Downloads rocket as Swedes go legal

Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to big content's "spin the news" 101.

You dont have far to look, just a little while back there was an article on the local:

http://www.thelocal.se/22380/20090930/

that says most Swedes are not bothered about the law.

Who said a picture is worth a thousand words? and last i checked a graph qualifies:

blog.kwat.se/wp-content/uploads/graph.jpg

as you can see data transfers took a dip but are slowly gaining and coming back to where there were before IPRED.

What Henrik (Pirate) Ponten wants to say is stronger laws and government intervention is having their desired effect, now he/the industry will campaign for even more laws and even stronger laws that will further chip away at consumer rights as well as privacy just to protect an out dated business model.

"Those that want to break the law in some way are finding it more difficult"

Oh yes, setting up a VPN is really difficult to do in under 20 seconds...., but doing it in under a minute is really easy. Hmmmmm.

I wonder if i can apply for a job at TheLocal :))

@eZee.se

Downloading material illegally is NOT a "consumer right".

What you can take from this (even though I agree with you it is spin) is the fact that if people can't download illegally or are threatened with prosecution for doing so, then they WILL buy what they want to access as shown in the increase in sales and the dip in pirated downloads. So piracy IS lost sales.

Umm, i never said it was a "consumer right".

"So piracy IS lost sales."

While I do agree that _some_ people will download something rather than buying it, I do not agree with the head of the IFPI, John Kennedy, who lied __under oath__ in TPB trial that _every download_ equates a lost sale. (google it)

As I posted in my first comment, the numbers dont match up even to the last of TheLocal's article (again, linked above), so to belive what they are saying is to say:

"ignore the first numbers as they are lies... but these are not lies, sales have gone up."

How do you know the second set of numbers are not lies as well?

Remember these are the people who invented "hollywood accounting" and are no strangers to making up numbers (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2008/01/oops-mpaa-admits-college-piracy-numbers-grossly-inflated.ars)

There might also be a lot less "downloading" as people are ripping the songs directly from Spotify (as I do) and other streaming services.

Brit, since eZee won't say downloading is a consumers right, I will. It's actually more than that.

The ability to download anything legally is protection against entrapment by legal authorities, whether that entrapment is accidental or intentional. Every webpage you visit injects files onto your machine, Imagine surfing for new sites with google's surprize me button and you land on a site that has just been taken over by the legal authorities that injects some illegal files onto your machine. Your IP addy is logged and next your visited with a warrant and a cop. And all you did was ask google to surprize you..................Well surprize!!!!! It can happen if any part of downloading is criminalized.

"There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics." -Mark Twain

Always something to keep in mind when numbers are tossed around by one side or the other. A study, probably funded by the Anti-Pirate bureau, has to be met with a little skepticism regarding it's validity.

@crunchy2k

Slow down, read what BrittInSweden said, "Downloading material illegally is NOT a "consumer right".

He did not say or even infer that downloading wasn't a consumer right.

Just acquiring material illegally via download - for example things which are not intended to be free and you never bought - which is stealing.

I think you need to slow down on the meds, hyped and paranoid - not a great combo.

@eZee

We rolled this one over before, TPB were the enablers for this in Sweden, brazenly enabling and championing illegal activity (& until the law is changed to say it is legal - it is still illegal) - giving a ribbon tied invite to those interested parties, to justify getting legislation passed.

TPB made this shotgun marriage. Let no one be in any doubt how we ended up with IPRED.

If everyone in Sweden boycotted CD's & Downloads (legal & illegal) and only went to live gigs for a year - not only would bands benefit directly, EMI would be forced to change their business model in Sweden. Supply and Demand.

If people do not agree with existing copyright or the way the industry prices, they should boycott the product - not consume more.

@bob Oh! God! Another jump forward into the past RIAA intern post. I love the way you, Bob, know what britt thought while he wrote his post. You must both be the same person. Hmmm, joined 11.May.09 and first posted in "Pirates Bay judge faces new bias allegations" spouting the RIAA company line."

[ http://www.thelocal.se/19378#comment419959 ]

Looking at Brit, I see he joined 16.May.2009 and his first post was in "Sweden wants to force ISPs to save user data To facilitate hunting of illegal filesharers' spouting the RIAA company line with a twist. Britt saying, "bob3000 has it spot on..."

[ http://www.thelocal.se/19478#comment423161 ]

So the RIAA thinks its worth while to pay interns to post here...That's not really unexpected since they thought it worthwhile to spend money to prejudice the Swedish court system.

Dear bobby...

I am seriously beginning to doubt you... i think your covers blown so the next step is for you to get a new nick and come back to thelocal pretending to be against the industry and then slowly "coax" all of us baddd people into seeing how its "stealing" and not our "rights" etc

For example in another article I gave readers the easy option of getting (100% undetectable by the authorities) music and you said i must be an riaa stooge:

http://www.thelocal.se/22206/20090921/

Then here you blame TPB for all the woes of IPRED, i'm sure you would have just liked everyone to keep buying like sheep the way we did during the 80's and 90's. TPB didnt get IPRED, foreign money to corrupt our legal system in Sweden by the music and film industries got us IPRED. Please try your spin somewhere else.

Your hatred of TPB has really overflowed mate:

"TPB were the enablers for this in Sweden, brazenly enabling and championing illegal activity"

TPB were distributing (totally legal) .torrent files, then were threatened by laws that didnt exist in Sweden and you belittle them for laughing and ridiculing the people who made those threats?

"If everyone in Sweden boycotted CD's & Downloads..."

Ah yes, does that not translate to: Leave the evil companies alone in raking in their ill gotten profits, instead of tackling the companies try to convert the 8+ million of the population to thinking the way you think.

Yes, that makes sense....

"If people do not agree with existing copyright or the way the industry prices, they should boycott the product - not consume more. "

Existing copyright has been raped and then beaten to a pulp to what the industry wants, it has strayed from its original intention and time (14 years), this is unfair and thus warrents civil disobedience in the form of downloading.

Just boycotting the product goes back to my last para of leave the companies alone and convert the population.

Honestly guys, do the RIAA/BPI/IFPI etc give you a manual that you just stupidly quote from or you have to watch a couple of VHS lectures and quote from there?

Piracy is a boon to those who seem to pretend to oppose it.

If piracy is non existant more independent labels would have the market share. If piracy is non existant who would ever get microsoft Vista.

If every home user used Linux instead of MS, who would want to use it at the office or at school and who would ever be haughty enough to bring us a docx and expect us to pay through our nose for an upgrade.

yes Piracy is bad, bad for the consumers !!!

Yet another reason why TheLocal should be overlooked for any journalistic achievement award.

"Christine Demsteader is a freelance writer based in Stockholm."

should be extended with:

"... and her editor is a Martian resident clueless about Earth (let alone its issues)."

Seriously though, I am a person, with a job, with career goals, and dreams of my own, etc... etc... In my path, if I were to have been allowed to conduct myself at an equivalent intensity as the writer & editor of this piece - not only would I be labelled incompetent, I would most probably lose my job and be forced to re-enter the education ladder again starting at school (forget tertiary education) with the 8th grade!! This is assuming that my wishes about career goals etc... remain unchanged.

As the saying goes:

Promotions are for people still striving to reach their level of incompetence!

As of today, such a saying is no longer valid. Given Bush, the recent monetory (fake!) "crisis", and the upcoming BS of all leaders of states:

Promotions are for people who ARE incompetent!

@voidplay, not to mention piracy is a boon when an artist flops...

XXXX's new album didnt do well because of piracy... not because its a piece of sh!t, really, thats not the reason, honest.

Thebinary1,

What in the world are you talking about? commented in the wrong article?

@eZee

Well, it was the right article. But and opportunity to explain myself relative to the article was denied with the "Consecutive Posts are not Permitted" error (on TheLocal Forum).

I shall therefore leave you in your confusion.

Oh yes, an interesting side-note: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/06/2706449.htm?section=justin

Oh, the iiNET case, yes, i'm following that closely... because if iiNET wins, Australia might as well stop offering internet access to its citizens. And yes, the "Consecutive Posts are not Permitted" error is extremely irritating when you need to clarify something in the top post/edit an error/link/word etc