The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) is considering taking legal action against thousands of people who copy music illegally using the Internet.
The trade body, which represents music firms, is rethinking its policy on illegal downloading after studying a report which shows that 236,000 people have downloaded music illegally.
Many of them are young, middle class males who use home computers, file-sharing software and the Internet to copy music tracks and albums for free, according to the report.
The IRMA report, which has been seen by The Irish Times, concludes that the scale of illegal copying is increasing and is a real concern for the music industry.
It estimates that up to four million blank CDs have been purchased in the past six months for copying music albums or tracks. This represents more than half the 7.8 million CDs sold in the same period, according to IRMA.
Music associations in the US, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada have already begun lawsuits against individuals accused of sharing music files. But so far IRMA has decided not to take legal action against Irish consumers. Instead, it has promoted education campaigns which seek to inform people that downloading music for free is illegal.
But IRMA's director general, Mr Dick Doyle, said yesterday the trade body was reconsidering its approach to illegal copying and did not rule out legal action.
"This kind of illegal activity will have consequences if people persist in downloading music for free," said Mr Doyle, who commissioned the IRMA report from the Dublin-based consultancy, Behaviour and Attitudes.
Under Irish law, people found guilty on a summary judgement of breaching music copyright are liable for fines of €1,900 per track or up to 12 months in prison.
Mr Doyle said the trade organisation was already using specialised software to track Irish people who are engaging in music file sharing over the web.
File sharing software enables people to link with other Internet users to share music and other types of files on their computers. Its use is tracked electronically. The IRMA report shows that just 1 per cent of people who have downloaded music from the web paid for it using one of the official websites offering music. This result was achieved in spite of high levels of awareness that downloading for free is illegal.
According to the IRMA report, more than half of the 1,200 adults surveyed said they knew it was illegal to copy music for free.
The scale of illegal music copying could be higher than the survey suggests given that children, who tend to be among the most prolific users of computers, did not take part in the survey. In the US, a 12-year-old girl was recently served with legal action for illegal copying of music.
Mr Doyle said illegal copying was prevalent among the 15 to 24- year-old age group, where 60 per cent have downloaded music.
He warned the problem would get worse as more people got access to broadband, which enabled them to download large computer files more quickly.
"I think the message we will roll out in the next few months will be aimed at mums and dads to warn them that illegal activities will have consequences."