A 29-year-old school teacher in France had her computer hard-drive confiscated by a court for illegally downloading hundreds of songs from the Internet. The judge, in the western city of Rennes, also ordered Anne-Sophie Lainneme -- who was not present for the verdict -- to pay 2,225 euros (2,900 dollars) to two royalty collection associations.
She was additionally given a 1,200-euro fine, but its payment was suspended as long as she avoided repeating the offence.
Lainneme, who was prosecuted for downloading 1,647 tunes in 2004, made a name for herself for going public to complain against a crackdown on some 50 individuals for using peer-to-peer networks to copy music files, arguing that the practice was widespread and they were being made into scapegoats.
She had risked a maximum punishment of three years in prison and a 300,000 euro fine.
