French Producers Prepare to File Copyright Infringement to 4 BitTorrent Clients

French record producers are preparing to file a criminal case against four US-based BitTorrent companies over the alleged copyright infringement.

According to Société civile des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France (SPPF), an organization composed of records companies, Vuze, Morpheus, Shareaza, and Limewire have promoted illegal distribution of media contents, allowing people to have unauthorized access to copyrighted materials.

This event sparked some controversy due to possible technicalities about copyright infringement law.  Since the plaintiffs are from a different country, a question was raised if the law can be applied to US-based companies.  Nevertheless, French court ruled that the case is plausible since there is an international law which must be adopted by any country.

Vuze Chief Executive Gilles BianRosa expressed dismay over the French court’s decision, adding that his company only allows legal distribution of media content which is at par with the present copyright law.

BianRosa said that SPPF’s accusation which suggested that his company has a software which promotes illegal distribution of copyrighted materials is misguided, adding that his site does not feature this kind of application, reiterating that his interest is aligned with those from record producers, adding that he fully support legal action to curb Internet-based piracy.

Last year, SPPF presented its case before the French court, appealing for consent to file criminal cases against four file-sharing sites.  After few months of waiting, the organization received go signal to proceed with the charges against the said companies.

Meanwhile, French legislation suggested that P2P companies should feature an application designed to blocked unauthorized access to copyrighted works.  But according to some experts, developing such software may not be possible with the current technology.