Sweden may be ready to follow the prevailing wind on internet media piracy, with a legal clampdown expected this spring. Justice minister Beatrice Ask and culture minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth wrote in Friday’s Svenska Dagbladet newspaper (via Seattle Times): “We need to ... stand up for musicians, authors, filmmakers and all other copyright owners so that they have the right to their own material. Courts ... shall be able to demand an internet provider to give the copyright owner information about who had a certain IP address when it was used for infringement on the internet.”

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Home to The Pirate Bay (currently in court), Sweden has been said to have some of Europe’s most lax piracy laws. Late last year, France introduced a law compelling ISPs to monitor customers online habits, kicking them off if necessary, and, lobbied by the music industry in particular, the UK government wants to follow France’s example. Sweden’s approach would be different, leaving such decisions up to a court rather than an ISP.

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