Four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s biggest free file-sharing websites, were each sentenced to a year in jail on Friday for breaching copyright, and ordered to pay $3.6 million in compensation.

Analysts said the guilty verdict in the closely-watched test case could help music and film companies recoup millions of dollars in lost revenues, though they doubted it would stem the tide of illegal downloading.

In a broadcast on The Pirate Bay’s website one of the four defendants, Peter Sunde, taunted the court, holding up a mock IOU note for 31 million Swedish crowns ($3.6 million) followed by the initials “JK” — Internet lingo for “just kidding.”

Pirate Bay’s fileshare four get year in jail | Technology | Reuters

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