Tue Sep 9, 8:33 AM ET

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By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - The music industry's latest legal crusade to sue online song swappers is copyright holders' clearest message yet to Internet users: not only is the Net's "free ride" over, but it can be expensive.

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The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) (RIAA) on Monday said it sued 261 music fans in the U.S. as much as $150,000 per song distributed online.

The film and software industry are biding their time, arming themselves to jump in with similar legal maneuvers to protect their copyright-protected movies, video games and operating systems from the massive black market that's emerged on Internet file-sharing services such as Kazaa and iMesh.

"There's no question other industries will do the same," said Latika Sharma, head of IT law practice at London-based law firm Landwell.

The message copyright holders are anxious to send is the "free lunch" atmosphere of the Internet is over. And, depending on where you surf, it could cost you plenty.

The RIAA said it is targeting the biggest abusers, the ones who trade hundreds of thousands of songs online. The industry believes minimizing file-sharing will stem the three-year-decline in global recorded music sales.

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Music companies and national trade bodies are pursuing individual lawsuits in Denmark, Germany, Italy and elsewhere. But the blanket region-wide lawsuit strategy, for now, will play out only in the United States where the music industry estimates roughly 90 percent of all file-sharers reside.

The global music industry trade body, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said it will focus its efforts outside the U.S. on educating teens and students that file-sharing is illegal.

"There are presently no plans to launch U.S.-style legal actions internationally or in Europe. But uploading copyrighted music is illegal, and for a good reason, and legal action against uploaders cannot be ruled out in the future," Adrian Strain, a spokesman for IFPI in London, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Legal experts said the U.S. is the natural legal testbed as it has the strongest copyright protection law in the world in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites) (DCMA).

Sharma said politicians are beefing up laws on the state and EU level in Europe, ultimately setting up courtroom showdowns.

Europe's first big legal litmus test could come in Spain in the coming weeks where a coalition of unidentified software companies are attempting to sue thousands of individuals they accuse of copyright infringement.

With the laws being rewritten everywhere to protect copyrights, the primary obstacle remains the public relations implications. "These industries want to see how this will play out with (the RIAA) in the press," said Sharma. "But once they see the value in it, they will follow suit."

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