MTU.Community - FYI - UK "Piracy" lawsuit

I copied this directly from a UK site that sells MP3G downloads, so you can see it's not just happening here in the good ole USA.

Quote:

The first joint BPI & PPL UK Karaoke Piracy case brought to court results in 3 year sentence! Finally the net is closing in on KJs who buy and use pre-loaded hard drives at their shows, and also the people who are making and selling the drives. Anyone who runs a karaoke show off an illegal hard drive should now realize how seriously the courts will take their crime and think twice before hooking up that dodgy hard drive? Below are the details.....

A well known figure in the UK karaoke scene who defrauded the music industry of more than £500,000 was sent to prison on Thursday after being convicted at Newcastle Crown Court. Malcolm Wylie, 59, and his son, Peter were charged with setting up a number of companies selling illegal music systems to pubs and clubs across the North East.

Wylie Sr admitted one count of distributing infringing copyright work and was sentenced to three years in prison and banned from taking the position of director for 10 years.
Wylie Jr was found guilty by a Crown Court jury of two counts of the same offense and given a nine-month prison sentence and a 15-month sentence, to run concurrently.
William Ross, the third defendant, was given a 36-week prison sentence, suspended for one year as part of a community order.

David Groome, Prosecuting Attorney said, “In broad terms, none of the music and videos used with the systems was properly licensed. The defendants’ business obtained the music by illegally downloading it from the Internet and by copying it from CDs.”

But has it all come too late for the beleaguered karaoke producers who have seen their sales fall to an all time low, while the popularity of karaoke has never been greater?