Swedish crackdown on piracy pays off

[Brian Warkoczeski]

Swedish crackdown on piracy pays off

By by Marc Preel

Aug 4, 2009

www.yahoo.com

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Sweden's tough new anti-piracy law has led to a sharp 
drop in illegal downloading but critics say the effects will be 
short-lived and argue it is an excessive breach of personal privacy.

Sweden's legislation, based on the European Union's Intellectual 
Property Rights Enforcement Directive, is credited with a 30 percent 
fall in the country's total web traffic the day after it came into effect.

Experts say that the drop in Swedish web usage is explained by the fact 
that illegal downloading represents between 50 and 75 percent of 
Internet traffic worldwide.

The new law, effective as of April 1, gives copyright holders the right 
to force Internet service providers to reveal details of users sharing 
files, opening the way for legal action that could see downloaders pay 
damages and fines.

Data from Internet service provider Netnod show usage is still 
free-falling, four months after the law was passed.

In France, lawmakers have kept a close eye on Sweden's approach to 
illegal downloads as they look set to pass their own anti-piracy bill 
later this year.

"It's obvious that those who are using file-sharing have been scared and 
moved somewhere else, like streaming music sites," said Daniel 
Johansson, a researcher at KTH Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

"Some popular Swedish artists have seen their downloading on websites 
like The Pirate Bay go down by up to 80 percent," he added.

For the rest of the article, see:

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090804/tc_afp/swedenfranceinternettechnology_20090804050837