Thousands of people suspected of sharing music, films and games over the Internet will be pursued through the courts for damages, lawyers for entertainment companies said on Wednesday. London-based law firm Davenport Lyons said it would apply to the High Court to force Internet service providers to release the names and addresses of 7,000 suspected file-sharers.
They could be subject to civil action in the courts under Britain's copyright laws. David Gore, a partner at Davenport Lyons, said it has already begun proceedings against a number of people in Britain who it says have uploaded protected material to the Internet.
The firm won a case at the Patents County Court in London against a woman who shared a pinball game online. She was ordered to pay damages of 6,000 pounds and 10,000 pounds in legal costs to the game's maker, Topware Interactive. "Illegal file-sharing is a very serious issue resulting in millions of pounds of losses to copyright owners," Gore said in a statement.