Record labels rue hounding out Napster

Europe's record labels are failing to stop the illegal trade in MP3s due to fears it will further tarnish their reputation after being cast as the bad guys in the Napster case.

Mark Mulligan, analyst at Jupiter MMXi, said record companies are failing to tackle the problem and are ignoring the services of web-based security firms which offer to track the IP addresses of users downloading illegal MP3 files.

He added: "The record companies are already seen as the big bad monster by digital users because of their treatment of Napster and their use of copy protected CDs. The record companies don't want to sully their reputation any further than they already have."

In the US there are no such concerns. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is cracking down on illegal file exhanges on the back of the stringent US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and yesterday received $1m from US firm Integrated Information Systems, which was running a server for its staff dedicated to the trade of illegal MP3s.

The company coughed up the cash rather than be taken to court.

Mulligan said the only way to stop illegal file trades either side of the Atlantic is to target and prosecute a small number of high-profile users to highlight the dangers to others.