BBC reports that police in Germany have charged 3,500 users of a file-sharing network in the biggest single action against the illegal distribution of music online. Each could face five years in prison. They may also have to pay compensation for offering up to 8,000 files at a time for download on the eDonkey site. The investigation led to searches in 130 locations across Germany. The charges affect people who upload "large amounts" of music to file-sharing networks, not those who solely download tracks to their computers or who use legitimate services such as Apple's iTunes.

According to Heise.de, 40.000 IP addresses have been recorded. 3500 of those were assigned to German users who have been identified and will be charged by the State Attorney. Houses of users who had more than 500 files available for upload have been searched, resulting in 130 house searches. About 100 computers have been confiscated along with other evidence such as several thousand CDs.