United Kingdom: The Teeside Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has recently junked the copyright lawsuit involving a teenager accused of illegally uploading music files to a file-sharing website, according to a media report.
With this decision, the recording industry has expressed disappointment and said that illegal file-sharing, especially those involving pre-release music, has a negative impact on the industry as it costs billions of dollars every year.
However, the recording industry said the CPS decision will not “hamper its action that aims to address the looming problem of illegal file-sharing activities.”
According to previous reports, Matthew Wyatt, 17, was charged with copyright infringement for allegedly downloading illegal music files online.
In September 2007, Wyatt claimed that six people, including police officers and members of the International Federal of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), conducted a raid in his family’s home.
The teenager was then accused of copyright infringement, a criminal offense that could put him behind bars up to 10 years if proven guilty.
In a previous statement, David Cook, Wyatt’s attorney, said that his client was not the “original uploader of any music files.”
“He [Wyatt] had found four music files in a publicly accessible online music site and moved these to Oink which is a popular file-sharing site”, Cook said during an interview.
In January, a copyright and fraud lawsuit against Oink founder Alan Ellis has been junked by a court.
Over the past several years, the music industry in UK has been lobbying a bill called Digital Economy that would throttle or cut off the Internet connection of users who download music files from unlicensed online sites.