27th January 2011 - A court in Finland has ordered two operators of an illegal DirectConnect hub to pay more than Ђ820,000 in compensation to rights holders for facilitating the illegal distribution of films, games and music. This compensation payout is the highest ever awarded in any case investigated by Finland's Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC).

The owner of the hub also received a four-month suspended jail sentence from the Lohja district court, while the man that worked with her was given a three-month suspended jail sentence.

Prosecutors had told the court that the hub had some 1,600 users and offered vast amounts of copyright infringing material, including the equivalent of almost 750,000 albums.

The case was the third of its kind held in Finland in the past four months. Two further trials are imminently pending.

As part of their collerformer themselves.