John Kennedy, the head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, told the Stockholm District Court that Swedish site The Pirate Bay had become "the No. 1 source of illegal music", following court actions against two other popular file-sharing sites, Grokster and Kazaa.
"Over a period of time, piracy has done immense damage to the music industry," Kennedy said, adding that illegal Internet downloads had caused industry sales to tumble from US$27 billion in 2001 to $18 billion in 2008.