The first trial related to illegal file sharing in Sweden was closed yesterday because the lack of a clear copyright law.

A 28 year old person from Västmanland, Sweden was accused of illegal sharing of the film Hip Hip Hora. The Swedish Anti-piracy organisation, APB accessed a local network with the DC programme and found Hip Hip Hora available, recorded the distributor’s IP address and reported him to the police. The police, helped by the Internet Provider, found the person and arrested him.

In court, the defendant retracted his statement, given at the Police department, explaining that there had been a misunderstanding. He thought he was being charged with downloading copyright-protected material - which was not illegal until the 1st of July this year, when the new copyright law came into effect. Its case was also helped by the judges’ knowledges about terms such as spoofing, hijacking, sniffer or peer-to-peer networks. All of the judges were in their late middle ages.

The case has been on front pages of every newspaper in Sweden, and was expected to set a precedent for similar cases which are lined up at courts around the country but unfortunately had the opposite effect.

The verdict is expected on 25th October which will be probably a fine or a suspended prison sentence.