Until now the BPI has reached out-of-court settlements with individuals it has traced uploading larges amounts of music over so-called peer-to-peer networks, which distribute data between users instead of relying on a central server.

The BPI has launched around 140 legal cases since October 2004 against individuals as it cracks down on illegal filesharing.

In the United States the Recording Industry Association of America has sued thousands of individuals for unauthorised downloading of music.

The music industry estimates there are 900 million unauthorised music files are on the Internet.

But the BPI said the growth of illegal file sharing has slowed following the emergence of legitimate music download services such as Apple's iTunes and a greater awareness of the possibility of legal sanctions.

Reuters