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SCMP Reporter

Fewer than 100 warnings were issued on Wednesday night to people who illegally downloaded music  using peer-to-peer  software on the internet, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry said yesterday.

Despite the small number, the federation said it had achieved the aim of educating the public that pirating was intolerable and that their illegal activities could be traced. No action has been taken against those warned.

Warnings popped up on the computer screen when people were downloading a song using peer-to-peer  file-sharing software, reminding users they were infringing copyright and were not anonymous.

From 8pm to midnight on Wednesday, federation staff first identified particular songs available for download on the internet using the software and verified that the songs were illegally copied.

Then they  issued the warnings to users. Those who had completed downloading would not have received a warning.

Peer-to-peer  software can accommodate a large number of downloads at a much faster speed than previous software.

The federation's action will continue and a  report will be compiled to assess the reach of the warnings.

However, the federation said it had not considered how to follow up its warnings, saying it needed one to two weeks to complete its assessment.

'We have yet to consider how to follow up those cases. We were not collecting any evidence and we did not identify who was downloading,' said federation chief executive officer Ricky Fung.

He said the action on Wednesday had achieved its aim. 'They have got the message and are warned that they have violated the law. That's enough for us.'

Mr Fung said there could be some new issues arising from the move but it was inappropriate to disclose them at this stage.



Warnings but no action on file sharing