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Three Australian  university students walked free from a Sydney court last week   after being convicted of online music piracy.

A senior Australian music recording industry representative expressed outrage over the decision.

The case, a world first, was brought by the Australian government with the strong backing of the Australian Recording Industry Association.

The three - Tommy Le, Charles Ng and Peter Tran - pleaded guilty to  multiple counts of breach of copyright laws after a music industry investigation uncovered their chain of websites   that enabled users to download almost 390 music CDs containing more than 1,800 tracks.

They faced  possible jail terms of up to five years and a fine of A$60,500 (HK$339,555) for each offence.

However,  Sydney Local Court Magistrate Graeme Henson placed Mr Ng and Mr Tran on  18-month suspended jail sentences and ordered Mr Le to perform 200 hours of community service work.

Mr Ng also received a community service order and Tran was fined $5,000 because of a medical condition that ruled him out of performing community service.

Michael Speck,  chief investigator for the Australian Recording Industry Association, said he was extremely disappointed that the three were not sent to jail.

During the case, Mr Speck  claimed that the three students' activities had cost the Australian recording music industry A$60 million in lost sales.

'I wonder how much music has to be stolen in [Australia] before someone goes to jail,' Mr Speck said.

He  was also scathing about  the  director of public prosecution's handling of  the case. The director  'has shown no energy' in the case, Mr Speck said.

However,  Mr Henson criticised Mr Speck's requests  during  the case that the students be shown no leniency.

In handing down his decision Mr Henson  noted that the court was not influenced by 'the loudest or most strident and invariably ill-informed voice promoted through various forms of media'.

He said that while the offences were serious he had regard to their ages, lack of previous  offences and the unlikelihood that any of the students would re-offend, in determining that they should not serve jail terms.

Mr Henson also appeared to agree with one of the accused, Mr Ng, who told the South China Morning Post last month  that he and his co-accused were not profiteering from large scale piracy.

Mr Henson noted that neither Mr Ng nor Mr Tran had made a commercial gain from the websites.

In escaping  a jail term, Mr Ng said last week that he had 'learned the error of my ways and because I don't listen to music anymore, I will certainly never do anything like this again'.



MP3 sharers set free by Australian court