Warner Music, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG and EMI have thrown light on the sorry state of music piracy and have dragged the case against UPC, one of Ireland's largest broadband providers, in order to establish a legal precedent that would push the internet service providers to cut off illegal file sharers' internet connections.

After raising enough investment to avoid the beleaguered label defaulting on its loans, the private equity tycoon Guy Hands has won the battle to keep control of EMI Music. It includes artists Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams.

The British music company EMI which has been struggling to hit the licensing deals since the last few days, was taken over by the bankers, yesterday, as it failed to secure any of the deals for selling the rights for its artists.

EMI Group Ltd is reportedly in discussion with two rivals to license its distribution rights in order to raise about £200m as the deadline for debt payment approaches today.

In a temporary restraining Thursday order against Media Rights Technologies' Bluebeat. com Web site, Judge John Walter of US District Court in Los Angeles prohibited the site from either selling or streaming music by artists of the EMI Group.