Music piracy students sentencing delayed

The sentencing of three Australian students charged with multi-million dollar copyright violations involving online music has been delayed until 18 November.

In May this year Charles Ng, Tommy Le and Peter Tran were arrested in relation to copyright-breaching activities involving the Australian-based Web site "MP3 WMA Land". Their activities were alleged to have cost the music industry up to AU$60m.

The three, who have pleaded guilty, were due to appear before Deputy Chief Magistrate Grahame Henson at the Federal Court in Sydney, but the lawyer for Ng was ill, prompting a deferral of his hearing.

Le and Tran appeared before the magistrate, where counsel representing the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Roberts QC, finished submissions and referred the magistrate to a similar case in the UK where the penalty given was 24-30 months in jail.

All three defendants will now appear for sentencing in the Federal Court on 18 November.

James Pearce writes for ZDNet Australia