is minimal compared to the rest of Europe – even before the proceedings began, it was significantly less at an estimated 230,000.
But the drop in figures hasn’t broken their stride – they expect to continue cracking down on music-swappers in further waves.
“It’s what’s happened in other countries,” Doyle says. “We’re the ninth territory to move into litigation. The UK are in their third wave and the States are in their sixth or seventh, so I think you could make an assumption based on what’s happened in the world, that IRMA would move into further waves of litigation.”