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Music Industry Files 8,000 New Lawsuits Against File-Sharers

It’s still hard out there for an illegal downloader, as the music industry has filed 8,000 new lawsuits against alleged file-sharers. In an effort to halt the spread of online piracy, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents music companies around the globe, said on Tuesday (Oct. 17) that it has filed suits in 17 countries, including the first filed in Brazil, Mexico, and Poland, according to the AP.

Both criminal and civil suits were filed against those who allegedly uploaded copyrighted songs onto file-sharing networks to offer music to downloaders illegally. And the IFPI doesn’t discriminate based on age or profession, filing many suits against parents of file-sharing children, as well as a lab assistant in Finland, and others. More than 2,300 people have reportedly already settled their cases, paying an average of $3,034, a move that the chairman of IFPI, John Kennedy, finds promising.

“It’s not getting easier but we are encouraged enough by the results to keep on going,” Kennedy told the AP. “It will never go away completely.” Around 18,000 lawsuits have already been filed in the U.S., with 13,000 around the rest of the world.

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