At times it seems as though the labels plan to settle with everyone in the western hemisphere. The IFPI has announced 3500 new lawsuits against Germans, as a result of sting operations on the eDonkey 2000 network, making this the largest such single barrage of lawsuits from the European worldwide equivalent to the RIAA.

The IFPI claims that in Germany, "legal physical sales of music have fallen by a third in five years, while more than 400 million music files were downloaded illegally in 2005 alone." At the same time, many labels are reporting a rise in earnings, as consumers rebuy their music collections as digital files rather than physical discs.

John Kennedy, IFPI chairman and CEO said: "No one should be surprised that we are stepping up our campaign in this way.  The music industry has run numerous education campaigns aimed at audiences from parents to schools and Internet users. Most people clearly know that file-sharing without permission is illegal - unfortunately it takes legal actions such as this make a real impact on behavior. Today, there is every reason for music lovers to download legitimately. There is a huge choice of legal services available to consumers. There is really no excuse for stealing music on-line."

More after the jump...A similar campaign is underway in Norway, as both IFPI Norway and local representatives of MPA are threatening with court action in order to reveal the identities of file sharers that are breaching Norwegian copyright law.

According to IFPI Norway's Director, Marte Thorsby, the organization is prepared to take cases to court in order to reveal the identities of the file sharers that are breaching Norwegian copyright laws. Says Thorsby, "We are working closely with the film industry in order to crack down on Internet piracy. We have a number of options at our hands in order to disclose the identities of the file sharers."

[via MacWorld UK and Music Information Centre Norway]