A French man who illegally downloaded 12,591 music tracks, 426 movies and 16 complete TV series has been sentenced to a 2 months suspended jail sentence and been forced to pay a 33,000 euro fine this week.
The collection was first discovered in 2006 when authorities were searching the man’s house on an unrelated fraud case warrant. The man is a retired IT expert and used the defense during his trial that the collection was for private use, not commercial. He also added, says TF that he “believed he had been acting within the law.”
The court did not agree.
The plaintiffs, which included the National Federation of Film Distributors, Sony, Paramount, Sacem and SCPP were asking for 2 euros for each unauthorized MP3, and 7.50-12.50 euros for each movie. It was unclear what was paid for each TV episode.
Result for: jail sentence
In order to “set an example”, Portugal’s first convicted file sharer has been sentenced to 90 days in prison. The man, who remains unnamed, had been in court after the Portuguese version of the RIAA accused him of unauthorized uploading of music on P2P networks.
The punishment was decided upon by the court in Portimão in an effort to set an example for future file sharers.
The Portuguese Phonographic Association (AFP), the Portuguese equivalent of the RIAA sent out a complaint about the file sharer which was confirmed by EMI. The user was accused of uploading a couple hundred of EMI’s copyrighted songs. The courts confirmed that there were over 100 other complaints being investigated currently.
A spokesperson for the EMI said he was pleased by the decision, a “necessary evil” that should be employed to stop future file sharers. “The problem is people know they are doing something illegal, but they also know there are no consequences, at least until this week,” he added.
There was word however, that the jail sentence can be replaced with a large fine, but there was no word on the compensation.
