Yahoo News reports that the UK music industry's trade organization, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) is planning to start their own "sue file-swappers" campaign.
Much of the rationale for suing file-swappers remains the same as the American context, particularly since recent studies have implied that American file-sharing has decreased since the RIAA's lawsuit campaign began, while file-sharing in Europe has continued to increase. However, they will probably only resort to suing their customers if the introduction of European versions of iTunes Music Store and Roxio Napster do not succeed in reducing file-sharing.
Although file-sharing of copyrighted works is clearly illegal in the UK, just as it is in the US, it will be interested to see how such an initiative pans out in the UK with a very different legal structure. The UK has no DMCA, but it also does not have the extent of privacy protection afforded under US law, and the UK equivalent of fair use, known as "fair dealing", is a good deal narrower than the US copyright law provides. The extent of co-operation UK ISPs will provide without a court order also remains to be seen, and the BPI is believed to be currently negotiating this issue with ISPs..
It should be an interesting campaign to watch..