One founder of the internet’s most resilient torrent site has been arrested in Sweden, and will now serve a jail term after years on the run.

Peter Sunde, a co-founder of the hugely popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, was arrested in southern Sweden after being charged under new Swedish copyright laws in 2010.

Sunde and others linked to The Pirate Bay received prison sentences between from four and 10 months, along with a joint fine of 46 million kronor ($7.4 million) for facilitating the transmission of material in breach of intellectual property laws.

Sunde’s associates Carl Lundstroem, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg have been the subject of an international manhunt.

Lundstroem has already served his sentence under house arrest with electronic tagging, Warg was arrested in Cambodia in 2012 at Sweden's request, and Neij is allegedly hiding out in Laos.

The Pirate Bay does not actually host or store any of the illegal information it is accused of propagating, but simply provides a way for people to access the pirated material hosted by other users on their own computers.

The site has moved many times since its founders have been sought by police. At the moment it is registered in the Republic of Seychelles, according to an official statement.

Recently, Attorney-General George Brandis has been circling the notion of introducing new anti-piracy laws in Australia. 

Early iterations of the plan have involved sending warning notices to users found to be in breach of copyright laws, and the possibility of internet companies having to forward customers’ information to rights-holders for full prosecution.