MUMBAI: World's four major record companies, Sony, Warner, Universal, EMI and a trade group Promusicae lost the court case against young entrepreneur Pablo Soto, alleging him for creating innovative file-sharing programs on the Internet. The developer was found innocent of copyright infringement and unfair competition by a Spanish court yesterday.

Soto and his companies were sued for 13 million Euros by the music groups for providing file-sharing applications that profit from the exchange of copyrighted material. The ruling, by the Madrid Commercial Court No. 4, entirely rejects the accusation of the plaintiff and demands financial compensation to the defendant.

MP2P Technologies founder-CEO Pablo Soto said, We are extremely grateful to the court for finding not only in our favor, but in favor of justice, innovation and in equal access to digital distribution. The copyright conglomerates would like to stifle innovation but today's significant ruling against this tactic echoes around the globe....

In July 2008, the major record companies and Promusicae, who joined the suit soon afterwards, sued developer Soto and his companies and in 2009 the trial was held in Madrid. The lawsuit, which labeled the P2P tools as �weapons of mass destruction' and Soto as �the great betrayer of the P2P cause', filed up to nine exhibits to prove their flawed thesis. After many years of proceedings and a 15-hour trial, the ruling is completely in agreement with the legal position held by the defendant stating that the development of a technology that can be used by individuals for sharing music is not an intellectual property violation.

The court, despite the statements presented by the plaintiff, considers Soto's activities and his companies to be absolutely transparent, and it further states that it is undisputed that the defendant did not offer or store music files and that the final rulings to date... also agree that under no circumstances [it is a violation] the mere fact of providing such conduct... of sharing music.