British record companies applauded Friday"s ruling in court that gave them the right to obtain the identities of people who use file sharing programs from Internet service providers. The labels were looking for the identities of 31 persons suspected of uploading large numbers of illegal files onto various P2P services.
"Today"s result is a blow for illegal uploaders who believe that the law simply does not apply to them," Geoff Taylor, general counsel for the British Phonographic Industry, a music trade group, told reporters.