Australian Internet cafes targeted for music piracy

Sydney, 22 January 2008

Following a recent Australian Federal Police raid on an internet café in the Sydney CBD which allegedly offered its customers unlimited access to terabytes of pirated music and movies for an hourly fee, Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) has today launched its Internet Café Guide – Are You and Your Customers Doing the Right Thing? The Guide aims to provide information on the dos and don’ts of getting music online and outlines the possible consequences for internet cafés that allow copyright theft to take place on their premises.

Sabiene Heindl, General Manager of MIPI stated “Recent reports suggest that the Australian Federal Police raid of an internet café in Sydney late last year sent shock waves through the industry and as a result, many internet cafes have cleaned up their acts and removed illegal music files from their servers. This highlights the success of targeted criminal enforcement by the Australian Federal Police.

“In addition to reinforcing copyright laws through effective police action, it is crucial that internet café owners have a clear understanding of how to respect music copyright through educational initiatives. Put simply, it is not acceptable to save illegal copies of music onto café servers or to allow customers access to that pirated material. It is also not acceptable to allow café customers to download illegal copies of music files from the internet through café computers. As the MIPI Internet Café Guide points out, café owners can be held criminally or civilly liable for such illegal conduct.

“MIPI looks forward to working with internet café owners through the provision of the MIPI Internet Café Guide to ensure that they understand music copyright law and that the law is applied fairly to them.”

A copy of the Internet Café Guide – Are You and Your Customers Doing the Right Thing? is available at www.mipi.com.au/Piracyinyourindustry.htm