Stockholm, Sweden - Culture and Justice ministers in Sweden have announced plans to introduce legislation that would force ISPs in the country to turn over the identities of suspected illegal file-swappers to copyright owners, the Associated Press reported.

"We need to... stand up for musicians, authors, filmmakers and all other copyright owners so that they have the right to their own material," Justice Minister Beatrice Ask, and Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth wrote in an op-ed published in the Svenska Dagbladet.

"Courts... shall be able to demand an Internet provider to give the copyright owner information about who had a certain IP address when it was used for infringement on the Internet."

The country has recently intensified its crackdown on file-sharing, bringing charges against four individuals associated with The Pirate Bay, a notorious file-sharing hub founded in Sweden that claims over 10 million users.

The Pirate Party, a political group that was formed in reaction to government and police actions against file-sharing, condemned the ISP legislation, calling it a "sanctioned blackmailing operation," AP reported.

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http://snipurl.com/21yrc (AP)