The four men who run The Pirate Bay, one of the top file-sharing Web sites in the world, said they were not part of illegal downloading, AFP reported Monday. Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstroem are on trial in Sweden for "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws," charges against them state.

The Pirate Bay uses peer-to-peer links to share music, computer game and film files, while getting around paying copyright fees. None of the shared files are on the site's server. Movie, video games and music industry representatives are seeking 115 million kronor (€10.6 million) in damages.

Per Samuelsson, a defence lawyer for the group, said in court that it is legal for the site "to offer a service that can be used in both a legal and illegal way, according to Swedish law," AFP reported.

The Web site, founded in 2003, has almost 22 million users globally, and one million users each day