First came the pirate radio ships of the 1960s offering new musical thrills to the pop-starved young. The law closed them down yet they changed the sound of music for ever.
In the 1990s came Napster, offering computer file-sharers an illicit new means to download free tunes. The law forced it to go legitimate and charge, but not before it introduced surfers to peer-to-peer networks, which have come to define one of the internet’s most important roles in the digital era.

 
 
Now, a couple of rebellious Swedes have perfected a way to find online music, television, video, audio books, games — in fact, all the entertainment or computer software you want — in the manner of a Google for digital booty.

The moguls of Hollywood and Silicon Valley want the law to close down these pirates, too, but Fredrik Neij, 28, and Gottfrid Svartholm, 22, have managed to evade all attempts to shut down their site. This geeky Ben and Jerry pair are self-proclaimed digital freedom fighters at the helm of the Pirate Bay site. Appropriately, their emblem is a galleon emblazoned with an audio-tape skull above crossbones.

“The bottom line is that file sharing should be legal, and that is proved by the support we receive,” says Neij. “People love what we are doing.”

Not the 50 cops who raided three addresses in Stockholm last May and confiscated several truckloads of computer equipment they believed belonged to Neij and Svartholm. The website was back up and running within three days and, although the pair were also taken in for questioning, they have yet to be booked for any illicit activity.

Meanwhile, the content of their confiscated computers continues to be investigated, so they do not know for certain whether or not the handcuffs will click.

The allegation is that their website is involved in copyright infringement. The Swedish press has claimed the raids were prompted by pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a trade group representing the world’s biggest film studios including Warner Brothers, Sony and Universal.

What has really annoyed the studio bosses, it is said, is that the Pirate Bay is aiding and abetting those who want to view copyrighted work without paying for it. Through the Pirate Bay, surfers can find the latest movie blockbusters, including Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, or new episodes of television shows such as Lost, even if they have been screened only in the United States. In addition, surfers can find the latest news footage such as the execution of Saddam Hussein.

For a period last year, the BBC’s Top Gear programme was the most downloaded item on the web, thanks to the Pirate Bay and YouTube.

“The operators of the Pirate Bay are criminals who profit handsomely by facilitating the distribution of millions of copyrighted creative works protected under the law,” claims John Malcolm, MPAA executive vice-president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations.

Malcolm says that in 2005 internet piracy cost the movie studios alone $2.3 billion, and although the MPAA may overstate the damage, it levels much of the blame at the two Swedes.

The studios have a point. The purpose of copyright is to protect not only cigar-chomping bosses: it secures the rights of artists from Bruce Springsteen to the humblest scriptwriter and session musician. Without it, arguably there would be little creative material on the web.

“By downloading illegally not only are you committing a criminal act, but you are also depriving artists of the right to earn a living for something they’ve created,” said a spokesman for the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact).

So who exactly are the men who have become America’s most wanted rogue programmers? The pair are only part-time buccanerds; by day Neij works as an IT consultant, while Svartholm runs a small internet service provider.

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