Scottish Grandma Convicted of File-sharing

Scotland has just handed down its first file-sharing conviction.

File-sharing is common and its considered a widespread problem in the entertainment industry. However, despite this, convictions for the crime are quite rare. In fact, up until quite recently, Scotland had never convicted anyone for file-sharing. This week that changed, but what's more surprising is that the first conviction has been handed down to a grandmother of eight.

The BBC reports that a 58-year-old an auxiliary nurse from Ayr pleaded guilty to a contravention of section 107(1)(e) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 after Strathclyde police searched her home and procured evidence that she had illegally shared music files.

The police apparently received a tip from the BPI and IFPI regarding the woman, who has been named as Anne Muir. Muir is said to have made 7,493 digital music files and 24,243 karaoke files available to others via a P2P sharing application. According to the BBC, the collection of files has an estimated market-value of £54,792.

Muir’s lawyer said she was "not in any way trying to distribute on a large scale" and insists the only reason she had such a large collection was because "she was hoarding - a symptom of a severe obsessive personality disorder that she suffers from."

"Intelligence gathered by BPI and IFPI revealed that Anne Muir was a prolific user of a particular file sharing network based in the UK," the BBC quotes district procurator fiscal for Ayr, Mirian Watson, as saying. "Illegally flouting copyright laws is tantamount to theft and not only deprives legitimate companies and artists of earnings, but also undermines the music industry as a whole."

Muir is due to be sentenced later this month.