Quick post about Ifpi

Just got a phone call from a journalist about Ifpi’s demand for the “losses” TPB has apparently caused them. They want 1.6 million Euro. They’ve counted the number of downloads, consider all of them to be lost sales, all of them as lost sales IN Sweden and also that the number of downloads should be a correct figure. It’s not, even according to the investigation into the counter itself.

Anyhow, it IS ridiculous. I’m waiting for the actual press release and I’ll write a bit more about it (I’ll also post about the phone conversation I had with Lars Gustavsson at Ifpi earlier today).

Btw - my money was on 30 million Swedish in total in damages, for the whole case. It’s 15 million so far with this demand - so I might win the bet I have since before. I actually got a smile on my face when I heard the sum
Update:

Ok, so now I’ve read the total press release. I talked the swedish CEO of Ifpi earlier today and asked about how much they where going to claim that we should pay them. He didn’t want to answer since that would be “helping us” and he doesn’t want to help us. He also told me that I had no knowledge on the intellectual property law and that they where going to make sure that they get all my money. Most other people consider me one of the experts on intellectual property law since I’ve studied it quite intense for years being involved in this case.. Yet again Ifpi shows that they have no idea on whom they’re up against and that they do not even care.

The sum of 1.6 million euro is quite fascinating. Let’s try to figure out how they’re thinking:

• Research on the area of file sharing (especially music) shows that the economy thrives due to file sharing. Ifpi have decided not to quote any research for their claim. In a normal market environment they would actually have to pay us instead.
• Every download counted for (incorrectly I might add, which was one of the reasons that the number of downloads is not any more showing on TPB) equals a lost sale according to Ifpi’s claim. We all know that this is not the case, not even percentages of what is being downloaded would otherwise be bought. Rather, people both buy and download, or just ignore it if they don’t like it. Research can back this up as well.
• The claim also states that the publishing has been done without the consent of the artist. More then one of the albums in the lawsuit was actually uploaded onto TPB from the artists themselves.
• Many of the albums have apparently not been available for sale. So how can they lose money on sales when it’s not available?
• Why count in Euros when you’re in Sweden? There’s Swedish companies suing (mostly) Swedish citizens. It just proves that they’re going after the media attention. The whole press release is written like it’s decided that TPB has lost. It’s quite the opposite. It’s likely that this whole farce will end up proving that linking is still legal, that the laws made to protect freedom of speech and electronic bulletin board systems are still valid. Ifpi know they can’t win, so they try to make the opinion think that they’ll confident. And when they lose they’re gonna claim it’s due to “a loop hole”. Mark my words and refer to this blog entry in a couple of years when they do.

Most of the previous settlements between Grokster, Kazaa and so on has been in the millions as well. According to the official claims. Although everybody I’ve talked to within the industry (and I’ve talked to people that actually lost the lawsuits ) claims that it’s been one official sum and then a small token sum of like a thousand dollars to be paid. The record industry goes for scaring people away from file sharing by getting the message out there that it’s “millions in damages awarded”. It’s just b-s.

When we win the case, I’m sure that Ifpi will not pay the damages that’s going to be awarded to us. And if they wanted to, chances are they might have gone bankrupt before.