Four jailed in landmark Web piracy case

Four men behind a Swedish file-sharing Web site used by millions to exchange movies and music have been jailed for a year for collaborating to violate copyright law in a landmark court verdict in Stockholm.

The four defendants -- Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundstrom, three founders and one patron of The Pirate Bay -- were also ordered to pay 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to several major media companies including Warner Brothers, Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony BMG and EMI.

The Pirate Bay allows users to exchange files including movies, music, games and software, but does not host the files itself. It claims more than 3.5 million registered users.

The court case, which involved both a criminal case and a civil claim brought by the media companies, marks a key victory for anti-piracy campaigners, who had long targeted the Web site.

The year-long prison terms are for violating Swedish law, while the damages are compensation to the media giants in the civil case -- though the court ordered the men to pay just one-third of the 110 million kronor ($13 million) which the companies had asked for.