The U.K.’s first file sharing trial ended mid January with an acquittal. Alan Ellis, who ran one of the world's largest music sharing websites, Oink, was cleared of conspiracy to defraud.  Oink had almost 200,000 members and facilitated the download of 21 million music files between 2004 and 2007. The trial revealed Ellis received in excess of $17000 USD a month in donations from people using the site.  

Lawyers said the acquittal showed how difficult it was to prove criminal cases for file sharing, despite illegal downloads having become a key focus for the government recently.  Mr. Ellis, a software engineer earning $55,000 USD per year, told the court he had no intention to defraud copyright holders, and he had developed the site to brush up on his computer skills.

A U.K. copyright expert stated that "Under English law they cannot be prosecuted for copyright violations because all they have is the software, they don't hold any of the music files themselves.”