The founders and administrators of the Swedish bittorrent tracking megasite The Pirate Bay have been found guilty of assisting in making copyrighted material available illegally in a Swedish court.

The group have been sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, and a fine of 3.6 million $USD in damages.  For the record, that’s about 30 million SEK by today’s exchange rate, one of the highest fines ever imposed in a Swedish court.

It’s a sad day for filesharers, and just goes to show how far out of touch governments and the entertainment industry are with the effects of filesharing.  When will they ever get the point that they’re overcharging for content, underpaying their artists, and strangling a situation that has been proven to actually INCREASE their sales?

Interestingly enough, the trial has not lessened traffic to the site, but rather greatly increased, swelling membership numbers to new heights, and fueling huge membership in the political Pirate Party which seeks reform of copyright laws.

Fly your pirate flags at half staff and have a look at the guilty party’s press conference on the ruling.