Looks is if the RIAA is not the only one suing over music copyright infringement. Unlike the RIAA, the Norway branch of the music industry has taken a living person to court and rightfully so, too. If you are sharing music that is not giving you permission to do so, you do run that risk.

Frank Allan Bruvik was ordered to pay 100,000 kroner (£8,000) to the music industry in Norway.

He was a student when he set up his napster.no site, which allowed users to submit and receive links to MP3 files.

Bruvik had earlier been cleared on appeal after a lower court had found for the music industry.

Music industry bosses in Norway said the ruling would help build confidence in the internet as a distribution medium.

Frank Allan Bruvik set up the napster.no website as part of a school project in 2001 while studying computer engineering in the Norwegian town of Lillehammer.

The website was not associated with the napster.com site in the USA, which had been operating since 1999 and was already facing legal action.

Bruvik’s site was online between August and November 2001, and while it did not host any music, at its peak it was providing links to more than 170 free files on other servers.