Digital Media

Having apparently been scared off illegal file sharing in large numbers by a new Swedish law that went into effect April 1, pirates in that country now have a new safe harbor to escape law enforcement.

Three Swedish Internet service providers, among them Tele2, one of the country's three major broadband operators, have stated that they will erase traffic data to protect their customers' privacy.

"It's a strong wish from our customers, so we decided not to store information on customers' IP numbers anymore," Niclas Palmstierna, CEO of Tele2, told Swedish national news agency TT Tuesday morning.

The information is crucial in investigating piracy. When surveying the Internet to spot computers involved in uploading or downloading copyright-protected material, it's easy to capture these computers' IP data. But to identify the person using the computer, it's necessary to ask for the ISP, as IP numbers normally are assigned dynamically by the provider.

The new so-called IPRED law in Sweden, based on an EU directive, gives copyright owners the right to ask for customers' identity from ISPs, if a court agrees.

Strong indications showed that total Internet traffic in Sweden decreased by 30 percent to 50 percent the day the law took effect, and traffic still remains low, as indicated by traffic exchanged between ISPs in major Swedish network exchange Netnod.

Tele2's decision to erase traffic data follows a similar decision by ISPs All Tele and Bahnhof.

The move in itself is not against the law. On the contrary, European law on electronic communication (PDF) demands that ISPs only store traffic data for a limited time period to handle billing, inter-operator traffic, and security issues. The law then requires them to erase that data as soon as possible.

Copyright owners are upset nonetheless. "It's astonishing that someone who claims to be a serious communication operator wants to assist in crime, which is implied by what (ISPs) are doing" when they erase data, lawyer Peter Danowsky told the Swedish daily newspaper SvD.

Danowsky represented the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in the high-profile Pirate Bay case. Four men were sentenced to prison for assisting in making 33 copyright-protected files available over the Internet. (The IFPI represented a number of record labels in the litigation.)

Overall Swedish Internet traffic apparently dropped drastically on April 1 when a new antipiracy law went into effect. The graph represents traffic in gigabits per second through Netnod, the major Swedish node for exchange of traffic between operators.

(Credit: Netnod)

"Major portions of the Internet traffic derive from illegal file sharing, which makes it an important revenue source for the ISPs," Danowsky added.

The downturn in Swedish Internet traffic results in lowered costs for ISPs, while revenues remain the same as prescription fees are flat rate. But long-term revenues are at stake, as demand for high bandwidth could decrease.

Other major ISPs in Sweden declare they will not follow Tele2's decision. They say they need traffic data to handle security issues. But data will be stored only for a few weeks.

Telia Sonera, the country's largest ISP, tells SvD that it stores data for "a short period," whereas another major ISP, Norwegian Telenor, says it stores data for a maximum of three weeks. So copyright owners that want traffic data must turn to a court very quickly after securing evidence on illegal file sharing if they want a chance to get at the identity behind an IP number.

According to Swedish police, the operators' move to erase traffic data will also make other cybercrime investigations more difficult, Swedish national news agency TT reports.

Meanwhile, the first case under the new IPRED law drags on. Five audio book publishers have turned to the law to get at the identity behind an IP number allegedly used for illegal file sharing, but the ISP Ephone refuses to hand over the information, declaring that the evidence is too weak.

The court now says the material from the parties is extensive and that it largely will be up to the parties to decide how long the court's decision will take, according to the daily SvD.

A sentenced Pirate Bay defendant and two politicians from Sweden's Green party are launching a fund to help people accused of copyright violations under the country's new antipiracy law.

The fund is intended to assist citizens being prosecuted by copyright-holding companies. "When it comes to criminal cases, the accused get a defense attorney for free, but not in civil cases," Maria Ferm, a member of the Green party's youth branch and one of the fund's founders, told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

Ferm is starting the fund along with Lage Rahm, a Green party member and member of the Swedish parliament, and Peter Sunde, the spokesperson for The Pirate Bay, who has said he supports the Green party. Last week, Sunde was one of four men found guilty of having made 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal file sharing via the Piratebay.org Web site. They were sentenced to a year in jail.

The fund is part of a larger "integrity association" aimed at helping with legal support for alleged pirates accused of infringement by copyright holders. Ferm, Rahm, and Sunde say their ambition is to provide 50,000 to 100,000 kronor ($6,000 to $12,000) in legal aid per case, according to Dagens Nyheter.

Starting a fund to assist people accused of copyright infringement are (from left) Lage Rahm, Peter Sunde of The Pirate Bay, and Maria Ferm.

(Credit: Pontus Alexander/Fabian Landgren)

The new Swedish antipiracy law went into effect April 1. The so-called IPRED originated from the European Union's "International Property Rights Enforcement Directive." IPRED stipulates that property rights holders can take their grievances to a court, which will examine the evidence and decide whether the name of a holder of an IP address will be released by the Internet service provider who then can run a civil case.

The Green party, part of Sweden's opposing left alliance bloc, voted against the law, since it members said they thought the law had the potential to be abused.

The integrity association says it thinks there is an imbalance of power when large, multinational record and music companies can sue individuals. The association thinks there is a risk that the accused could be threatened into silence and wouldn't want the case to come to court. The fund should be used only to cover legal costs, not to pay fines to copyright holders, according to the trio.

On the law's first day, five Swedish audio book publishers went after an alleged illegal file sharer in court, in hopes of revealing the identity of the person behind a particular IP address.

Another ISP fights back
But Swedish Internet service provider ePhone refused to give out the ISP user's address. It said the evidence is unclear and it wants to protect the integrity of its subscriber. In a statement (PDF, in Swedish) to the district court Solna outside Stockholm, ePhone, among others, stated that it has not been proven that the audio books have been made available to others, a requirement by the IPRED law.

ePhone questioned how the Swedish Anti-piracy agency, an organization supported by a consortium of film and game organizations that are collaborating to fight Internet piracy, acquired the material without logging on to the FTP server where the files were stored. The files should instead be considered as legal backup copies, according to the law firm Wistrand, which is representing ePhone.

Bahnhof, another Swedish ISP, has rebeled against IPRED based on an earlier law that it says contradict IPRED.

Dagens Nyheter quoted a man working for the district court in Solna as saying that the first IPRED case, which is expected to be a precedent, should be decided by late June.

Days after four defendants in the high-profile Pirate Bay case were found guilty of violating copyright law, the Web site implored fans to stay calm, not to send donations, and to stay united.

In a blog posted to Thepiratebay.org, the controversial BitTorrent tracker said the "verdict has already been appealed by us and will be taken to the next level of court."

Administrators of the court in Sweden did not immediately respond to requests to confirm the filing of the appeal. On Friday, the court convicted Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundström of charges related to copyright infringement and sentenced each to a year in jail and fined the group the equivalent of $3.6 million.

The news stirred outrage and disbelief among fans, while those at big entertainment companies rejoiced. Based in Sweden, the Pirate Bay has been accused of encouraging and aiding massive illegal file sharing by media and entertainment companies. The site's founders say they do not host any illegal content and are just a search engine. They have always argued there is little difference between the Pirate Bay and Google.

In the blog post, the Pirate Bay remained defiant.

"The site will live on," the group said in the post. "We are more determined than ever that what we do is right. Millions of users are a good proof of that."

Addressing efforts of some fans to raise money to help the defendants pay the fines, the Pirate Bay asked that such efforts cease. "We do not want (the money) since we will not pay any fines."

Immediately following the enactment of a new Swedish antipiracy law on April 1, Internet traffic in Sweden plummeted--and it has yet to return to prior levels.

According to Netnod, an organization that measures Internet traffic on access points between Swedish and international networks, traffic went down from average data speeds of about 160 gigabits per second to about 90Gbps and has remained so since the day the new law went into effect.

On April 1, in the middle of week 14, the new antipiracy law took effect in Sweden.

(Credit: Netnod)

Netnod has declined to make the connection between the new antipiracy law and the traffic drop since it only measures traffic without identifying what sort of activity is behind the numbers. Other large Internet service providers won't release their numbers.

But Jon Karlung, CEO of Bahnhof , a comparatively small, outspoken broadband operator that has expressed opposition to the new antipiracy law, explains what it has seen.

"Almost half the Internet is gone," Karlung told CNET News over the telephone from Sweden. "Likely, it is the torrent traffic that has declined, but I cannot say whether this traffic is legal or illegal."

The so-called IPRED originated from the European Union's "International Property Rights Enforcement Directive." IPRED stipulates that property rights holders can take their grievances to a court, which will examine the evidence and decide whether the name of a holder of an IP address will be released.

The guilty verdict in the high-profile Pirate Bay trial, announced earlier Friday, was not affected by IPRED, since only file sharing done after April 1 is being affected by the new law. But copyright holders have already turned to the new law in an attempt to stop file sharers.

On the law's first day, five Swedish audio book publishers went after an alleged illegal file sharer in court, in hopes of revealing the identity of the person behind a particular IP address.

And two days after the law came into force, two men were arrested, allegedly for sharing copyrighted files and administering a "rip box," which removes copy protection on purchased films and music. International police were involved in the arrests.

Jan Karling, CEO of ISP Bahnhof will not store traffic data of alleged pirates.

(Credit: Bahnhof)

But now Bahnhof says it won't release the names connected to IP addresses, since its understanding of an earlier law based on another EU directive is that ISPs must erase traffic data for the sake of the subscribers' integrity.

"Our ambition is not to store any traffic data," Karlung said, adding that as a consequence, "Bahnhof cannot provide information on alleged piracy to courts, since we do not have the information stored. Thus IPRED becomes effectless."

Bahnhof's interpretation of the earlier law gets support from the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency, a regulatory body that's akin to the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S.

"There is no general obligation to store this kind of data for all subscribers," PTS attorney Peder Cristvall told the magazine Computer Sweden.

Bahnhof says it's opposing the new antipiracy law since it stops Internet innovation and development, naming Swedish companies MySQL Skype , and Spotify as examples of companies whose success has benefitted from Sweden's extensive file-sharing culture.

Instead, Bahnhof says copyright holders must develop business models and Internet tools that allow subscribers to share files legally.

Karlung says that in the short term Bahnhof's profits will rise with the IPRED law due to lower bandwidth costs, but in the long term the sales of fast Internet connections used for file sharing could decline.

"It is possible that we and other ISPs could sell fewer fast connections, but that won't affect our profits," Karlung said.

But just to make things a bit more complicated, the Swedish government is expected to propose a new data storage law based on a third EU directive in June. This law could force Bahnhof to store and share its data in the future anyway, much to Karlung's disappointment.

"It is this Orwellian nightmare state that is developing, where no one sees the dynamic of the Internet," a sighing Karlung says from the other side of the Atlantic.

The same day a new antipiracy law went into effect in Sweden, Internet traffic took a dive and five audio book publishers went after an alleged illegal file sharer in court.

The so-called IPRED law, which went into effect Wednesday, requires Internet service providers to reveal subscribers' Internet Protocol addresses to copyright holders in cases where a court finds ample evidence of illegal activity.

As of 2 p.m. local time Wednesday in Sweden, Internet traffic was down about 30 percent from the day before, according to Computer Sweden (in Swedish). The average traffic over Netnod, a company that measures most of the Internet traffic access points between Swedish and international networks, was 80Gbps Wednesday compared to Tuesday's 120Gbps. Traffic had been steady the previous week.

A similar effect occurred after The Pirate Bay raid three years ago. Then traffic dropped from 30Gbps to 22Gbps, according to Computer Sweden. However, Netnod declined make the connection between the new IPRED law and the drop in Internet traffic.

Also on Wednesday, Earbooks, Storyside, Piratforlaget, Bonniers, and Norstedts took advantage of the legislation, bringing their grievances to a district court in the Stockholm suburb of Solna in an attempt to reveal the identity of the person behind a particular IP address.

Among the authors with works published by those companies are noted crime novelists Henning Mankell, Hakan Nesser, and the estate of deceased crime novelist Stieg Larsson.

The Swedish Publishers' Association, which supports the audio book publishers' action, claims the alleged pirate had up to 2,000 audio books stored on a server.

The illegal file sharing of audio books has increased over the past year, according to the organization. "It has hit writers, publishers, and Internet book retailers financially, and there is a longer-term risk that publication will decline," Kjell Bohlund, chairman of the Swedish Publishers' Association, said in a statement.

The case will likely serve as precedent; the record industry confirmed Wednesday that it is preparing its own first case.

"It will be interesting to see what the court determines to be sufficient proof," Lars Gustafsson, CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, told Swedish news agency TT. "We are naturally examining their evidence and comparing it with ours."

An estimated 1 in 10 people engage in file sharing in Sweden. The country is also home to the world's largest BitTorrent sharing site, The Pirate Bay.

In response to the IPRED law, the fast-growing Pirate Party, which lobbies for more "balanced" copyright laws in Sweden, urged its members to stop encrypting their Wi-Fi networks. This free, open, and anonymous network, for which the name "Ipredia" has been suggested, will make it impossible to sentence a person for illegal file sharing, based on a precedent in Denmark, the Pirate Party claims.

In a statement, the Pirate Party said citizens must be responsible for building a knowledgeable society, since, according to the party, politicians don't see that the Internet is a revolution on a par with writing and conventional publishing.

"Politicians have failed to keep the Internet open, free, and anonymous," said Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party.

But Swedish police are not happy about open anonymous Wi-Fi networks due to concerns about the spread of child pornography and the like.

File swappers in Sweden, land of the world's largest bittorrent sharing site, The Pirate Bay, are facing a tougher future.

The so-called IPRED law, scheduled to go into effect Wednesday, will in some instances require Internet service providers to reveal subscribers' Internet Protocol addresses to copyright holders--including the film, music, and game industries--that charge users with illegal file sharing.

The Swedish law stipulates that property rights holders can take their grievances to a court, which will examine the evidence, including the extent of the file sharing, and decide whether the IP address will be released. The copyright holder then can send a warning letter to the ISP subscriber, and eventually file a civil case against the alleged pirate if the violation doesn't stop.

The law takes effect just as a copyright infringement case against The Pirate Bay draws to a conclusion. The verdict in that trial, due to be announced April 17, will not be affected by the new law, since only file sharing done after Wednesday will be taken into account. In response to the new law, however, The Pirate Bay site recently launched IPREDator, a new paid service that lets users download "more anonymously." The service costs 5 euros a month.

CNET has contacted The Pirate Bay for comment, but has not yet heard back.

In the United States, major ISPs including AT&T and Comcast have recently begun working with the Recording Industry Association of America to target people suspected of pirating music. The steps involved could include suspension or termination of service for repeat offenders, in a determination made by the Internet provider.

In Sweden, a country with one of the highest rates of Internet use in the world and a strong tradition of peer-to-peer networks, the IPRED law is proving to be a political hot button.

Citizens in general, and young men in particular, oppose IPRED in large numbers, according to a recent survey for Swedish national newspaper SvD.

For its part, the Antipiracy Agency, an organization formed by the film and game industries to fight Internet piracy in Sweden, is happy about the new law, which was passed by a large majority of the Swedish parliament on February 25.

"Of course we'll use the law," Henrik Ponten, a lawyer for at the Antipiracy Agency told Swedish news agency TT. "We have not acted to get the law and then not use it."

But in a sign of just how sensitive the law is, the center party in Sweden's ruling right alliance, which formulated the law, publicly debated its stricter aspects, a stance likely taken to appease a key voting demographic--young people for whom file sharing is one of the biggest political concerns. The leading party in the opposing left alliance party, the Social Democrats, did the same, even though it too voted for the law.

A country of file sharers
The once notorious file-sharing software Kazaa, the established peer-to-peer telephony software Skype, and similar offerings originated in Sweden. An estimated 1 out of 10 Swedes engage in file-sharing practices. File sharing is such a big issue in the Northern European country, in fact, that elected politicians write op-eds on emerging technologies for mainstream news outlets.

And the Pirate Party--which was formed in 2006 to reform copyright law and protect citizens' rights to privacy--after only three years has the one of the largest numbers of members among the youth wings of the country's political parties.

The numbers related to IPRED bear that out. According to the survey by the newspaper SvD (article in Swedish), 79 percent of men ages 15 to 29 oppose IPRED. Only 32 percent of those polled support the law, while 48 percent say they oppose it adamantly.

The law, based on the European antipiracy directive Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, is supposed to focus on file sharers who upload material and those who download a considerable numbers of files. Where the line will be drawn is not yet clear.

Technically, it has also been questioned whether one can link the downloading of a certain file to a specific person. For instance, if a computer is shared in a family or the subscriber has been surfing with a wireless router, a pirate could be using that connection to download files illegally.

The Left and Green parties in Sweden, which are in political opposition to the ruling right-wing alliance, voted against the law. They say it threatens democracy and personal integrity, since it gives large companies too much power to act as police and collect sensitive personal data.

Whether the law has an effect remains to be seen. According to the survey in the newspaper SvD, only one out of four people who answered that they were sharing files said they would stop once the new legislation is in place.

Swedish police on Friday reported making a major Internet piracy bust.

Authorities said they seized computer equipment belonging to a Stockholm-area man whom they suspected of violating local copyright law. The police, who carried out the raid on February 9, only disclosed the news Friday.

"We made a bust. A server and computers have been taken and are being analyzed now," said Mats Johansson, a precinct commander in Stockholm, told CNET News in an interview.

Johansson said the man, whose identity was not disclosed, was questioned and subsequently released. He is now the target of an investigation by government prosecutors.

The seized server contained 65 terabytes of digital data, consisting of films, TV series, computer programs, and the music equivalent of 16,000 movies, according to the Antipiracy Agency, an organization based in Sweden that's supported by a consortium of film and game organizations to fight Internet piracy.

The server was located in Brandbergen, south of Stockholm, the Swedish capital. The police raid took place just before the individuals behind The Pirate Bay Web site went to court to defend themselves against charges of helping millions of Internet users illegally download copyright-protected movies, music, and computer software.

The Pirate Bay has not been accused of being behind the site. Still, Peter Sunde, a spokesperson for the file-sharing site, said in an interview with the Swedish news site SvD.se that he did not believe the claims made by the Antipiracy Agency, which described the Stockholm arrest as the biggest digital copyright bust in the nation's history.

"More than 800,000 people have uploaded files to Pirate Bay, so I do not believe it is the source of the entire problem," Sunde told SVD.se. "But it is possible that it is a significant source."

The Antipiracy Agency claimed that the server was part of the Nordic FTP ring called "Sunnydale," comprising 10 servers. After the bust, the ring went down and could not be accessed online.

The Antipiracy Agency said that despite the site's high security, it was able to secure the evidence it needed, which it then turned over to police.

"The well-organized pirates on the scene seemed to have overestimated their ability to hide their identity and location, but the bust showed that we could find the responsible entity," Henrik Ponten, a lawyer who works for the Swedish Antipiracy Agency, said in a statement released to the press.

Attempts by CNET to reach The Pirate Bay for comment Friday were unsuccessful.