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A woman has been ordered to pay £16,000 over file-sharing offences in one of the first cases of its kind in the UK.
The woman, who has not been named, was caught after a swoop on Britons who illegally share games and films over the internet, London law firm Davenport Lyons said.
She is one of the first persons in the UK to be taken to court by computer game manufacturers protecting their copyright.
The Patents County Court in London ordered that the woman pay damages of £6,086.56 and combined costs of £10,000 to Topware Interactive.
The company owns computer game Dream Pinball 3D.
Davenport Lyons has launched civil proceedings against 100 people suspected of similar offences on behalf of the games manufacturer.
The case focuses on peer-to-peer networks, which give subscribers direct access to each other's computers.
This allows people to download files without paying fees to the copyright owner.
Earlier this year, the Central London County Court ruled against four people who were found to have infringed copyright by sharing games.
David Gore, a partner at Davenport Lyons, said: "Illegal file-sharing is a very serious issue resulting in millions of pounds of losses to copyright owners.
"As downloading speeds and internet penetration increase, this continues to be a worldwide problem across the media industry which increasingly relies on digital revenues.
The High Court has ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to release the details of several thousand suspected file sharers, the firm said.
The most recent case followed a Government-brokered deal between the UK's music and film industries and ISPs to tackle illegal file-sharing, it added.
Some six million people are thought to engage in illegal file-sharing each year.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080819/tbs-woman-fined-16k-for-file-sharing-327c223.html
unlucky.
