The compensation has been paid to settle 23 out of 26 cases brought by the BPI in October last year against people who had been sharing files over the internet.
The users, 17 men and six women, have paid an average of more than 拢2,000 to settle their cases, while two of the filesharers are paying over 拢4,000 each. They have also undertaken not to fileshare illegally again.
Kazaa and Grokster users were the biggest targets in the first swoop, accounting for 17 out of the 23 settlements. The BPI said that they ranged from students, to a local councillor and the director of an IT company.
However, the BPI, which represents UK record companies, is not stopping there and said today that it was undertaking further litigation in the UK to cover all of the popular peer-to-peer sites.
It said it would go to the High Court to seek orders for the disclosure of the identities of a further 31 people who have been illegally sharing files on networks including Kazaa, eDonkey, Grokster, Soulseek, DirectConnect, Limewire, Bearshare and Imesh.
Geoff Taylor, general counsel for the BPI, said: "If illegal filesharers think that they can avoid getting caught by staying away from the most popular networks like Kazaa, they're wrong.
"We are going to continue bringing cases against people who distribute music illegally, whichever filesharing network they use, for as long as it's necessary. Legitimate music services can only prosper if we continue to fight the theft of music on the internet."
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