Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij found out the long arm of international law is flexible — and quick.
According to CNET , Neij was arrested and detained on a copyright law conviction in 2009. A Swedish court found Neij and Pirate Bay co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, and Swedish telecommunitations owner Carl Lundstrom all guilty of sharing copyrighted files through their peer-to-peer website, The Pirate Bay. This website allowed computers to link together so large files, such as movies or full albums, can be shared in spite of the copyright status of said files.
Each of the four persons involved were sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay fines in the amount of 30 million kronor (in 2003, that would be the equivalent of $3.6 million) to the wronged copyright holders.
After the sentencing and denied appeals, the Pirate Bay co-founders went on the lam. A police warrant was served on Warg in Cambodia in 2012. Warg was then extradited to Sweden to serve his sentence. Sunde was arrested in June of this year in Sweden. Authorities expect to extradite Neij back to Sweden, as well.
Torrentfreak reported that Lundstrom entered a plea agreement with the Swedish Government to serve a four-month sentence in a government-sanctioned apartment with a electronic restraining device. Lundstrom made these arrangements so he may perform a government-arranged job.
ABC News is reporting that Neij (real name Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij, alias TiAMO) is being held at a Thai police checkpoint in the Northern Thai province of Nong Khai, about 310 miles northeast of Bangkok.
Regional Immigration Police Commissioner Maj. Gen. Chartchai Eimsaeng said a Thai attorney was employed by a United States-based movie association in the attempt to finding Neij. The U.S.-based movie association had hired a Thai lawyer to search for Neij, and all parties were freely sharing information.
For the past few years, the United States agents in the movie and music industries have, for years, pursued strong legal action against peer-to-peer websites and to collect royalties for those copyright owners who were deprived of appropriate compensation.
“It might have been a coincidence, but he was wearing the same gray T-shirt that was in the photo. The immigration police officer who spotted him in the car recognized him, so he pulled his car over,” Chartchai told the Associated Press by phone.
Chartchai said the 36-year-old Naij resided in Laos since 2012 and traveled nearly 30 times between Laos and Thailand, where he maintains a resort house on the island of Phuket and a savings account. Neij’s wife was in the car with him.
Jonas Nilsson, Neij’s lawyer in Sweden, said he got a call from Naij about his arrest and the possibility of extradition, though no word from the Swedish government about extradition has been announced as of yet.