Depressed Scottish file-sharing nurse gets 3 yrs probation

Auxiliary nurse Anne Muir, 58, has become the first person to be convicted and sentenced for illegal filesharing in Scotland. The Ayr Sheriff's court has sentenced her to three years' probation after she admitted sharing a stash of more than 30,000 music files online.

Muir was charged by Strathclyde police following an investigation into complaints from record-biz bodies BFPI and IFPI, who calculated that Muir's stash of files – mostly composed of karaoke songs – would have cost £54,000 to acquire by legal means. She made a plea of guilty in an earlier hearing.

Muir's lawyer said that she had not profited financially from her activities, which had been undertaken solely to boost her self-esteem. She was also said to have been suffering from depression "for a number of years", the BBC reports. ®