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Copyright cops shut down Karaoke site

by on16 March 2015


At tax payers’ expense

UK cops, who are acting as taxpayer funded copyright cops on behalf of Big Content, have shut down a Karaoke site.

The City of London's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and copyright and royalty group PRS for Music have arrested a 46-year-old man.

According to the people behind the web-based Playstation software SingOn, the global karaoke market could be worth as much as $10 billion.

Since most karaoke content is now digital, it’s also apparently prime for pirating. Karaoke-World, one of the few dedicated karaoke torrent trackers online, was shut down after five years online.

The owner of KW was taken to the police station and had to close the site down by the Internet police so sorry we are no longer, the site said.

KW was being monitored not by the BPI or IFPI as is usually the case with music-based sites, but UK-based licensing and royalty group PRS for Music.

PRS issues ‘KAR’ licenses which grants holders permission to manufacture and distribute karaoke on discs and in other formats. The license also covers the reproduction of lyrics for display on screen at the same time as the karaoke music is being played. Karaoke-World did not possess such a license.

As a result PRS for Music teamed up with PIPCU, the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, to close down the site.
“The unlicensed BitTorrent site directed users to a catalogue of tens of thousands of copyrighted music files, in particular the latest chart music and karaoke hits,” PIPCU said in a statement.

“Like most BitTorrent trackers, the site had rules for its members to abide by. One of the rules required users to immediately ‘seed’ files, which means to upload any file they have downloaded so that others can download it too. If a file is not seeded for more than 24 hours, the user was deemed as a ‘Hit and Run’ and their account was disabled.”
It is not clear how much money the site made. The music service also offered VIP memberships for users of the website, which ranged from £5.00 to £90.00.

It is not clear how many people ever bought one.

“The public needs to be aware that by accessing sites like this, they are putting money directly in the hands of criminals, which often then funds other serious organized crime, as well as putting their own financial and personal details at risk of being compromised and used for other fraudulent scams,” PIPCU chief Detective Chief Inspector Danny Medlycott said in a statement.

It is a bit risky saying this of course. There is no indication that the site was collecting any money at all, let alone putting it into the hands of organised crime.

 

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