Bad news for folks illegally sharing media files in the UK - a judge has ordered two men to pay a combined £6,500 in damages due to their illegal distribution of music through P2P file-sharing networks.
The two cases were brought separately by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the UK's equivalent of the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA), and are the first of their kind in the UK. Both men were offered the opportunity to settle, but neither chose to do so, the BPI said. Neither man was named.
One of the men (who is a postman from Brighton) has been ordered to pay £1,500 in damages, and the second (a man from King's Lynn, Norfolk) was given fines of £5,000 and told to pay the BPI's costs. The two men were both among five people the BPI took to court in August 2005 after they refused to reach a settlement.