Unlucky Swedish filesharer found guilty of copyright infringement

A SWEDISH MAN who became the first in the country to be accused of multiple counts of copyright infringement using Bittorrent has been found guilty.

According to Torrent Freak, a Swedish court found him guilty but did not send him to jail. The man, who was fined 6,000 kronor ($900), was accused of illegally sharing at least 60 films using Bittorrent.

The case featured plaintiffs including 20th Century Fox, Sony and Paramount, assisted by Universal, Warner and Disney.

It is unusual for rights holders to pursue Bittorrent users in Sweden, as it's technically difficult to prove more than an individual case of unauthorised filesharing and small copyright infringement cases aren't considered worthy of criminal prosecution.

However, unfortunately for the unlucky filesharer, the prosecution had possession of his computer because police had seized it when he was house sitting for a friend who they were looking for on an unrelated matter.

When his computer was searched, authorities found a client loaded with torrent files and movies, which was reported to the prosecutor and movie studio copyright holders. Then the decision was made to press charges.

Prosecutor Frederick Ingblad was unhappy with the decision and is expected to appeal. He said that the offences were equal to "going into a store every week for a year and shoplifting" and should not be considered as a single act. µ