Why the pirates are on the rise in Sweden

It is estimated - but nobody really knows - that at least one in 10 Swedes swap music illegally via BitTorrent file-sharing websites like Sweden's notorious Pirate Bay, and it is thought that in 2008, some 15m films were illegally downloaded by Swedish internet users.

Such internet activity as propelled the country into the biggest political debate for 20 years. At its heart is a controversial law passed in parliament last year. Known as the FRA Law, in honour of the Swedish electronic intelligence agency, it permits the monitoring of international phone calls, e-mail and internet traffic.

Some of the world's most powerful computers will scan all cross-border e-traffic in real time for a quarter of a million trigger words and phrases that the security services believe warrant further investigation.

While Finland has Nokia, Sweden gave us Ericsson. Swedes enjoy some of the highest - and fastest - rates of connectivity in the world, a development that has been spurred by necessity because of the country's sparsely populated geography, and a key factor in driving the discussion around the new law. Cultural differences also play a part, for example Sweden's liberal culture, part of which is the principle of Allemansratten.

Allemansratten means everyone's right to roam and it's an important part of Swedish culture and identity and a major factor dividing people for and against the new law.