A man arrested last year on copyright charges for disseminating films on the Internet was given a three-year suspended sentence Tuesday -- averting a jail term in one of the first crackdowns on file-sharing in Japan.

Yoshihiro Inoue, 42, was found guilty of violating copyright law in the Kyoto District Court, a court official said.

Presiding Judge Yasuhide Narazaki was quoted by Kyodo News as saying Inoue disregarded the efforts of copyright-holders, and his crime was a serious offense against the protection of intellectual property.

Inoue was arrested in November 2003 on suspicion that he placed Hollywood movies on the Internet to allow swapping of video files.

Isamu Kaneko, who developed the free file-sharing software called Winny, is on trial in the same court. His verdict date has not been set.

Kaneko, an instructor at the University of Tokyo, was arrested in May on charges of violating copyright laws. He was also accused of helping Inoue disseminate material on the Internet with Winny.

Kaneko was the first file-sharing software developer arrested in Japan. He has been vocal in opposing current views on intellectual property rights.

His defense team says there are no laws against developing file-sharing software, and that arresting someone for designing software is a serious threat to people's freedom.