Many Swedes still download illegally: poll

If they charged 1 kronor per song, or 10 kronor per album, maybe illegal downloading would further decline. Have you seen the price for a DVD movie or music CD these days? anywhere from 100 kronor to 600 kronor..I'm surprised that only 11% of Sweden continues to download! Why should these "artists" demand 10, 20, 30, 40 and more million dollars for 6 months work...Think about that the next time your off to buy a DVD or CD.

"with 16 percent of those surveyed stating they have stopped downloading since the implementation of the new law. "

The number(s) are actually lower than that, keep in mind you are asking people if you break the law, which thanks to the record companies and corrupt politicians does carry quite a punishment - not everyone is going to be totally truthful.

"Of the group continuing to download illegally, 46 percent said that they would stop if better legal alternatives were available"

This has been echoed for years, but the dinosaurs at the labels are too high on cocaine, private mansions, prostitutes and private parties to see or hear it.

With the price of a music CD 130-400krs (remember, double compilations) and DVDs around the same, its just works out more cost effective to get a VPN connection for 49kr a month and download all you want.

Bonuses of getting a VPN connection include:

-Peace of mind - IPRED becomes useless as your lines are encrypted

-No seeing annoying antipiracy ads

-You can forward past many *announcements* on the dvd that disables your remote

-Giving the industry the finger and voting with your wallet

Are they joking? Downloading has not been curbed anywhere close to that percentage. Everyone knows that downloading is illegal but we mostly don't care because

A) We are getting screwed by the price of a CD when the whole CD may only have a few good songs.

B) Concert prices are through the roof and we still attend in high numbers because we want a live performance of the music we must hear. We pay 200% more to attend an event than we would to purchase that CD.

C) Not all movies are available for viewing, rental, or purchase. They have not set up any system to allow consumers to view a new or previously released movie available worldwide and legally and conveniently.

D) These idiot region DVD's are about as logical as a fish with a bicycle. Why in the hell do we have region limited DVD and players in a global market? Don't buy it if you won't understand it..

E) You don't pay too high a price when you are caught, you get raped! Paying thousands of US dollars for a handful of songs or movies is so disproportional to realistic compensation costs.

If you stole an item from a store for 300, you would have to pay that 300 and a bit more back, and risk jail time. Not 300,000 and jail time.

Screw the industry until they wake up and make compensation of theft more realistic. Force thieves to pay market price (like iTunes store cost or retailers), a surcharge, a base fine for the crime (not per item), and community service.

This will move people to their side. For now they just want to keep some overpaid artist in their mansion 1000 years since they had a hit record.

Screw that - and screw them!

It all comes down to stupid, corrupted, tech-backward judges that don't even undertstand what the hell an iPod is.

Sometimes I think i should just cancel my tv subscription. Who wants to wait for a show to start anyway or risk missing a show. I can watch it by other means.

Another good point Xavid! for example, the new season (6) of House MD has started in the USA but i here in Sweden will have to wait roughly a year before i can watch the season. I think thats BS. House MD is on season 6 now, you cannot even buy the season 4 set yet in Sweden... " F'&k that, i'll just download it..." is what the average downloader would think!

Does anybody have any experience of mullvad.net,reliability,safety etc etc?what happens if their system goes down,is your own ip exposed automaticially for example?

The lack of legal alternatives that come even close to the torrent experience is most keenly felt in videos. Spotify and iTunes are already pretty good (songs on iTunes are too expensive though). I agree with eZee.se on many points.

I think many things will change as we migrate into IPv6, many killer apps coming and many new ways to manage IP, and downloading. Sweden will have to enact a new law :-) suckers!!

Can anybody remember when Elton John had his last big hit?

Yet he has enough money to spend upto 1.5 million pounds a MONTH (about 19million sek) or a quarter of a million sek just on flowers.

From B-,B-, C (google it)

When was the last time you were paid millions for work you did decades back?

People like Elton belong to the old school and are so out of touch with todays generation that they (Elton) made statements like this:

"Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet."

"I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span."

(from t-h-e-..s-u-n-,,dot-,,C-O-,,dot,,-U-k (google it))

Copyright was crafted in a time when creation duplicated and distribution were a problem, that is no more, copyright was a deal between the consumer and the industry so that it expires after a short while (14yrs) and society as a whole benefits as the works go public domain (belongs to everyone) but the industry has gone back on its end of the deal by making copyright nearly a hundred years... but we have to keep our end of the deal by "respecting it".

Elvis is long dead but still most of his work is copyrighted... ?**?

The people have gotten shafted for ages so that the labels and artists like Elton John have enough money to throw on flowers per month than most people make in a year of hard work.

F#$# that, anyone needs help setting up a VPN on a win or mac just send me a message and i'll walk you through it step by step.

@Green Swede, no idea about mull vad, but i have used r-e-l-a-k-k-s / f-l-a-s-h-b-a-c-k in the past without a problem, if you can try to get into I-P-R-E-D-a-t-o-r - its run by t-h-e-- p-i-r-a-t-e- bay boys.

I've been visiting Sweden for 12+ years and of the 20+ home computers I've borrowed or worked on, I have NEVER EVER EVER seen a legal copy of Windows or MS Ofice installed.

I have to agree with the first poster that they have to reduce the prices. These guys have to learn something from Indians. My Indians colleagues buy legal Bollywood DVDs for SEK10. Even illegal DVDs are expensive than SEK10 in India so their argument is right. Legal DVDs are available for so cheap, why the heck I would buy pirated DVD?

RUnning after illegal downloaders is not going to help but better and cheaper legal alternative should be made available first.

Billy Bragg has been one of the UK's most politically active and outspoken musicians for several decades. Now in an open letter first published in The Guardian, Bragg weighs in on the current three-strikes controversy and offers his own alternatives....http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/09/billy-bragg-on-piracy-a-war-that-no-one-can-win.html#more

Three words: "Turkeys", "Vote" & "Christmas".

Get a life. Stop stealing other people's property and pretending you're a modern day martyr.

EtoileBrilliant,

As has been discussed a multitude of times before, its not "stealing".

As for getting a life, well, on the money saved from not feeding the beast that is the music and film industries... you can spend it on a better lifestyle.

Thanks for the advise, i didnt know we were acting like martyrs but if thats true, we'll stop pretending to be modern day martyrs as soon as the industry stops pretending *not* to be crooks in suits.

HA HA nice one eZee.se!

Thank you Green Swede, I try :)

As for the slightly garbled links that i posted above (comment #9) its because i keep hitting the censor on this site and i have no idea for which words or links :(

I have no problem in not using words or links that are not allowed here, but it would be helpful if they just tell me which ones.

Will try again, the links were:

flashback.se

relakks.se

thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article251007.ece

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1024745.stm

ipredator.se