Following through their assertion that the Pirate Bay site was not necessarily outside the law, Swedish authorities have charged four men with conspiracy to break copyright law. Peter Sunde, Carl Lundstrom, Frederik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg are the co-founders of the site which offers links to film download locations, but not the material itself. However, prosecutor Hakan Roswall said "The operation of The Pirate Bay is financed through advertising revenues. In that way it commercially exploits copywrite-protected work and performances".
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries have been lobbying for action against The Pirate Bay for ages. Their Chief Executive John Kennedy said: "The operators of The Pirate Bay have always been interested in making money, not music ...[they have] managed to make Sweden, normally the most law abiding of EU countries, look like a piracy haven with intellectual property laws on a par with Russia."
Maximun convictions for the offence are said to be two years in prison.
