IFPI aims legal broadside at single filesharer

The IFPI has made its first request to the Swedish courts to force an ISP to hand over details of an alleged file sharer.

In April, Sweden brought in its IPRED legislation, designed to rein in the apparently rampant filesharing conducted in the country. It did this by allowing record cos and the like to track down filesharers, by getting a court order forcing ISPs to hand over customer details.

The move has been credited with a massive drop in filesharing, even though the Swedish content industry has not particularly flexed its new legal muscles to date.

However, the local arm of the IFPI has turned to the Stockholm courts in an attempt to get the details of an individual it believes is filesharing. The case relates to a single IP address, Torrentfreak reports.

The Local.se reports that the move relates to the Direct Connect network, rather than Bittorrent-based filesharing.

The individual has apparently uploaded 10,000 songs, as well as some movies. A lawyer or IFPI claimed the organisation had downloaded 50 songs from the malefactor.

The filing could be the first of many, with the head of the IFPI telling the TT news agency that it envisioned future cases aimed at as many as 100 alleged file sharers a time.

Torrentfreak adds that the IFPI has not decided whether it will bring the full weight of the law onto the individual, and may opt to issue a warning. ®