Nine Icelanders were convicted this week for sharing movies on the popular DC++ file sharing network. Eight of the defendants were sentenced to two years' probation while the principal defendant, Bjarki Magnússon, was given a 30-day suspended sentence at a hearing before Reykjavík District Court. The nine face legal bills estimated at ISK 2.6 million (£19,800/€25,800/$39,000), Iceland Review reports (in English).

Magnússon was singled out for greater punishment because he established a portal to DC++ on the website dci.is. The full judgment (in Icelandic) can be found here.

Snaebjörn Steingrímsson, chairman of SMÁÍS, Iceland's association of film right holders, expressed disappointment at the leniency of the sentences. SMÁÍS filed complaints that prompted police raids against 12 suspects in September 2004. This led to the confiscation of computer equipment and CDs. One suspect was reportedly caught red handed with approximately 2.5TB of allegedly illicit material.

According to SMÁÍS, the raid was directly responsible for a 40 per cent drop in Iceland's net traffic volumes.

Reykjanes District Court is currently hearing a case against Svavar Lúthersson, a representative of the file-sharing website torrent.is, Iceland Review reports. ®

Related stories

• BitTorrent tracker Mininova faces legal action (19 May 2008)
• Comment Filesharers petition Downing Street on 'three strikes' (28 February 2008)
• BitTorrent busts Comcast BitTorrent busting (19 February 2008)
• P2P uploader hoaxes leading BitTorrent blog (12 February 2008)
• IFPI wins Danish block on Pirate Bay (5 February 2008)
• Pirate Bay hits ten million peers, one million torrents (28 January 2008)
• Microsoft and Cisco eye Iceland for green server farms (10 April 2007)
• Iceland left in the cold after cable cut (28 November 2005)
• Brief Iceland's net traffic plummets, following P2P raids (30 September 2004)