Sweden Sees 100% Increase In Legal Downloads After Tough Laws Enacted
But Pirate Bay Could Reverse TrendIn what should provide ammunition for the supporters of ISP three strikes legislation and anti-piracy efforts worldwide, early figures show a 100% sales increase in legal music downloads in Sweden since a new anti-file sharing IPRED law went into effect last week.
“The first week after the introduction of IPRED, sales increased by 100 percent compared to the previous weeks. I don't know if this is only because of IPRED, but it is definitely a sign of a major change,” managing director Klas Brännström of digital content provider InProdicon told Sweden's The Local. Brännström's company is responsible for about half the total mobile and net music downloads sales in Sweden via clients like Tele2, Telia, Ahlens and MTV.
Pirates & Predators To The Rescue
But before the recording industry can declare victory, PirateBay is reporting that 80% of the 113,000 requests for beta invites to its new IPREDATOR domain masking service are coming from Sweden.
When it goes public, IPREDATOR will cost 5 euro monthly. According to Pirate Bay the new service will "allow the user to protect his Internet connection with encryption while 'tunneling’ data in privacy through the servers of a VPN provider, usually located in another country. The user’s ISP-designated IP address remains hidden, revealing only a second IP address provided by his VPN company."
Since the enactment of the IPRED law, overall internet traffic in Sweden has reportedly dropped by as much as 30%
