More than 8,000 new legal cases have been launched against illegal music downloaders across 17 countries in recent weeks, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) revealed.

The new round of legal action continues to target file-sharers - people who place copyrighted songs onto Internet file-sharing Web sites and offer them to millions of Web surfers without permission.

In Poland, the IFPI is specifically targeting people who upload music onto Internet file-sharing networks.

The industry-sponsored IFPI has been at the forefront of the battle against pirated digital music and aims to usher increasing numbers of consumers into legal, paid-for channels.

The cases, which include criminal and civil lawsuits, target 17 countries, including - for the first time ever - Brazil, Mexico and Poland, the IFPI said in a statement.

Cases were also lodged in Argentina, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore and Switzerland.

A total of 130,000 legal actions have now been taken outside of the United States by the IFPI.

The group added that it was targeting uploaders using the most well-known file-sharing Internet Web sites, which include BitTorrent, DirectConnect, eDonkey, Gnutella, Limewire, SoulSeek and WinMX.

‘Consumers today can get music legally in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago, with over three million tracks available on nearly 400 sites worldwide, as well as an array of mobile platforms,’ said IFPI chairman John Kennedy.

‘Yet some people continue to consume their music illegally, refusing to respect the creative work of artists, songwriters and record producers.’

‘As a result we reluctantly continue with our legal actions and today sees the latest escalation of that campaign to show that file-sharing copyrighted music does carry real legal risks - apart from the risks to privacy and the risks from spyware and viruses.’

More than 2,300 people have already been fined for illegally file-sharing with the average settlement totalling 2,420 euros (US$3,036 dollars), according to IFPI data.

Source: TechNewsWorld