The decision by a Swedish court to convict the four men behind file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been hailed as marking an "important day" in the fight against online piracy.

A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association stated that the verdict demonstrated that major organisations whose work is shared illegally will stand up and fight their corner.

She explained that just because the website did not host any of the information, it was enabling people to engage in illegal activity and as a result it was held as such in the eyes of European law in other countries.

The representative added: "Those decisions possibly haven't got the kind of attention that the Pirate Bay decision has got. There may be others who are doing something similar who may have cause to rethink what they are doing as a result of that decision."

Founders of the website were fined over £2 million following the judgment, with each sentenced to a year behind bars for their crimes.

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