FIRST it was music that was downloaded illegally, prompting a crisis in the record industry. Now film and television are at risk — but this time the lawyers are in close pursuit.

Yesterday a court in Hong Kong convicted a man of trying to illegally distribute films with BitTorrent, a file-sharing tool, the first time anyone has been prosecuted for using it. Lawsuits are also pending in the United States, and there are signs that British industry groups are looking at the uses of BitTorrent, which can download very large files efficiently over fast internet connections.

A spokesman for the British Video Association (BVA) said: “As broadband speeds increase, so does the propensity to look at this technology. It’s crucial that people have the opportunity to download films legally.”

The BVA and the BPI, the music industry body, are monitoring the use of programs such as BitTorrent.

Chan Nai-ming, from Hong Kong, faces four years in jail and a fine after being found guilty of trying to distribute three Hollywood films illegally. He will be sentenced on November 7. Downloading film and TV programmes had been difficult until recently. Because video content has so much data, the digital files are huge.

Two factors have changed the picture in the past year: the increase in internet speeds in Britain and new technology, such as BitTorrent.

Created by Bram Cohen in the United States, BitTorrent helps to download a file by breaking it up into small pieces that can be picked up from a network of computers. These are reassembled on arrival. BitTorrent can be used legally and illegally, but it is possible using the software to find films and television programmes — such as episodes of Desperate Housewives or other popular American programmes — which have not yet reached Britain.

The Motion Picture Association of America has begun to pursue BitTorrent users who have violated copyright. Last December it brought a host of lawsuits against websites that enabled BitTorrent downloads.

The first major song-swapping network, Napster, was shut down by the courts after complaints from the Recording Industry Association of America. But it has proved harder to shut down its successors, such as Grokster, and now BitTorrent, because they are networks that do not have a central database of illegal files.

This year the music industry did win a landmark Supreme Court ruling against Grokster. The court held that “one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright . . . is liable for the resultant acts of infringement by third parties”.

BitTorrent downloaders, however, are more likely to be at risk because Mr Cohen is careful to avoid endorsing illegal acts, which led to the Supreme Court ruling against Grokster. The 30-year-old entrepreneur is instead working with the film industry to create a legal marketplace, along the lines of Apple’s iTunes.

That means that those who use BitTorrent to download copyright films and television for free will be liable. Already the music industry has brought private prosecutions against 88 people. Most have paid fines of up to £6,500. A further five cases are pending in the High Court. The five, who live in places ranging from King’s Lynn to South Glamorgan, made more than 8,000 songs available for download without permission.

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