On April 1st of this month, new law went into effect in Sweden, as part of the Swedish Antipiracy Agency’s Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive. This IPRED law gives copyright holders the right to force Internet Service Providers to hand over the identities of people illegally sharing files. While it’s not hard to trace the IP address of a computer transmitting or receiving a file, these IP addresses are constantly changing. So in order to actually identify the humans responsible, the ISP must cooperate by matching IP addresses with customer data, given the precise moment of transfer.
Many in the home country of The Pirate Bay opposed the IPRED directive. The Left and Green parties voted against the law, claiming that it threatens democracy and personal privacy. Meanwhile, Swedish newspaper SvD conducted a survey that found that only 32% of those polled supported the laws, while 48% opposed it “adamantly.” But of course, most of the public following the situation and weighing in with their opinions aren’t taking up arms to defend the principles of democracy and privacy, so much as their entitlement to worry-free downloads.
We vocally support a collective licensing arrangement, similar to the way broadcast radio works, as proposed by The Electronic Frontier Foundation. Artists and copyright holders deserve to be compensated. File sharing is here to stay, for countless reasons (the fact that it is by far the most effective way to distribute music is among them). We need a plan that doesn’t ignore either of these undeniable truths.
Criminal prosecution of file sharers is not a good enough solution. The entire institution of music appreciation has been built upon people freely sharing it, and for many, it continues to be the primary means to which they become legitimate, cash-paying consumers. But this voice isn’t represented in the conference rooms directives like IPRED are cooked up. The concerns of the downloader are not heard, let alone respected. Surely, it’s pointless. You can simply take it for granted that the downloader just wants his MP3.
But a funny thing happened this month. Sweden’s citizens are among the most avid of the world’s internet users, supporting healthy business for internet service providers. When the IPRED laws went into effect, internet usage in Sweden dropped by 30 to 50 percent. And bandwidth usage remains low today.
Now, in the short term, this means that Swedish ISPs are paying less for bandwidth they continue to sell at the same fixed rate. In the long term, however, demand for high-bandwidth packages could decrease, and threaten the bottom line.
File sharing is good for the music industry, but it’s great for the ISP industry. And what a great comedy we have here now. Whether it’s America’s RIAA, or Sweden’s IFPI, the mule our protagonist is riding is in love with the dragon they’re hunting.
And the punchline is that three Swedish ISPs have stated that they’ll simply be erasing their users’ traffic data. They incliude Tele2, one of the country’s largest, as well as All Tele and Bahnhof. Peter Danowsky, who represented the IFPI in the Pirate Bay case, claims that the ISPs are “assisting in crime” by erasing this data. However, there are pre-existing laws that demand this very data be erased as quickly as possible, for the sake of privacy.
The ISPs were already cooperating with the copyright holders and their copyright enforcement agencies, to serve justice to outstanding offenders. But when prosecution is your business model, enough is never enough.
The Antipiracy Agency responsible for IPRED insisted on muscling the ISPs, with the help of the Swedish government, in an audacious attempt to co-opt an entire industry. And it has truly backfired. Bahnhof CEO Jan Karling has vowed not to store any traffic data, asserting himself: “Thus IPRED becomes effectless.”
This played out like a chess game this month. Sweden’s Antipiracy Agency made their moves, but their plan was bad from the start, and they came home empty handed after a perfect, poetic defeat. Lawyers with IFPI or RIAA can cry all they want, but nothing will change the game, short of buying the service providers.
It’s time to change the strategy.
Don Quixote illustration by Denis Ziber.
Downloading music doesn’t use much bandwidth so, it’s more about the movies, rather than mp3.
[...] it will never happen. At least not here in the US, and not likely in the UK or Europe either. As Sweden’s ISPs learned the hard way, crippling service to the most demanding customers is kinda like McDonald’s taking the meat [...]