Court of Appeal Convicts File-Sharer | FreakBits

Helsinki Court of Appeal Convicts File-Sharer

August 17, 2009, by enigmax 0

The Helsinki Court of Appeal has upheld the earlier decision of a regional court when it found a man guilty of file-sharing. The punishment stands at 3,000 euros for sharing more than 150 albums.

The man from Finland was earlier accused of sharing music files totaling 768Mb on the Internet – around 164 albums. A search of his computer turned up 1,850 tracks which had been downloaded from unauthorized sources.

In February 2008, the Porvoo District Court found the man guilty of copyright infringement and ordered him to pay approximately 3,000 euros in fines.

However, the man disagreed with the verdict and took the case to appeal. In his defense he admitted that illegal sharing had taken place from his computer and although it wasn’t him who was responsible, he was aware of it. Not a particularly wise move.

The Court of Appeal decided that his explanation wasn’t credible, and instead found him personally responsible for the copyright infringement which took place from his computer, upholding the decision of the original court and fining him 3,000 euros.