THE Australian entertainment industry has hailed as a victory for artists an overseas court decision against the founders of an internet file-sharing website.
The four founders of The Pirate Bay were sentenced in Sweden to a year in jail and ordered to pay a total of $5 million in damages for breaking copyright law. They are expected to appeal against the decision handed down by Judge Thomas Nordstrom.
Rebecca Melkman, of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, said sites such as The Pirate Bay caused immense damage to the creative industries.
"This is an important decision for right holders, underlining their right to have their creative work protected against illegal exploitation and to be fairly rewarded for their endeavours," she said.
"This decision will help to support a continued investment in talent and in new online services and the creation of new films and television shows."
The Pirate Bay indexes and tracks BitTorrent files - small parts of larger files such as music albums and movies. It does not actually hold any of the files itself. Its 25 million users use the site to download the fragments of the larger files, often in far less time than it would take to download in one piece.
In Stockholm District Court on Friday, Judge Nordstrom ordered the founders to pay damages to entertainment companies including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures. "We have tried here a question about whether these four men who have been prosecuted in this case have been acting to help others file-share, and that is a crime."
Meanwhile, seven movie studios and Channel Seven are suing internet provider iiNet in Australia's Federal Court for allowing its users to download pirated movies and TV shows. The case will be heard in October.