The co-founder of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde, has been arrested in southern Sweden after two years on the run, Swedish police say.

"He was arrested and has to serve an eight-month prison sentence," police spokeswoman Carolina Ekeus said on Sunday.

The 35-year-old was arrested on Saturday in the southern region of Skaane and must now serve the sentence for violating copyright laws he received in Sweden in 2010.

Sunde and three other men linked to The Pirate Bay - Carl Lundstroem, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg - were handed prison sentences ranging from four to 10 months and a joint fine of 46 million kronor ($7.4 million).

Sunde had been wanted by Interpol for almost two years and was reportedly hiding out in Germany.

The Swedish Supreme Court rejected an appeal from him in late May.

"Peter fought for file-sharing and in 10 years, I believe it will go without saying that file-sharing for one's own needs will be permitted," Sunde's lawyer Peter Althin told Swedish news agency TT.

"I still think the judgement was wrong."

Fellow co-founder Warg was arrested in Cambodia in 2012 at Sweden's request and handed over last year to Denmark, where he was wanted for alleged hacking charges.

Neij is believed to be hiding out in Laos.

The key financier of the site, Carl Lundstroem, served out his sentence with electronic tagging and now lives in Switzerland.

During their trial in 2009, the Pirate Bay defendants claimed that file-sharing services can be used both legally and illegally, insisting their activities were within the law.

In 2012, Neij and Lundstroem failed in their bid to appeal their sentences to Sweden's Supreme Court.

Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay allows users to skirt copyright fees and share music, films and other files using bit torrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site.

None of the material can thus be found on The Pirate Bay server itself.

As early as 2006, Swedish police tried to shut down the site, raiding the company's offices several times and seizing nearly 200 servers in 2006. But the site resurfaced a few days later with servers spread over different countries.

The site still exists and is now registered in the Republic of Seychelles, according to a statement on its website.

AFP