Now they’re coming for your instrumentals.

Usually its the behemoths of the torrent world being crushed until the bootheel of international copyright laws, but now it’s the little guys facing the (illegally downloaded) music.

Earlier this week the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) shut down an illegal karaoke file-sharing website called Karaoke World, which hosted thousands of copyrighted music files – presumably intended for use throughout a global underground network of illicit karaoke bars.

Unlike The Pirate Bay however, which is at least decent enough to allow users to pirate copyrighted material without charging a fee, Karaoke World offered VIP memberships for users of the website, ranging from £5 to £90.

PIPCU was alerted to the site following a complaint from British copyright, royalties and licensing society PRS for Music. Officers tracked down 46-year-old operator of the site and arrested him in the West Yorkshire town of Dewsbury, putting an end to a career of online copyright infringement crime rivalled only by notorious fugitive Kim Dotcom.

“PRS for Music’s Anti-Piracy Unit is committed to actively pursuing those who use our songwriters’ and composers’ repertoire without permission, particularly the operation of online music services without the necessary licensing,” said Simon Bourn, PRS anti-piracy boss, in a statement. “The unit’s dedication in this case, involving careful investigative support which it provided to the police, ensured that an unlicensed UK-based BitTorrent music service for karaoke was located and closed down.”

So there you have it. If you want to sing R&B classics with your friends without having to rent a room in a Soho karaoke bar, we recommend you buy a copy of SingStar instead. [via Complete Music Update]