Italian raids lead to fining of illegal music uploaders

• Four illegal music file-swappers face fines of €12 million

Rome, 29th October 2007

Italian police questioned four people for illegally uploading copyright infringing music onto the internet following a raid near Milan. In addition to pressing criminal charges, the police have issued the uploaders with an administrative fine of €12 million.

Officers from the Guardia di Finanza di Milano took part in Operation Genux which saw the arrest of four individuals aged between 30 and 45 in the town of Melgnano. They had been sharing more than 120,000 files containing copyright infringing music using the DCC++ peer-to-peer network.

The police seized six computers, seven external hard discs and more than 2,300 CD-Roms during the raids. The products seized included catalogue from artists such as Madonna, Vasco Rossi, U2 and Elisa. The police also seized copies of software programmes such as Vista and Office, as well as video games.

Officers were acting on search warrants issued by Alessandra Simion, the Public Prosecutor of Lodi and were assisted by the Italian anti-piracy federation FPM. The €12 million administrative fine was levied under Article 174 of the Italian Copyright Act.

Enzo Mazza, Chairman of FIMI, says: “This operation sends a very clear signal that the Italian authorities will not tolerate the mass uploading of copyright infringing material onto the internet.

“People are wrong to think they are anonymous when they post material onto peer-to-peer networks. In fact they can be located and legal action brought against them. The administrative fines levied in this case show that abusing copyright on a grand scale can be an extremely costly business.”