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Which law takes priority? Data protection? or anti-piracy?

Sweden's lawmakers have painted themselves into a corner, claims the country's biggest seller of MP3 players, Jens of Sweden - its anti-piracy laws breach the country's own data protection laws.

According to Digital Lifestyles, the Anti-Piracy agency has been reported to the data protection authority - the Swedish Data Inspection Board - which will be asked to rule on the copyright police, who have started monitoring broadband usage.

"The complaint to the SDI was precipitated by the Anti-Piracy Agency's introduction of computer software enabling them to register thousands of Swedes on a daily basis (IP-numbers and surf behaviour on P2P-networks), register illegal behaviour and prompt the ISP's to send warning letters or add them to the 136 complaint cases with the police," reports Mike Slocombe.

Jens Nylander, founder of Jens of Sweden, is quoted: "The Anti-Piracy Agency's method of spying on, secretly registering and threatening people may have been encouraged in the former East Germany, but must be banned in modern Sweden."