While it has been fairly common in recent times for users of other file-sharing systems to be pursued by the Swedish authorities, BitTorrent sharers have been almost completely avoided due to evidential difficulties. But this week sees a change and what could become a turning point, with the prosecution of a music industry worker who leaked an unreleased Beyonce album onto The Pirate Bay.

On Monday a man was sued for copyright infringement. He is suspected of illegally file-sharing music albums, which in itself is not exactly out of the ordinary.

However, this prosecution has a number of interesting elements which together make for a unique case.

Firstly, it concerns the leak of unreleased music. According to authorities, on June 8, 2011 a 47-year-old man from western Sweden shared Beyonce’s album ‘4’ on The Pirate Bay in advance of its commercial release on June 24.

According to DN.se, during interrogations the man admitted having an interest in music and also working in the music industry.

Music sharing cases have been prosecuted in Sweden before, but authorities see this as an opportunity to test how far punishments can be pushed in a pre-release case.

“Scope, intent and other factors play a role in the penalty assessment. In this case it is in my opinion an important factor that pre-release music has been made available. I can imagine this causing greater harm,” says Henrik Rasmusson.

As reported on several occasions here on TorrentFreak, previously there have been unusual factors leading to BitTorrent users being prosecuted for file-sharing. These include a schoolboy being reported to the authorities by his own teachers and unauthorized sharing being accidentally discovered as part of a separate investigation.

According to prosecutor Henrik Rasmusson, this is the first time that monitoring and electronic evidence has led to the prosecution of a BitTorrent user.

“Proof that the offense occurred in the BitTorrent environment was submitted to the police and then led to investigations, searches and seizures, which together makes me think that you can justify crime,” Rasmusson said.

“Both the album and BitTorrent file were found in his computer. From other things we’ve found I think it indicates that he is not averse to engaging in this type of activity,” he concludes.

In another interesting twist, it is claimed that the defendant did not carry out the alleged infringements using his own Internet account but that of a neighbor after acquiring the password.

The investigation was carried out on behalf of IFPI and Sony Music by DtecNet, the company set to monitor file-sharers in the United States later this year. How DtecNet’s evidence holds up in this case will be interesting to watch.