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Swedish court convicts man of file sharing
A student downloads music from a file-sharing website in 2001. A Swedish court has handed down a suspended sentence and a 10,000-kronor (1,655-dollar, 1,070-euro) fine to a man found guilty of sharing some 4,500 music files and 30 films on the Internet.
The court in Linkoeping, west of Stockholm, found Andreas Karlsson, 31, guilty of "making copyrighted films and music available" to others when he downloaded them onto the Internet in March 2006, it said in its ruling.
Karlsson had denied the charges.
The plaintiffs included the Swedish members of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, as well as the film studios Buena Vista, Warner, SF and Nordisk Film.
The court also ordered Karlsson to pay the plaintiffs' court costs of 44,670 kronor, as well as 15,000 kronor of the public defender's court fees.
Anti-piracy agency Svenska Antipiratbyraan said the case against Karlsson was the biggest tried by a Swedish court so far and was therefore of fundamental importance.
"It is clear that the court considers as serious the extensive (copyright) infringement the man has been found guilty of. The widespread illegal file sharing taking place in Sweden is inflicting a lot of damage on creators," a lawyer at the agency, Sara Lindbaeck, said in a statement.
Sweden, a country of nine million people, recently began cracking down on illegal file sharing amid charges that it had become a centre for Internet piracy.
At the end of January, Swedish prosecutors filed charges against four people suspected of running Sweden-based The Pirate Bay, one of the world's most popular websites for illegal downloading of films, music and computer games.
And the Swedish government is planning to present a proposal that would require Internet providers to hand over information identifying people involved in illegal file sharing.
© 2008 AFP
The plaintiffs included the Swedish members of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, as well as the film studios Buena Vista, Warner, SF and Nordisk Film.
The court also ordered Karlsson to pay the plaintiffs' court costs of 44,670 kronor, as well as 15,000 kronor of the public defender's court fees.
Anti-piracy agency Svenska Antipiratbyraan said the case against Karlsson was the biggest tried by a Swedish court so far and was therefore of fundamental importance.
"It is clear that the court considers as serious the extensive (copyright) infringement the man has been found guilty of. The widespread illegal file sharing taking place in Sweden is inflicting a lot of damage on creators," a lawyer at the agency, Sara Lindbaeck, said in a statement.
Sweden, a country of nine million people, recently began cracking down on illegal file sharing amid charges that it had become a centre for Internet piracy.
At the end of January, Swedish prosecutors filed charges against four people suspected of running Sweden-based The Pirate Bay, one of the world's most popular websites for illegal downloading of films, music and computer games.
And the Swedish government is planning to present a proposal that would require Internet providers to hand over information identifying people involved in illegal file sharing.
© 2008 AFP
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