Internet Traffic has taken a down turn in Sweden after new P2P anti piracy law was introduced on the 1st of April. It has declined the traffic by 40% according to stats from the Netnod Internet Exchange. During the day that the law was publically announced, traffic fell from 120 Gbps to 80 Gbps.

Jon Karlung, chief executive of Banhof (which is an Internet Service Provider) quoted:

“Half the Internet is gone. If this pattern keeps up, it means the extensive broadband network we’ve built will lose its significance.”

The ‘detested’ law established on the “IPRED” which is the EU’s “Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive”, acknowledge copyright users to receive a court order through forcing the Internet Service Providers, (ISP) to reveal the user’s IP address demonstrating which people are in posession of copyright material.

In order to show this law should be taken seriously, three people had been arrested as two of them downloaded movies that were not released yet, and put them up to share.

The same file sharing law seems to be extending across Europe, as France earlier this week, revealed a “3 strike law” which makes copyright holders suspended from the internet as well as a fine. In addition, the UK and other countries are now pondering on the thought of getting rid of file-sharing for good, which for the UK will affect the economy even more than it already is.

An indication of what the Swedish public are feeling were found on the internet in the last couple of days following the law being controversially made known,

“As a Swede myself – I personally agree that IPRED really is bad. And so does FRA, which is another horrible thing that we have to deal with. We have IPRED2 to ‘look forward to’ as well.. Yeah, I also agree that Sweden harbors a whole bunch of cowards that don’t speak up or stand their ground.. But then again, name a country that is so much better? USA, France, England to name a few – you guys have a whole lot of things going on too; cause we are ALL being monitored and watched! We just ‘don’t know it’ because we can’t see it. sure many Swedes will probably lay low for a while and stop up-/downloading/sharing a bit – but that’s just temporary. most people wanna check the temperature, so to speak, search for alternatives and so on so that we can continue up-/downloading without getting busted & sent to court. fines ain’t that much fun, especially if you’re rather “innocent”.. even IF you do not upload/share material – someone in your area may do so, and remember that many people can hide behind the same IP, but do THEY care about that? uhm, NO. new IPRED law beautifully says; YOU ARE GUILTY until proven otherwise. sounds like so familiar.. But can’t put my finger on it. [sarcasm]“.