But in a posting on Twitter, Mr Sunde said: “Nothing will happen to TPB (The Pirate Bay), this is just theatre for the media. It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release.” He said that he “got the news last night that we lost”.

He confirmed that there would be an appeal against the sentence. “You can view this as a TV series. This is the last episode in the first season with a cliff-hanger. This will be continued. We are the heroes,” he said.

“We cannot nor will not pay [the damages]. Even if I had the money I would have burned it rather than paying.”

Per E Samuelsson, Mr Lundstrom’s lawyer, said: “This is a justice scandal of the biggest kind. The prosecutor leads with one to nil. We will of course appeal.”

Another lawyer, acting for Mr Neij, indicated that there could be a lengthy fight in the upper courts. “I expected them to be acquitted; 30 million Swedish Krona is a gigantic amount. This is a case for the Supreme Court and I will take this case there,” said Jonas Nilsson.