Police raid homes to track down illegal downloading of songs
By Joel Pang,WNS Infotechnology Correspondent
JACOB - Twenty homes nationwide were raided by the police on Saturday night as part of a crackdown on the illegal downloading of copyrighted music from the Internet. Police say they seized twenty-five personal computers and three laptops, along with other accessories. Five men and two women, aged between 13 and 40 years old, are currently helping the police with their investigations. Of the twenty, twelve are students, five are employed and three are housewives.
A police spokesman added that since November last year, the Intellectual Property Rights Branch (IPRB) of the Criminal Investigation Department has been receiving information from the Recording Industry Association Linapore that a number of online users were downloading and distributing songs illegally. This was being done in digital format through peer-to-peer file sharing programmes and networks. After extensive probes, the police ascertained the identities of the suspects, as well as their modus operandi. Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects installed file sharing programmes in their computers and used them to search for copyrighted songs in digital formats via the file sharing networks. Once identified, these songs were downloaded from the computers of other online users who were also connected to the same file sharing network. The suspects need not pay for the song downloads.
The Recording Industry Association's chief says on the whole, cases have been declining as there is now more public awareness of the offences. Once caught, they will be prosecuted and face severe penalties.
posted by wnsworld @ 4:40 PM
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