First German file sharing arrest:

Police in the southern town of Fuerth said they had confiscated eight computers after investigations initiated by the German branch of the IFPI led them to the house of a 25-year-old computer programming student.

The IFPI said the man was using a clone of a Napster file-sharing server to distribute over a million MP3 music files daily to some 3,000 individual users over a period of weeks.

The man has since been charged with infringing copyright laws and faces a possible jail sentence if found guilty.

The IFPI, a global trade group representing major and independent music labels and publishers, says the raid should set alarm bells ringing among pirate music distributors, who have long sought ways of sidestepping the record companies.

'This sends out the signal that anyone distributing music illegally will be caught, and that they would therefore be best advised to concentrate on legal methods of distribution,' IFPI spokesman Hartmut Spiesecke told Reuters. [Reuters]

Note the emphasis on "distribution" - it is the uploaders, those who make the files available like the College Four in the U.S., who have come under legal scrutiny thus far. This way they can threaten (notice use of the word "signal" again) file sharers without actually going after any average Joes, which would arouse indignation amongst their millions.

Notice too, that the spokesman is still using this trope:

Spiesecke said the IFPI had calculated that about 620 million MP3s were illegally downloaded in Germany alone in 2002.

'If all those songs were translated into sales, we'd be looking at about one billion euros in lost revenue,' he said.

This survey, released just yesterday, is further evidence that file sharing does not replace purchases, and in fact, sharers buy MORE music than others. Shove your "lost revenue," Herr Dumbass.