Ellis, 26, was last week acquitted of conspiracy to defraud by a jury in Middlesbrough, Teeside. But speaking at a press conference to launch the IFPI's annual , CEO John Kennedy said that the fight would go on.

The IFPI says it is owed £180,000 in unpaid royalties from Oink, which is an invite-only file sharing website. Kennedy said that the IFPI would consider civil proceedings against Ellis in order to recover the costs.

Oink was shut down in late 2007 after British police raided Ellis' residence and arrested him. Oink only stored torrent files and not actual songs. Ellis' server also acted as a tracker, which facilitates the download of files using torrents.

Users were expected to share their own files as well as download files or they could be banned.

To prove its case for the charge, government prosecutors needed to show that Ellis dishonestly interfered with the rights of copyright holders, said one of his solicitors, Simon Rose of the firm Morgan Rose Solicitors. Ellis' lawyers argued there was no conspiracy, and that Ellis operated the site in the open.