Swedes protest crackdown on Web site

Hundreds of people waving signs and skull-and-crossbones pirate flags demonstrated in Stockholm against a police crackdown on a popular file-sharing Web site with millions of users worldwide, an Associated Press report said.

The report said dozens of police officers conducted raids in 10 locations, seizing servers and other computer equipment in their crackdown on The Pirate Bay site.

But the site was back up Saturday, and spokesman Tobias Andersson said it would be "bigger and better than ever."

"We want an apology from the police and from the Justice Ministry, and we want our servers back," Andersson was quoted as saying.

He said the site was now mirrored on other sites around the world.

The Pirate Bay, started in early 2004, has 10 million to 15 million users each day, according to the report.

The firm said employees running the site were not responsible for a hacker attack that shut down the Web site of Sweden's national police, but added there were probably many Swedish file sharers who were angry about the crackdown, the report further said.