This is all about posturing and making examples of individuals in the hope that they can deter people en masse. There is no way they can counter file sharing by attacking individuals. It is too time-consuming and expensive.

Digital music finally got off the ground in Europe in 2005, but it is important to retain a sense of perspective: paying for digital music is currently a niche activity and is still outweighed by file sharing which is conducted by 15 percent of European internet users.

It will be their call.