Thus far, however, most such cases against file sharers have been settled out of court.

It quickly gained ground among file sharers abandoning Napster in 2001.

The record industry is hoping that a little magic will solve its problems with online piracy by file sharers.

Law enforcement in Sweden is pushing for the power to get personal information on file sharers who are guilty of lesser copyright offenses.

He is also unnerved by the lawsuits against 261 file sharers in the United States.

So the company proposes a "traffic offense" model for punishing illegal file sharers.

"The message to illegal file sharers should be as clear as ever."

They did sue Napster, but not any individual file sharers.

Traffic on file-sharing services dipped after the recording industry announced its plan to sue file sharers in June.

On the legal front, the industry began a new round of international lawsuits against foreign file sharers.