Around 145 individuals, identified following a recent Court Order for illegally sharing software over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, have been targeted by the Federation Against Software Theft.

In January, 10 ISPs were ordered by the High Court to hand over customer details following a 12-month investigation into the covert sharing of software by PC users.

Although most file sharers used false names and email addresses, the ten ISPs handed over full personal details, including names, addresses and dates of birth.

Of the 150 identified, 145 have been written to by The Federation demanding that they settle in full and pledge not to undertake this illegal activity again.

This is the first such campaign of this nature in the UK and represents a major step forward in enforcement of software copyright infringement, said The Federation.

Julian Heathcote Hobbins, senior legal counsel at The Federation, said: “Traditionally most software owners have relied on notice and take-down procedures and have failed to bring civil or criminal proceedings against the infringers. This is the second strand of an ongoing strategy, bringing these actions to a head when we see software being misused.”

John Lovelock, director general at The Federation, added: “We are making an example of the perpetrators to stop them from stealing and passing on the intellectual property of our members for good, and to send a very strong message to end users that they can be found at any time during activities of this nature and we will continue to monitor and search for our member products being illegally shared. This is not a one-off-wonder.”

laura_hailstone@vnu.co.uk