The times when everybody illegally downloaded music from the Internet are about to come to an end. After the Supreme Court of America decided that users who get their music in this way are liable to be trialed for copyright infringement, now it's Australias' turn to deliver a deadly blow to piracy.

According to ZDNet, Stephen Cooper, operator of a Web site called MP3s4free.net, was found guilty Thursday of copyright infringement by Australia Federal Court Justice Brian Tamberlin.

Although Cooper didn't host pirated recordings per se, the court found the resident of the state of Queensland breached the law by creating hyperlinks to sites that had infringing sound recordings.

This is the first such judgment against hyperlinking in Australia.

Tamberlin found against all other respondents in the case, namely Internet service provider Comcen; Comcen employee Chris Takoushis; Comcen parent company E-Talk Communications; and Comcen and E-Talk director Liam Bal.

In October 2003, the record companies, which included Universal Music, Sony, Warner and EMI, alleged that Cooper cooperated with Bal and Takoushis to increase traffic to the ISP and boost advertising revenue.
Outside the Sydney court, Music Industry Piracy Investigations general manager Michael Kerin said the verdict sends a strong message to ISPs.