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File shares fined

Topware Interactive, which produces the computer game Dream Pinball 3D, obtained default judgments in the Central London County Court against four individual file-sharers on Friday.
Each was ordered to pay the company interim damages of £750 by the end of next week. The final figure could be as high as £2,000 per person, plus costs in the region of £1,500.
Why so much —,– when a licensed copy of the game costs as little as £16? It's because the game may be downloaded many times from a single computer and damages are intended to reflect the claimant's losses.
Topware's Mayfair solicitors, Davenport Lyons, say they will issue a 'substantial number' of new claims this week on behalf of several clients. Their targets are people who share music, films and games through peer-to-peer networks. These give subscribers direct access to each other's computers, allowing people to download files without paying fees to the copyright owner.
The problem, of course, is finding out who the file-sharers are. All users must subscribe to an internet service provider —,– an ISP. But the ISPs' trade association claims that breach of copyright is nothing to do with them.

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