Stockholm - The first Swede convicted of copyright infringement for illegal music file-sharing has lost his appeal before the country's Appellate Court, Reuters reported.

A lower court ruled in October 2006 that 45-year-old Jimmy Sjostrom must pay about $2,843 for sharing four music files, the first such conviction in a country that only outlawed file-sharing in 2005, and is home to a political party called the Pirate Party and the worldwide file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay.

"Illegal file-sharing is thus expensive when there are legal and cheap alternatives available over the Internet today," the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a record label trade group, said in a statement.

Sweden's Pirate Party also hailed the ruling, which it interpreted to mean that file-sharing prosecutions will be difficult, as only crimes with jail sentences warrant searches of users' Internet records in the country.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2swfqb (Reuters)

http://www.ifpi.org

http://www.piratpartiet.se/the_pirate_party