Copyright Law

Legal Music Downloads Up 100% in Sweden?

By soulxtc

Follows April 1st passage of new copyright law, but without specific sales figures it makes one wonder if what was really worth giving copyright holders the power to sue an individual based on an IP address.

According to InProdicon, a Swedish digital content provider that provides over half of the music tracks downloaded through several online and mobile services, legal digital music purchases have increased 100% since the April 1st passage of IPRED, a controversial new law that allows copyright holders to seek a court order requiring ISPs to divulge the names of accused file-sharers.

?The first week after the introduction of IPRED, sales increased by 100 percent compared to the previous weeks,” said managing director Klas Brännström. “I don’t know if this is only because of IPRED, but it is definitely a sign of a major change.?

Brännström said it’s part of an overall trend that has seen a steady increase in digital music purchases over time, though he apparently refuses to disclose figures about precisely how many tracks have been sold.

?We have seen a clear sales increase compared to last year,” said Brännström. ” There has been a 20-30%increase on an annual basis, but sales fluctuate a bit depending on which artists are launching new albums.”

The numbers emphasized by InProdicon should also be considered in the context of data provided by Internet traffic measurement firm Netnod Internet Exchange, which reported a dramatic drop in aggregate Internet traffic on April 1st, the day IPRED took effect, and which continues to do this day.

Aggregate traffic was an average 160Gbps prior to April 1st, reaching more than 190Gbs March 31st, but then dropped to 100Gbps the next day, and has hovered between 80Gbs and 100Gbs since then.

So though InProdicon may claim that legal music download sales have increased by 100% since IPRED took effect, surely giving the music industry ammo for similar legislation in other countries, by not providing specific sales figures it makes one wonder just how many more music tracks it’s really selling, and whether or not it was really worth giving private business interests the power to sue an individual for copyright infringement based on an IP address.

Researchers have already shown how easy it is to generate DMCA takedown notices for computers at the University of Washington that never downloaded nor shared any content whatsoever.

Legal downloads may be up 100%, but so is corporate interference in the town square that is the Internet.

Is the tradeoff really worth it?

jared@zeropaid.com

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on April 13, 2009 (boomark / email).