14 DAY TRIAL // A 58-year old woman from Sweden tried to convince judges that she didn't fully understand the concept of file sharing but they didn't buy it and sentenced her on probation, forcing her to pay a fine of $2,500 (1750 EUR).
According to TorrentFreak, this is the largest personal file sharing case ever, the woman being accused of distributing 45,000 music tracks on the Internet.
The case began back in 2007 but only now has a verdict been given. A year after the investigation started, authorities found in her possession a Direct Connect client which contained logs that would be later be used against her in the trial.
One of the main reasons why the court didn't believe her to be innocent was because of the fact that she works as a system administrator, the job requiring certain knowledge on uploading and downloading issues.
As it turns out, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, through the voice of the prosecutor reached the conclusion that the sharing was made either deliberately or through criminal negligence.
In an interview given to TorrentFreak, Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, revealed that he is not happy with the way the case was prosecuted.
“I attended the trial. You could really see the entitlement in the prosecutor’s eyes; this was just an open-and-shut case,” Falkvinge revealed.
“I find it staggering that the establishment can be so oblivious to the fact that this entire structure is disappearing, and judge honest people who share culture — as if that was something bad — without a second thought. We need to change these laws. The establishment is not going to do it for us.”
Fortunately for the accused, the representatives of the industry don't seek penalties reported to the volume of information shared, instead they only want to make a point.