SINGAPORE : Seven homes were raided by the police on Sunday night as part of a crackdown on the illegal downloading of copyrighted music from the Internet.
Police say they seized nine personal computers and three laptops, along with other accessories.
Five men and two women, aged between 14 and 32 years old, are currently helping the police with their investigations.
Of the seven, four are students, two are employed and one is a housewife.
A police spokesman added that since November last year, the Intellectual Property Rights Branch (IPRB) of the Criminal Investigation Department has been receiving information from the Recording Industry Association Singapore that a number of online users were downloading and distributing songs illegally.
This was being done in digital format through peer-to-peer file sharing programmes and networks.
After extensive probes, the police ascertained the identities of the suspects, as well as their modus operandi.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects installed file sharing programmes in their computers and used them to search for copyrighted songs in digital formats via the file sharing networks.
Once identified, these songs were downloaded from the computers of other online users who were also connected to the same file sharing network.
The suspects need not pay for the song downloads.
The Recording Industry Association's chief says on the whole, cases have been declining as there is now more public awareness of the offences.
Edward Neubronner, CEO, Recording Industry Association, said, "There are still some young people who think that these sort of activities are not serious. They think they won't be able to get caught and they can remain anonymous in cyberspace.
"This clearly shows that these are serious cases. There are serious consequences. And not only will you get caught, but you will be prosecuted and you may face severe penalties. It is disappointing to know that it is well known that two young men have gone to jail earlier this year for similar infringing activities, and yet we still see some people not being deterred by such serious consequences." - CNA/ms
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