Swedish site thepiratebay.org has received a cease and desist from Dreamworks lawyers [warning: big JPG file] about bittorrent trading of Shrek 2. The letter says:

As you may be aware, Internet Service Providers can be held liable if they do not respond to claims of infringement pursuant to the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In accordance with the DMCA, we request your assistance in the removal of infringements of the Shrek 2 motion picture from this web site and any other sites for which you act as an Internet Service Provider.

The site’s response, or rather the bit that doesn’t include swearing:

As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe. Unless you figured it out by now, US law does not apply here. For your information, no Swedish law is being violated.

Obviously the DMCA doesn’t apply in Sweden, but presumably the country has similar copyright laws to the rest of Europe and has either implemented or will soon implement the EU copyright directive. Can anyone enlighten me about the legal status of downloads in Sweden?

[via the Digital Music Weblog]