IFPI sites hacked by Pirate Bay supporters

The IFPI is prosecuting the file-sharing site for making available copyrighted works and, on the third day of the high-profile trial, its Swedish version of the web site was defaced and hackers left a message for prosecutor Hakan Roswall to “stop lying”.

The message has since been taken down, but on Thursday morning hackers also attacked the international IFPI site.

Users of the site, who tend to be students, researchers and journalists, were denied entry for hours, according to an IFPI spokesman Alex Jacobs.

"It's likely that as the trial continues, this will occur again," said Jacobs.

“It's not such a surprise that when we are engaged in civil action this kind of thing happens, but as our Swedish chairman said, these people claim to believe in freedom of speech so it is surprising they defaced the site,” he added.

Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde pleaded with the hackers to stop by posting a comment on Twitter: “Whomever is hacking the IFPI Web sites, please stop doing that. It only makes us look bad!”

The music companies involved in the trial said on Wednesday that they were claiming €2.1m (A$4.1m) from Pirate Bay, based on a sample of 23 tracks that were said to have lost revenue from the defendant’s actions.

The defendants have argued that money from advertising revenue goes purely into the site's upkeep and that they have not profited personally, but the IFPI has pointed to evidence including a signed agreement to share the advertising revenue proceeds, as well as offshore bank accounts that indicates otherwise.

“If I have all this money they claim, someone has apparently stolen it from me,” said Sunde in a further Twitter post.

“We had some pizza after today’s episode. Met the whole opposing side and asked if they could pick up the check. They refused,” he joked.