While the walls of Sweden's Mariefred prison are able to contain Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm for the next few months, not even bricks and mortar have the ability to stop him appearing online. This week a kindly anonymous source sent TorrentFreak a video featuring Gottfrid which was recorded inside the jail. During the clip Gottfrid has just one thing on his mind - thanking everyone who has supported him throughout his ordeal.

For years and despite overwhelming odds and opposition, The Pirate Bay has continued its work, spurred on by the ideals of its founders and the early vision of Piratbyran.

While today the site is as strong as ever, there have been costs along the way. All four individuals involved in the early days of the site were convicted of copyright infringement offenses and sentenced to huge fines and jail time.

While Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde remain free men, the latter moves around with care, particularly in Sweden. During a recent interview police coincidentally stopped a speeding motorist near to where Peter was talking to reporters. He was clearly cautious.

“I’ll just stay here,” Peter said. “I’m not sure, but I think there may be a warrant for my arrest.”

Peter is earmarked for a sentence in Västervik prison, a detention facility that hit the headlines in 2011 after a prisoner was discovered having sex with his girlfriend and the guards were deemed to have acted inappropriately by splitting them up.

But at least for now Peter won’t have these kinds of problems, since he isn’t reporting for his sentence.

“They haven’t exactly been fair to me this far. If it happens, it happens, but I won’t make things worse for myself,” he said.

The position of Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm is somewhat different. Gottfrid was plucked from his home in Cambodia last year and brought back to Sweden. He is currently serving his sentence in Mariefred prison roughly 65 km outside Stockholm. Initially he was held in solitary confinement but restrictions were eased more recently.

But despite the relative isolation, in spirit Gottfrid has not been alone.

Countless people from all over the world have been bombarding the prison and Gottfrid’s mother Kristina with emails, letters and gifts expressing support for the talented Swede. In early February Gottfrid sent thanks to everyone who has taken the time to make his sentence more bearable.

But while that particular message was sent through third parties, today we have a rather special item to share.

The mantra “information wants to be free” is often recited alongside references to file-sharing and in particular the activities of The Pirate Bay, so it seems quite fitting that although Gottfrid remains in prison, his files are able to escape into the wild.

Earlier this week an anonymous source sent TorrentFreak a video of Gottfrid taken inside Mariefred prison. The footage is undated but we have reason to believe it was shot recently.

“It is amazing that someone managed to make this film in there and then bring it out from within the walls,” Gottfrid’s mother Kristina said after we told her about the video.

Apart from the heartfelt thanks he sends to his supporters, perhaps what is most striking about the video is how healthy Gottfrid looks compared to when he was arrested last year in Cambodia.

“Hi, this is Gottfrid from Mariefred prison in Sweden,” he begins.

“I would like to thank everyone who has supported me in any way, very much, it has meant a lot to me. Hopefully I will be free in two and a half months and again, many thanks to everyone,” he adds.

“I don’t have the time or the possibility to answer many of the letters but you should know that I read each and every one of them and it has really helped me a lot. Thank you,” Gottfrid concludes.