Italy cracks down on CD piracy

Italy is fighting back in the battle against music piracy by introducing tough laws for those illegally buying and selling pirated music on street stalls.

Street vendors could be fined 103 euros (£70) for every pirate copy they sell and may also face between six months and three years in prison.

Buyers of illegal CDs, who up until now have gone unpunished, will be fined 154 euros (£106) if caught buying illegal CDs and repeat offenders could be hit with a fine of 1,000 euros (£700) when the new law is introduced on Tuesday.

Italy has one of Europe's largest counterfeit markets and the music industry estimates that one in four compact discs sold is pirated.

The illegal trade is worth an estimated 120m (£83m) euros annually and the Italian record industry has experienced losses of about 11% in the past three years.
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