14.10.2010, Helsinki - A Finnish man received a three-month suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay €377,000 for running a computer server or “hub” that enabled users to illegally upload unlicensed music online.

The ruling, made by the district court of Oulu, was the second such verdict issued in the Finnish courts over the last week.

The 35-year-old man was ordered to pay compensation to rights holders for running a DirectConnect hub called “The Devil”.  The server had enabled almost 3,000 users to distribute more than 90 terabytes of copyright infringing music and movies. The operator himself uploaded more than 9,000 unlicensed music tracks as well as dozens of films and television shows.

Police originally searched the operator’s home in June 2007 following complaints from Finnish rights holders. A technical investigation revealed the infringing server had been established in September 2006.