Century Media Looking to Take 7,500 Fans to Court

Century Media to Sue 7,500 Fans -

German based metal imprint, Century Media has taken arather unprecedented step in their war on illegal downloading asthey reveal they're taking over 7,500 fans to court.

The label, whose roster include Napalm Death& Iced Earth, has filed charges in New Jersey,US. The label claims there have been 4,327 illegal downloads ofIced Earth's latest album 'Dystopia' and3,136 illegal downloads of Lucuna Coil's 'DarkAdrenaline.'

Jay McDaniel, who represents Century and two other media firms,told NorthJersey.com (viaNME) of thelabel's decision to take action:

"What many people don't understand is that it's thedistribution that's the evil influence. It does the real damage andharm, not just to the client but to the culture industry, and tocreative endeavours in general. Illegal downloading has reachedepidemic proportions, as thousands of works are pirated on a dailybasis through bit torrents that rob copyright holders of the valueof their creative work."

He continued:

"This kills the little producer and it has an extremelydestructive effect on the entertainment industry. Record salesdon't drive the music business any more - touring does. So illegalsharing of music on the Internet has killed an entireindustry."

The accused are currently referred to only as 'John Doe' in thecourt papers, however all of them have had their IP addresseslisted. If found guilty, all 7,500 file sharers could face a largefine or a payment of $2900 (£1,790) to avoid going to court.