Andre Yoskowitz
7 Dec 2009 16:30
Despite a recently publicized 18 percent jump in legal music sales following the launch of Ipred in Sweden, the Local is reporting that illegal file sharing is back in full force, reaching new record levels.
Stats from Swedish organization Netnod showed that Internet traffic in the entire country dropped 40 percent when Ipred went into effect in April, mainly due to a cutback in BitTorrent traffic.
TheLocal is reporting that Internet traffic is at all-time high now in the nation, although the numbers can hardly be considered set in stone at the moment.
“Spotify and the various television channels ‘Play’ sites haven’t yet released their statistics. There is guaranteed to be certain increase in file sharing, but it isn’t possible to tell exactly how much,” added researcher Kristoffer Schollin.
Anti-virus protection company McAfee also says that file-sharing sites have grown by over 300 percent since Ipred.
“Then you have the illegal video streaming sites, which aren’t file sharing in the traditional sense, but which play the same role for users. Watching a movie via a streaming video directly in your web browser is becoming more and more popular,” Schollin adds.