Matt Martin Friday 17th April 2009 Share this article Share

Four founders of the one of the biggest file-sharing sites on the internet – The Pirate Bay – have been sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 30m Kronor (GBP 2.4 million).

Frederik Neij, Carl Lundstrom, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, and Peter Sunde were found guilty of breaking copyright law at a court in Sweden, reports the BBC.

According to Sunde, he already knew the verdict after receiving a tip-off from a trusted source. "It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release," he said via Twitter.

Millions of videogame, music and movie content is shared via The Pirate Bay and other similar sites, and almost all high-profile videogame releases on all formats are leaked to torrent sites before the official release date.