"The music industry announced legal action Tuesday against 247 people accused of illegal file sharing outside the United States, taking its war against Internet piracy abroad for the first time. Recording industry associations in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada have filed lawsuits or taken other legal action, aiming mainly at heavy users accused of offering a large number of songs online," reports The new York Times [free reg req'd].
"This is not a U.S.-only problem," said Jay Berman, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in London. "We always knew we would have to take action outside the United States. At some point, you have to ask yourself when. That moment was now."
The article also says that Gerd Gebhardt, chairman of the German Phonographic Industry Association, "conceded that the campaign would do little to stem the main piracy problem in Germany: CD burning. Last year, according to a market survey, Germans copied music onto 325 million CD's. The German recording industry sold 133 million CD's with recorded music."
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