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Australian police said on Thursday that they had closed down an Internet music piracy site and arrested three students in an alleged copyright scam that cost the music industry at least $37 million.

The three students--two Australians aged 19 and 20, and a 20-year-old Malaysian--are accused of running a dedicated Web site known as MP3 WMA Land at which visitors could download free music files and video clips.

Many of the music files and video clips were hosted on university computers.


Australian Federal Police official Tony Negus said the site contained links to hundreds of MP3 and other digital files of music albums and singles.

Among the record labels affected were Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, AOL Time Warner's Warner Music Group, BMG Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music and Australia's Festival Mushroom Records.

"It's a tremendous result and represents a turning point," said Michael Speck, general manager of the Australian music industry's piracy investigations unit, which played a major role in the case.

"It's a clear message to Internet pirates that they can no longer hide behind the mythology of the Internet. It's now revealed as nothing more than another form of theft," Speck said.

The industry estimates the value of albums downloaded by Web surfers worldwide was between $37 million and $44 million.

The site consisted of a series of mirrors, which are replicas of original sites. One of the mirror sites alone had 7 million hits in the past 12 months.

Speck said MP3 WMA Land was a competitor to file-swapping services such as Kazaa and iMesh, which the industry accuses of facilitating music piracy.

The Australian Federal Police said the defendants had been released on bail and would appear in court in mid-May.

Australian penalties for copyright infringement include up to five years in jail or a $37,000 fine.