us peer-to-peer pirates convicted the first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the us.  new yorker william trowbridge and texan michael chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music  movies and software. the two men faced charges following raids in august on suspected pirates by the fbi. the pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250 000 (£130 000) fine.  in a statement the us department of justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the direct connect peer-to-peer network. the piracy group called itself the underground network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. direct connect allows users to set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers. users would swap files  such as films and music  by exchanging data over the network. during its investigation fbi agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies  40 software programs  13 games and 178  sound recordings  from the five hubs that made up the larger piracy group. the raids were organised under the umbrella of operation digital gridlock which was aimed at fighting  criminal copyright theft on peer-to-peer networks . in total  six raids were carried out in august. five were on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. the department of justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. they also pleaded guilty to acting for commercial advantage. the two men are due to be sentenced on 29 april.