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A woman who has been found guilty of illegal file sharing has been fined £16,000.

The unnamed woman was ordered by the court to pay damages of £6,086.56 as well as costs and disbursements of £10,000 to game manufacturer Topware Interactive after a crackdown on illegal game and film sharing on peer-to-peer networks over the internet.

Davenport Lyons, the London-based law firm representing the games company, has announced its intentions to launch civil proceedings against 100 people suspected of illegally uploading copyrighted media and interactive software.

A partner at Davenport Lyons, David Gore, said of the recent action: "This shows that taking direct steps against infringers is an important and effective weapon in the battle against online piracy."

It was noted that peoples' loyalties to illegal file-sharing were highlighted by a study from the Performing Rights Society which found that more people downloaded Radiohead's free album, In Rainbows, illegally rather than from the band's website for free, the Independent reported.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'