A series of actions against peer-to-peer (P2P) servers connecting millions of illegal file-sharers marks a new front in the recording industry’s fight against Internet music piracy. Seven servers on eDonkey were shut down this week after court injunctions in Germany.
Recently, there were similar eDonkey server closures in Netherlands and France. This is said to be a major disruption to one of the top three file-sharing networks in the world.
Like any file-sharing network, eDonkey relies on servers for its effective operation. The servers are run by several people using software that allows users to find peers who have the file they want to download.
A series of legal actions by national groups representing the recording industry have forced many eDonkey servers offline, significantly reducing the effectiveness and reach of the network.
In the last few weeks the number of eDonkey users worldwide has been reduced by more than a million, knocking an estimated third of users off the network. The entertainment industry will continue to target the remaining eDonkey servers and the recent actions against P2P servers were taken by IFPI’s national affiliates, supported by its dedicated Internet anti-piracy unit which monitors traffic on the eDonkey and other networks.
A variety of legal tools and measures have been used, depending on national law, to get the servers offline. Earlier this year, steps taken by French anti-piracy experts led to the closure of all the music-related eDonkey servers in that country. In August, Dutch anti-piracy investigators took action against the so-called BigBang servers in the Netherlands.
This week the eDonkey server group in Germany went offline following the granting of seven injunctions against its operator in various regional courts around the country.
Jeremy Banks, Head of IFPI’s global Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, said, “These actions show the reach of the recording industry’s Internet anti-piracy operation. IFPI has an expert team which traces the origin of illegal content on the Internet and works with law enforcement agencies to get copyright-infringing content off the Internet.”
Many members of the IFPI said that eDonkey servers drive a large amount of illegal traffic on the file-sharing network. Peers are sharing unauthorized copies of software, copyrighted music and even videos and images that violate federal laws.
The networks are run by individuals who are “deliberately and flagrantly violating the rights of artists and record companies,” said one IFPI spokesperson.
Most people who run these servers probably know that if they are operating a server, they are in effect painting target signs on their foreheads. The new actions against servers are part of the recording industry’s multi-pronged strategy against illegal P2P file-sharing. This includes continuing legal actions against thousands of serious individual uploaders, including users of eDonkey, who face civil or criminal action depending on national law. More than 50,000 actions worldwide have been announced to date.