Swedish anti-piracy law appears to have permanent effect

Last April, a law was introduced in Sweden that should counter illegal file-sharing. This law obliges ISPs to allow copyright holders access to personal data of rights infringers so that they can be sued for fines and damages.

The law is based on the European Union’s copyright directive, the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive and has proven to be effective beyond expectation. From April first, the day the law went into effect, Internet traffic plunged by about 30%. Experts say this is due to a decline in illicit downloading, which worldwide amounts to 50%-75% of all Internet traffic. Four months later, the amount of traffic has stabilised at a much lower level.

This contradicts the expectations of critics, who assumed the effects to be only temporary. Swedish site The Local quotes Europarlementarian and vice president of the Swedish Pirate Party Christian Engström that the new law unfairly punishes Internet users. “This is a completely unequal law, where ordinary people will become scapegoats and will be asked for hundreds of thousands or millions of kronor by the industry".

Nobody has been prosecuted yet with the new law. The decline in file-sharing can be explained in two ways. First, the prospect of possible legal retributions may scare of downloaders. Second, and this is more important in our point of view, the law provides a clear societal signal that infringing copyright is just not done.

The decline in file-sharing coincides with a steep incline in legal music downloads. Also, CD sales are on the rise again in Sweden. But the new law is not just working for the music industry. Also, the movie and games industries are benefiting. A spokesman of the Swedish Games Industry association calls the law a "a historic example of effective legislation. (…) No one could predict such a dramatic decrease in illegal traffic and not only that there\'s also been a huge increase in the legal services".