The American music industry’s organization RIAA now allows people who have been sharing files illegally to pay for their crime, and that way avoid standing trial…
At the site p2plawsuits.com, those who risk being charged with file sharing can go in, and with four clicks and a valid credit card pay their way out of a lawsuit.
The Swedish record companies organization Ifpi says that this seems very backwards.
First you commit a crime and then you can buy your way out of it, it feels a bit… different… And why would anybody willingly pay a fine to us, says Lars Gustavsson, managing director at Ifpi.
Since July 1st, 2005 when the copyright laws got stricter here in Sweden, a handful Swedish file sharers have ended up in court. Neither one of them have however been sentence to pay any kind of fine.
After a file sharing case has been covered by the media, file sharing goes down – but only for a few days. People just don’t seem to care that it is illegal.
