3 nabbed for distributing music files online in Singapore

This is the first time file traders (or pirates, depending on your perspective) was arrested for distribution of copyrighted songs on the Internet. The linked story is on Channel News Asia. However, the Straits Times has more info on it. But since you can't read it unless you subscribe to it, I'll post some bits of it here. Is the reign of terror of music sharing to begin in Singapore or is it just plain dumb for these people to do what they do?

The unprecedented action by the police started with a tip-off from the Record Industry Association Singapore (Rias) in March this year. Its investigators found that the men, aged 16 to 22, had been distributing English and Malay songs since late last year over a local Internet relay chat (IRC) channel.

Police then conducted surveillance of the suspects to gather evidence, culminating in Wednesday's pre-dawn raid, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Tan Kah Khin, who is also head of the Criminal Investigation Department's Intellectual Property Rights Branch (IPRB).

The three infringers - a student, a factory operator and the last waiting for his national service - said they distributed the music files in order to boost their ability to download pirated materials from other distributors, said DSP Tan.

The file-sharing system the three used tracks the amount distributed and downloaded by each user, and the more a user distributes, the more he will be able to download from others.

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