The extent of US influence over Sweden’s crackdown on Pirate Bay has been revealed over a decade later, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by TorrentFreak.

The documents show the methods used by the US government to pressure Sweden to crack down on the torrent site a decade ago. Pirate Bay was discussed at the highest political level, TorrentFreak reports. The US government responded to the 2014 Freedom of Information Act request by supplying 467 documents, 19 released in full and 23 with excisions. Four remaining documents require “intra-agency or interagency coordination.”

Six months before Pirate Bay’s office in Sweden was raided in 2006, a November 2005 cable (page 1) from the US embassy in Sweden relayed details of a meeting between US Ambassador Miles T. Bivins, Hollywood’s Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Sweden’s Anti-Piracy Bureau. The MPAA and Anti-Privacy Bureau also met with then-Swedish State Secretary of Justice Dan Eliasson.

The document said the MPA was “particularly concerned about Pirate Bay,” and that the “Justice Ministry is very interested in a constructive dialogue with the US on these concerns.” It also refers to meetings Swedish officials had in Washington with state and commerce officials.

“We have yet to see a ‘big fish’ tried – something the MPA badly wants to see,” the cable reads.

The cable also recognizes that Pirate Bay is “legally well advised and studiously avoids storing any copyrighted material.”

The Pirate Bay offices were raided in May 2006. Sixty-five officers arrived to shut down the servers and collect evidence. However, within three days it was back online.

Top EU court: #ThePirateBay can be found liable of copyright violations https://t.co/22lhe4QlKT — RT (@RT_com) June 15, 2017

After the raid took place, the embassy sent a cable (Page 7) to Washington commending their role in the raid. “Embassy Stockholm has engaged intensely with our Swedish interlocutors in efforts to improve IPR [intellectual property rights] enforcement, in particular with regard to Internet piracy,” it read. “The actions on May 31 thus mark a significant victory for our IPR efforts.”

An April 2007 cable (page 7) commends the work of a redacted embassy employee for her role in the shutdown. Her “skillful outreach directly led to a bold decision by Swedish law enforcement authorities to raid Pirate Bay and shut it down,” it reads.

Pirate Party

A February 2007 cable (page 4) refers to the newly-formed Swedish Pirate Party which got on the ballot during the election for the first time. It “only managed to get .63 percent of the vote,” the cable read, but “its mere existence is noteworthy.”

The Swedish Pirate Party’s goals were copyright reform and privacy rights, among other issues. Sweden was the first country to have a Pirate Party, and it soon spread to other countries, such as Iceland.

The cable also references Swedish prosecutors who “recently participated in a training seminar set up for the police which the FBI, the MPA, and the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau were all involved in.”

The US Trade Representative’s 301 Watch List

Cables reveal the US plan to threaten Sweden with placement on the US Trade Representative’s 301 Watch List, which continued in the years after the raid.

The US Trade Representatives compiles an annual review of the state of IPR protection. It identifies countries that don’t have "adequate and effective" protection or "fair and equitable market access to United States persons that rely upon intellectual property rights."

“The USG [US Govt] has to carefully determine which course of action will be the most productive; (1) a Watch-Listing with potentially negative repercussions in future GOS [Swedish Govt.] cooperation and in the public eye; or (2) continuing to exercise influence behind the scenes, with a potential Watch-Listing looming in the background as a continued threat,” a February 2008 cable (page 14) read.