Frank Allan Bruvik was fined 100,000 kroner (£8,000) for 'abetting' an illegal act, the Associated Press reports.
Bruvik set up the site, Napster.no (which has no connection with the famous Napster site) in 2001 as part of his computer engineering course. The site, which ran from August to November 2001, linked to MP3 formatted music files, but did not host the files itself.
The Norwegian music industry, including the Norwegian subsidiaries of Sony Music and Universal Music, sued the student, alleging that his site breached copyright, and in 2003 Bruvik was fined 100,000 kroner by the district court.
On appeal, however, the Appeals Court ruled in favour of the student, arguing that any copyright violations were carried out by those who posted the music, and not by simply linking to the postings.
The Supreme Court has now upheld the original ruling, finding that the links had assisted people in finding the unauthorised downloads and that Bruvik was accordingly liable.