Pirate Bay Co-Founders Lose European Appeal

Two of the founders of file-sharing site The Pirate Bay have had an appeal over their convictions rejected by the European Court of Human Rights.

 Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi had argued their right to freedom of expression had been breached when they were sent to prison and fined five million euros under Sweden's copyright laws.

 The European court agreed that allowing others to share files - even copyright-protected material - was covered by the right to freedom of expression.

 But crucially it said that the Swedish court had correctly balanced that right with the need to protect copyright.

 In April 2009 Neij from Sweden and Kolmisoppi from Finland, were sentenced to one year in jail for helping to run the infamous file-sharing site.

 The sentence was later reduced but they were also held jointly liable with other defendants for millions in damages.

 Neij and Kolmisoppi told the European court they could not be held responsible for other people's use of the site and that the only ones who had committed an offence were those who had shared copyrighted files.

 The pair said that the original purpose of the site was purely to allow people to exchange data.

 However that argument fell on deaf ears, with the court calling their appeal "manifestly unfounded".

 It added: "Considering that Mr Neij and Mr Sunde Kolmisoppi had not removed the copyright-protected material from their website, despite having been requested to do so, the prison sentence and award of damages could not be regarded as disproportionate."

 The Pirate Bay allows users to search for and share files with other internet users, including copyrighted material like films, games and music.

 Its controversial past has seen numerous legal attempts to put the site out of business and it is currently blocked by many internet companies.

 Access in the UK is blocked by major providers such as BT, Virgin and TalkTalk.