The Pirate Bay Four Found Gulity, Will Appeal

(UPDATED)

• An online press conference will be streamed and archived here.
• The IFPI has issued an "official" reaction to the verdict.
• A defiant Pirate Bay founder asks how they can be convicted when Google offers links to unauthorized content

The four founders of The Pirate Bay were found guilty in Swedish court today. Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom were sentenced to a year in jail and a fine of 30 million SEK ($3,620,000 USD). The defendants say they will appeal

Famous in part for spreading albums leaked prior to release, The Pirate Bay defendants ironically learned of their loss via a court leak hours prior to the official announcement. "Really, it's a bit LOL. It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release," Sunde tweeted.

The court decision will mean little to record labels suffering fro reduced revenue caused in part by the kind of online file sharing facilitated by Pirate Bay. "Every time you get rid of one, another bigger one pops up. Napster went, and then up came a whole host of others … The problem of file-sharing just keeps growing year on year, and it's increasingly difficult for the industry to do anything about it," said music analyst Mark Mulligan of research firm Forrester told Reuters.