Sweden is one of the most broadband connected counties in the world - 71% of households - but is also one of the most vulnerable to piracy and one that shelters ‘Pirate Bay'. According to a report published last month by the Finnish Ministry of Education (which is also studying measures to reduce illicit file sharing) around 81 million illicit downloads take place in the Nordic countries each year, of which 47 million in Sweden, and 10 million in Finland. Within the EU and within the Nordic countries, Sweden has been shamefully lax. It still hasn't adopted the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) approved by the EU in 2004, contrary to most other EU members who did in 2006.
Faced with a possible fine for failing to comply with the Directive, and pressured from the film and music industries to act to protect copyright holders from lost revenues, Sweden is now on the verge of introducing its own IPRED law.
Under the new law, set to come into force next April - if approved by Parliament - copyright holders could get a court order requesting Internet Service Providers (IPS) to provide IP addresses if they suspect internet users of illegal file sharing. This would allow them to contact those users and start legal proceedings to ask for financial compensation.
Although welcomed as a step in the right direction by the film industry, the government's proposed law is still criticized for its shortcomings, such as allowing copying per se, although not of a great magnitude. Producer Anna Croneman (Bob Film), vice-president of the Swedish Producers Association said that that the trade body is pleased with the government's proposed law, but is also "worried that the proposed limitations to the scope of the new law will send a signal to the public that illegal downloading to a lesser extent is OK, which it is not."
John Nordling, producer of Let the Right One In which was available for illegal downloading only ten days after its Swedish theatrical release, shares Croneman's view, and wants to go even further: "Other measures are needed, and the industry itself has to change its way of doing business, he told nordiskfilmogtvfond.com. "A film should be available for legal downloading at the same time as its theatrical release. This will compromise the existing business model with different windows for distribution, but I cannot see any other way," he says. "Otherwise we will just watch our industry collapse, the way the music industry did."