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INTERNATIONAL SMACKDOWN!

IFPI Files 2,100 Suits in 17 Countries, Spreading the Antipiracy Love Farther and Wider Than Ever Before
It’s on. Again. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the RIAA’s international counterpart, said today it is bringing some 2,100 new lawsuits against individuals for copyright infringement, increasing the geographic sweep of its actions in the process.

According to a Reuters report, the IFPI is filing the suits in 17 countries, 5 of which haven’t before had the pleasure: File-sharers in Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Hong Kong and Singapore are now getting a taste of what much of the rest of the world has now known for a good long time: The Man can’t may not be able to stop our music, but he certainly can threaten to drain some bank accounts while in the process of enforcing his intellectual property rights.

In conjunction with the RIAA, the IFPI says it now has taken action in Sweden, Argentina, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore joined Austria, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, England and the United States. The total number of IFPI actions now exceeds 3,800 outside the U.S., where the RIAA has brought thousands of file-sharing suits of its own.

"It's the thinking of dinosaurs for anyone to believe that they can steal music after all the education and campaigns that we have had," said IFPI head John Kennedy to Reuters with a distinctly European flair.

The IFPI’s actions in Argentina represents the trade org’s first move into South America, long a hotbed of physical piracy as well as the online kind. But the consumer behavior the body seeks to squelch is rampant in many countries, including Sweden, where over a million people are reportedly trading illicit music files. Fortunately, the IFPI’s lawsuits announced today include 15 against Swedish individuals, which should put a dent in the bigger number.

Those targeted by the IFPI actions typically end up paying fines in the neighborhood of about $3,000 each, according to Reuters.
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