Largest music community trading illegal file links in Brazil shut down

Rio de Janeiro, 31st March 2009

Music industry anti-piracy action in Brazil led to the shut down of the country’s biggest distribution network for links to illegal music files.

The community, called “DiscografiaS” (“Recordings”), was part of one of Brazil’s largest and best-known social networking services, “Orkut”. This social network is controlled by Google Brazil and claims to have more than 60 million users. “DiscografiaS” had just under one million registered users and links to over two million music tracks.

In addition to “DiscografiaS”, another five communities dedicated to specific music tastes or functions, such as soap opera soundtracks, movie soundtracks and compilations, have also been shut down. Altogether, these five communities plus “Discografia” accounted for 1.3 million registered users.

Paula Rosa, director of ABPD, said: “The closure of the illegal file sharing network is a significant step in curbing online piracy in Brazil. The communities affected represented the largest user group in a social network dedicated to exchanging links for the purpose of illegal copying.”

The actions, which took place earlier this month, were led by industry trade association ABPD and the anti-piracy team APCM Brazil. Both organisations are working to make internet service providers and other online operators, including Google Brazil, aware of the damage that online piracy is causing the creative community in Brazil. The goal is to create a healthy online copyright environment and, in turn, a thriving market for legitimate online music services.

For further information contact:
Paulo Batimarchi (pbatimarchi@ifpi.org) or Emilio Garcia (egarcia@ifpi.org)