CONSUMERS face a crackdown on file-sharing websites which offer home entertainment for free after the successful prosecution of one of the illicit industry's leading players.
Since it launched in 2003, Swedish-based The Pirate Bay has become a major conduit for illegal downloading, used by millions of people to get copies of the latest films, TV shows and music releases onto their computers.
But the entertainment i
ndustry has hailed the prosecution of the four founders of the illegal file-sharing website as a major victory in its battle to recoup billions of pounds in lost revenue.
Lawyers believe that the sentencing of Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundström, who were behind The Pirate Bay site, to a year in jail for breaching Swedish copyright law could lead to a flurry of similar lawsuits as Hollywood and the music industry battle to regain the upper hand in the war against file-sharing.
But the defendants, who have cultivated an image of rebellious outsiders, called the verdict "bullshit", promising to appeal and defiantly signalling that they would not shut the site down.
"Nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file- sharing whatsoever," said Sunde, one of the site's founders, on Twitter.
Although the site had been raided by police on several occasions, its creators argued that they were not acting illegally under Sweden's interpretation of copyright law.
They also taunted the authorities by promoting high-profile downloads of new Hollywood films and responding to legal threats by posting insults online.
In one exchange with DreamWorks – the film studio behind hits such as Gladiator and Shrek – The Pirate Bay lashed out with accusations of US imperialism, saying: "Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. US law does not apply here."
Lawyers representing the four men had maintained that The Pirate Bay was essentially no different from Google, merely acting as a search engine for online content.
But Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry, representing the UK record industry, said: "We hope that this decision will encourage British music fans to steer clear of these parasitic illegal download services and support the future of British music by downloading legally."
The verdict represents a step-change in the law's attitude to copyright infringement as the men were found guilty of providing a conduit for others to break the law, rather than breaching copyright themselves.
Mark Harding, director of intellectual property at KPMG, said the verdict was a "big shot across the bows of file-sharing sites" but warned only a "sea change" in consumer attitudes would end the practice.
