Swapz takes the hardline when it comes to copyright piracy and now, so it seems, does the Swedish courts.

The founders of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay have been sentenced to a year in jail in Sweden for breaking copyright laws by helping millions of users download music, movies and computer games for free.

Experts believe the ruling could be the first step towards ending illegal downloading, which has cost music and film companies billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The 2 founders along with 2 employees were sentenced to a year in jail after being found guilty in a Swedish court of making 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal downloading on the website Piratebay.org.

In a Twitter posting before sentencing, one of the founders said: “Nothing will happen to The Pirate Bay, this is just theatre for the media.”

The Pirate Bay provides a forum for its estimated 22 million users to download content. The site has become the entertainment industry’s enemy No. 1 after successful court actions against file-swapping sites such as Grokster and Kazaa.