File-sharing row erupts in Sweden

Sweden has become the latest battleground in thebattle overfile-sharing on the internet.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters bearing skull-and-crossbone pirate flags gathered in Stockholm in support of website The Pirate Bay, which Swedish police shut down last Wednesday.

The site uses BitTorrent technology to allow users toshare large files such as movies, music or software over the internet. Site organizers claim to have have millions of users worldwide.

Representatives of the world's music, movie and software companies claim that such sites facilitate illegal file-sharing that costs them hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Other groups that were affected by the police raid including a gaming website that accused police of indiscriminately taking down their servers as well also joined Saturday's protest.

Government sites attacked

The protest came amid denial-of-service attacks onthe website of the Swedish police, which was knocked offline Thursday, and on Sweden's government websitelate Saturday and early Sunday. A government spokesperson said the site was not entirely offline but was difficult to load for hours.

Sweden's domestic intelligence agency is investigating both incidents, which manybelieve were the work of those protesting the initial shutdown of The Pirate Bay.

Police raided 10 locations housing the website's servers last Wednesday, confiscating computer hardware and detaining three people.

Authorities said the three were being held "on suspicion of breaking copyright law or abetting the breaking of copyright law."

Though the site was shut down Wednesday, it was back up again on the weekend, with operators telling Agence France-Presse they had set up new servers in the Netherlands.

Operators defend site

Those behind The Pirate Bay site have argued that they are not breaking the law, and say the legality of file-sharing is still being debated in Sweden.

They argue that their site simply directs users toward files and then manages file transfers, but does not physically host copyrighted material.

Among the site's supporters are Swedish activists urging more open copyright laws who have even formed a political party known as The Pirate Party.

In 2005, the Swedish government passed laws prohibiting the sharing of copyrighted music and movie files online.