Last week a Swedish court handled a copyright infringement case against a 26 year-old man that was caught using file-sharing platforms. In 2010 he had been tracked by the IFPI sharing 44 illegal music tracks on the Internet.

The man from Uppsala was found guilty of copyright infringement offenses. Although he was not acting professionally, the judge fined him 2000 Swedish Krones. This case is interesting, as European courts do not have a lot of experience dealing with individual downloaders like in this case. Judges around the world have been puzzled by the question: what is a sensible and appropriate penalty for illegal file sharing?

Similar cases in the United States, for example the cases of downloaders Thomas–Rasset and Tenenbaum, have resulted in damages payable of $1.5 million and $67,500 respectively, astonishing amounts for what were essentially petty file-sharing offenses. These Americans were fined $62,500 and $2,177 per track respectively. 

The decision of the Swedish judge is more realistic. Although the plaintiffs had originally requested for a higher fine, the downloader was fined around 45 Swedish Krones per track, the equivalent of €5 or $7.

Although the slim chance of getting caught and a fine of about $310 for sharing 44 tracks does not seem very deterring, we have to keep in mind that a legal download, for example from the iTunes store costs only about $1,- to $3,-.

“Swedish courts may be slowly coming to their senses regarding non-commercial violations of the copyright monopoly,” said Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge commenting on the case. The decision in the case could prove to be an important one, as it sets guidelines for financial penalties in future cases.

Sources: TorrentFreak, Sveriges Radio