The IFPI demands $2.5 million from the Pirate Bay in the upcoming court case, representing the lost revenue for 24 music albums that were made available on the popular BitTorrent tracker.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry made the compensation claim Monday in a Swedish court, where the torrent-tracking site's developers have been indicted for copyright violations related to the sharing of 24 music albums, nine films and four videogames using the service.

The record companies are demanding that the four individuals responsible for operating the file sharing site The Pirate Bay pay €1.6 million ($2.5 million) in compensatory damages.

IFPI described the $2.5 million sum as representational of greater damage, according to the Sweedish web site The Local:

"This damages now being demanded are based on the albums which the prosecutor has included in his indictment. The injury to the record companies, the artists and the copyright holders caused by The Pirate Bay?s illegal activity is many times greater," said Lars Gustafsson, head of the Swedish chapter of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Svartholm Warg, one of the four founder of The Pirate Bay, claims that the $2.5 million figure is too high. He said that when presented with the claim, he and Pirate Bay's three other developers "mostly laughed at it."

Last January, Public prosecutor Hakan Roswall said he would charge the Swedish site's organizers with accessory and conspiracy to break copyright law, which could lead to fines or up to two years in prison. The legal investigation into the Pirate Bay started almost two years ago, after the controversial raid on the Pirate Bay in May 2006.