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New law sinks Swedish net traffic

Summary: Wow, maybe Draconian anti-piracy laws really do work. Two days after a new law went into effect in Sweden, Internet traffic has nose-dived and it's yet to pick up, Computerworld reports.

Richard Koman

By Richard Koman for ZDNet Government |

Wow, maybe Draconian anti-piracy laws really do work. Two days after a new law went into effect in Sweden, Internet traffic has nose-dived and it's yet to pick up, Computerworld reports.

The law allows copyright holders to trace IP addresses to individuals, thus making filesharing officially non-anonymous.

Netrod Internet Exchange, which manages six of Sweden's primary Internet exchange points, reports 50% falls in traffic, with peak transmission rates falling from 200Gb/sec to 110Gb/sec.

The fall-off is all the more dramatic since Sweden's -- one of the most wired of countries (most fiber-optic broadband connections per capita) -- traffic had been on a steady rise for the past six months.

So does that mean fully half of Sweden's traffic is illegal filesharing? Seems hard to believe.

Topics: Browser, Enterprise Software, Networking, Piracy, Security, Telcos

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13 comments
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  • Could be that half of the traffic is

    filesharing traffic. I have known about many people that download a huge amount of pirated multimedia. So I guess it wouldn't be too farfetched. I am so glad that I stopped that bad habit years ago when the first lawsuits came out, that and I was tired of fixing viruses that came in as a result. So much better getting music and videos through legal channels. Don't have to worry about getting sued, and don't have to worry about malware coming down the pipe with it. Unfortunately I know alot of people who probably haven't figured that out yet.
    xXSpeedzXx
    Reply Vote

    • Does this sound like someone employed by RIAA/MPAA?

      Some of the post does not make any sense.
      roaming
      Reply Vote

  • RE: New law sinks Swedish net traffic

    Maybe the weather is just real nice and they are all out doing whatever they do on the tundra but it's a very strange coincidence. They must have been downloading a heck of a lot of videos. Now if the video rental stores increase their rental sales by 50% we'll know for sure.
    jerry@...
    Reply Vote

  • If that's true.

    And other countries numbers would be similar. If you add the traffic volume from spam the legitimate Internet traffic would be about 5%.
    kozmcrae
    Reply Vote

  • Can't they just pay to have a fake IP or Proxy

    I mean, isn't this the work around or does the law make that illegal as well.
    LittleGuy
    Reply Vote

  • RE: New law sinks Swedish net traffic

    Richard Koman's facial hair makes him look like a convict.
    thillyboi
    Reply Vote

  • RE: New law sinks Swedish net traffic

    I bet the ISP's love this. They prob dont need to
    spend any money on Infrastructure for at least 2 years
    james.kilby@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: New law sinks Swedish net traffic

    I dont know anything about their online habits. I do know they make same really good tasting chocolate. Nice looking woman too.
    alewitinn1@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: New law sinks Swedish net traffic

    here in sweden we just taking it easy for a while,
    it?s full spring an nice to be out in the sun.
    the fast growing movement against the ridiculous prices
    of cd?s and dvd?s is the real ink here...this is our way to protest against it...try to make the kompanies to find different and more in time ways to make their money...sunny greetings from sweden...
    stlmswe
    Reply Vote

  • RE: New law sinks Swedish net traffic

    new law ha, we try to blame all the bad stuff on the young people,i don't think so! it's the dirty old men like you who is the trouble today,people like you willing to put up with letting this kind of stuff go on.it's a shame in God's eye's and a shame in mine. carol va.
    carol tankersley
    Reply Vote

  • Good. Cheaper internet then.

    Lower traffic = less stress = less whinging about the cost of network maintenance.

    Yay! Less expensive internet.

    ...*drumming fingers*

    "A little [greed] goes a long way." -?
    "Nosey people get it, too!" - DMX
    empty.bin@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: New law sinks Swedish net traffic

    Unfortunately for the Swedish would-be cleaner-uppers
    of p2p traffic, it's only a matter of very little time
    before the Swedes figure out that, in actual fact,
    this new law amounts to the exact situation that
    existed before its inception. When, exactly, was the
    time the authorities couldn't trackdown a user, given
    the determination to do so? The only thing that makes
    such a ridiculous law effective is fear. I predict
    two things: The Swedish downloaders will soon drift
    back to their former habits, and, any features of this
    annoying law that actually have real effect will soon
    be met with some hacker's work-arounds.
    Truth is, these 'pirated' bits of multimedia costs
    their owners practically nothing. Downloaders'
    contraband is most often stuff they'd never buy,
    anyway, if it came to that.
    If these persecutors are so effective, how do we
    account for the continuance of WinMX? They could
    spend their time more effectively passing laws against
    cancer and hurricanes.
    iouzero
    Reply Vote

  • Belief in Anonymity

    Maybe the Swedes are more concerned about their anonymity and privacy than piracy.
    I think we will see a large spike in proxy usage!
    FiOS-Dave
    Reply Vote
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