The first person in the world to be convicted of distributing movies over the popular online BitTorrent network on Friday lost an appeal against a jail sentence in Hong Kong.

Chan Nai-ming will have to serve the three-month prison term after the five-member Court of Final Appeal, the city's highest court, handed down its unanimous verdict, AFP reports.

The unemployed 38-year-old, who used the screen name "Big Crook", was sentenced in 2005 after being found guilty of infringing copyright.

He had distributed three Hollywood movies on the Web using the peer-to-peer file-sharing technology.

Chan's lawyer argued that he only uploaded the movies and did not distribute them.

But the judges dismissed the argument, saying Chan's actions enabled people to download the movies.