File sharing crackdown: Justice for the lazy?

Stelios Haji-Ioannou - everybody's favourite Greek entrepreneur - is not happy.

He positively 'harrumphed' out of the high court yesterday after his chain of EasyInternetCafés was found guilty of aiding and abetting illegal file sharing.

Staff at the internet cafés were burning CDs for customers who had used the chain's PCs to download music from services such as KaZaA. All for the bargain price of £5 - a third of the price of your average high-street CD album.

But is Stelios right to take umbrage? As self-appointed figurehead of the organisation, he either had no idea this was going on, or had no idea it was against the law. Either way, in these litigious internet times neither is really acceptable.

After all isn't this tantamount to piracy - taking a fiver in return for a CD of bootlegged music?

But to look at it another way, Charlotte McConnell, a solicitor at law firm Bristows, said: "It seems that with music piracy, the courts both in the UK and the US are keen to find a commercial entity to blame. In this case the primary infringers are the individuals downloading the music. But individuals are difficult to catch."

After all, EasyInternetCafé was offering a perfectly legitimate service - it was the customers who transgressed. So is McConnell right? Are the authorities just shying away from more meaningful prosecutions - the individuals who must by now know they are breaking the law but also know they are very unlikely to ever be singled out?

Only one thing's for sure. The whole file sharing debacle gets messier by the day - and for every twist and turn it appears those in the 'right' - legally speaking - become even more unpopular. Picking a fight with Stelios will hardly help the labels' cause.

Stelios is a man who has embraced the internet and made the most of the opportunities it offers. Arguably more than anybody else he has shown UK businesses the benefits of well-implemented ecommerce.

Record labels on the other hand have been tarred with a 'dinosaur' mentality and a reluctance to move with the times.

Were there no better places to start the fight back?