A federal jury has ordered a Boston University graduate student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay £400,000 to four record labels.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, Rhode Island, admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled up to £18,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as £90,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were wilful.

The maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum's case was £2.7 million.

Jurors ordered Tenenbaum to pay £13,500 for each incident of copyright infringement, effectively finding that his actions were wilful.