The Swedish government has agreed that Internet service providers have to give out IP addresses to the copyright owner of illegaly shared files, but only if a court order has been issued. This is likely to cause some concern, but with several new VPN services available that offer to hide IP addresses, it's unlikely that the large scale file sharers will get in trouble.

This has all been done so that the copyright owners have the ability to prove who has been sharing the illegal files. However, the Swedish government didn't approve of another proposal which would have allowed the ISP' to switch off customers' Internet connection if they repeatedly downloaded illegal content, nor does it consider doing this in the future.

In related news, it seems that the prosecutor has only managed to locate one of the four people tied to The Piratebay, which are part of the lawsuit, and as such the court date has been moved forward to sometime in the late summer or early autumn. One of the sought-after persons is supposedly traveling somewhere in Asia, while the other two don't appear to have a registered residency, which has made it difficult for the prosecutor to get in touch with them.

One of the four is also sought for drug-related crimes, as the police found LSD, amphetamines and cannabis in his home. However, this is unrelated to The Piratebay case.