I'm from Denmark
The cartoons where printed back in september 2005, since then muslims in primarily Denmark have been complaining about the pictures.
I think most danes agree that the cartoons are bad taste but also perfectly legal to print in Denmark.
The issue has been brought to court in Denmark but its very doubtfull that anyone will be jailed or fined. (or executed as some extreme muslims demands)
Some danish muslims refused to accept this and went on a trip to the middle east to pour fuel on the fire. A few danish imams even showed much worse cartoons (never printed in Denmark) to several tv networks to create a reaction.
Recently the danish primeminister and the newspaper told the muslim world that they are sorry so many muslims got hurt but that they cannot illegalize (sp?) such cartoons due to the danish freedom of press.
http://www.jp.dk/meninger/ncartikel:aid=3527646
Sadly this had almost no effect because for many muslims its hard to understand that a danish primeminster has no power to stop such actions in Denmark.
Danish muslims are now trying (after the "apology")to ease things up with the middle east but I think its a bit too late.
My personal opinion is that the new riots have been started by these drawings but now are an "excuse" to let off some steam due to many years of frustration.