An Italian court has ordered 54 people behind illegal music download sites to pay more than €2.4 million (£2 million) in damages for copyright infringement following a six-year investigation. The case was first brought against various music download sites in 2003 by the Federation Against Music Piracy—which represents all four major labels in Italy—the IFPI-affiliated Italian Music Industry Federation (FIMI) and the Italian Fiscal Police.

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FIMI president Enzo Mazza told paidContent:UK that “several mp3 download sites” were targeted including Mp3download.it and that quite unlike the Swedish Pirate Bay case in April—which didn’t stop that site from operating—all the sites involved in the case have now been shut down. The investigation was stalled by the expiry of the charges’ time period—but the Judge for Preliminary Investigations decided that offences had taken place and according to FIMI “ordered the seizure and the destruction of the computers in question and the forfeiture of money that had been previously frozen by the Office of the Public Prosecutor amounting to more than €2.4 million”.