Sweden has outlawed the downloading of copyrighted movies, games and music in an attempt to curb rampant piracy.
About 10% of Swedes freely swap music, games and films on their computers, one of the highest rates in the world.
With no law banning file-sharing, Sweden had become a hotbed of piracy where films, music and software were readily swapped.
But experts believe the law will change little and that Swedes will remain rampant downloaders.
Prior to the law coming into force, Sweden was the only European nation that let people download copyrighted material for personal use.
As a result many Swedes, thanks also to the available of cheap high-speed net access, were committed downloaders. It is estimated that about 900,000 Swedes regularly downloaded movies, games and music.
The law was drawn up to bring Sweden into line with EU directives and is also part of a wider crackdown on net piracy.
It comes a day after the US Attorney General’s office announced an 11-nation operation to catch and shut down net piracy groups.
But, say experts, the habit of downloading is likely to be hard to break.
“There is nothing that indicates that (the pirates) would change their behaviour,” said Henrik Ponten, a spokesman for Antipiratbyran, a Swedish anti-piracy agency funded by film studios and game makers.
“A law in itself changes nothing,” he said.
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