Illegal file-sharer given three years' probabation and OCD therapy

The first person in Scotland to be convicted of illegal file-sharing has been sentenced to a three-year probation period during which she will have to undergo therapy.

According to multiple reports, Anne Muir has been ordered by the Scottish Ayr Sheriff Court to attend cognitive therapy sessions during her probation period in order to treat her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which is thought to be partly to blame for her file-sharing behaviour.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) heralded the court's decision as setting a precedent in the UK for legal action against file-sharers.

“Today the court has recognised that illegal filesharing on a massive scale is a serious matter and has imposed a sentence aimed at preventing such behaviour in future,” a spokesman for the BPI told V3.co.uk.

“We would like to thank the Strathclyde Police and the Procurator Fiscal Service in Ayr for their diligent work on this investigation."

However, it is questionable how much the BPI should be celebrating, considering that Muir is the only file-sharer ever to have been prosecuted in the UK, and her activities were put down to her obsessive disease, rather than for any profit.

Muir admitted earlier this month to having distributed £54,000 worth of copyrighted music content via peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

Her illegal activities were first identified in 2007 by the BPI and the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry.  

The two organisations made a complaint to the Scottish authorities which raided Muir’s home in 2008 and found 30,000 files on her hard drive that had been made available to others through a peer-to-peer network.

Muir's sentencing was deferred after her hearing on 10 May because the court had to obtain a psychological report on her disease that apparently causes her to hoard music files.

31 May 2011