Ten Internet Service Providers have been ordered by the High Court to hand over customer details for 150 individuals illegally sharing software.
The court orders secured by the Federation Against Software Theft on Friday afternoon followed a 12-month investigation into the covert sharing of software by PC users.
Although most file sharers will use false names and email addresses, in the next two weeks the ten ISPs will be handing over full personal details, including names, addresses and dates of birth etc.
His Honour Judge Raynor confirmed that there was "an overwhelming case" for ordering such customer details to be released.
Julian Heathcote Hobbins, Senior Legal Counsel at The Federation, commented,
"Traditionally most software owners have relied on notice and take-down procedures and have failed to bring civil or criminal proceedings against the infringers. The progress we made on Friday is only the first wave of an ongoing strategy. We expect to be bringing these actions anytime and anywhere we see software being misused."
John Lovelock, director general at The Federation, added,
"We can easily take down links, but this does not tackle the root causes of software piracy, because the links will reappear elsewhere in a matter of hours. Instead, we plan to take action a lot further, making an example of the perpetrators to stop them from stealing and passing on the intellectual property of our members for good."
The Federation will be working with the Police and Crown Prosecution Service once the individuals have been identified.
Targets have been identified by an undercover investigator, working covertly for The Federation on a project codenamed Operation Tracker. He is an IT forensics expert, and aims to assist The Federation in cracking down on the suppliers of illegal software.
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