The court also found that the links made the two teenagers accessories to their visitors’ illegal copying of the files. They were ordered to pay compensation of DKK 100,000 (£8,388) to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and organisations representing various Danish groups of artists which brought the action against them.
The teenagers were competing with each other to get the greatest number of hits on their homepages – neither was operating a site for profit.
Recently, a similar case was brought in Sweden by the IFPI on the issue of linking to MP3 files. The court found the 17-year-old in that case not liable for music piracy on the basis that the files were not stored by him. However, the court noted that he could have been liable for violating contributory copyright infringement laws which he was not charged with.
The court added, "it is legal to have links to pirated music on a homepage in Sweden if the links are to a server in a country where it isn't illegal to pirate music.”