The first P2P cases to British courts resulted in a ruling that file sharing is illegal, similar to the US. The suits were brought by the BPI, the British record industry's trade association.

What is chilling is that the Court was not interested in hearing about direct evidence and issued summary judgement without allowing a trial. That is different from the US where a few cases are going to trial.

From the article:

"His defence, that the BPI had no direct evidence of infringement, was rejected by the High Court and summary judgment was granted to the BPI without the need for a trial. He has been ordered to make an immediate payment of £5,000. Total costs are estimated at £13,500 and damages are expected to take the bill even higher."

"The father of two, a postman from Brighton, sought to defend the case against him on the grounds that he was unaware that what he was doing was illegal and did not seek to gain financially."

"His [defendant's] case was also thrown out of court, with Judge Justice Lawrence Collins declaring, "Ignorance is not a defence." The defendant was ordered to make an immediate payment of £1,500, pending final determination of costs and damages."