Needless to say, for anybody reasonably knowledgeable about the downloading community, the notion that a sea change away from piracy had occurred earlier this year would seem highly implausible.  However, maybe Sweden was an isolated example, and the (likely) spread of such “graduated response” laws would ultimately lead to the first real downturn in file-trading since the heydays of Napster.  Sadly for the Economist and the entertainment industries, new evidence also came out on Friday that demonstrates just how misguided and premature any claims of victory over piracy really are. Enigmax at Torrentfreak cites a new report from Swedish Internet backbone Netnod, that shows there was indeed a very large dip in Internet usage overall in Sweden in April, as much as 30%.  Whether or not that decrease can be ascribed entirely to the change in law regarding downloading cannot be proven, but in any case, the latest figures show that the drop in Internet usage was wholly short-lived.  By the end of October, Swedish Internet traffic was completely back  to pre-April levels, and in fact, may well be even higher.  Has the initial scare over the harsher laws receded to the point that they are now being ignored?  On the other hand, seasonal effects have been noticed in file-sharing before, with decreases in summer months and increases in the fall corresponding with the return of young people to schools and universities, and that could be in play here as well.  In any case, if recording industry executives were about to start celebrating their long wished-for end to mass copyright infringement, they should put the champagne back on ice for the time being.

Much to the chagrin of copyright holders and govt officials, Spanish courts have a long history of recognizing the difference between commercial and noncommercial file-sharing, and looks as though the former intends to change that.

It was back in 2006 that a judge ruled in a illegal downloading case that since there “no talk of money or any other compensation beyond the sharing of material available among various users [then] no offense meriting penal sanction has been committed.”

That decision has led to the annual inclusion of the country on the US’ Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus Watch List, even going so far as to say Internet piracy there has reached “epidemic” proportions.

“Internet piracy in Spain has reached an epidemic level, and rights holders lack the necessary tools to enforce their rights on the Internet,” the group said after its most recent report. “P2P piracy in Spain is widely perceived as an acceptable cultural phenomenon, and the situation is exacerbated by a government policy that has essentially decriminalized illicit P2P file-sharing.”

The courts made an even bolder move this past June when a judge ruled that illegal distribution requires something “tangible” to exist, like a website, and on which the actual sharing must occur. He said he recognized the possibility that unauthorized public communication, or distribution, of copyrighted material may have occurred, but that it’s difficult to prove being that it “may well be possible that the file-sharing was with one person.”

Now according to Publico, the Spanish govt is working to solve this whole “epidemic” by creating an interministerial commission to protect online intellectual property rights. Comprised of representatives from the Justice, Industry, Interior and Culture ministries, it would seek a legal framework to solve the problem of illegal downloading.

The new committee will replace the Intersectoral Commission Against Piracy, under the Ministry of Culture, which has so far focused its efforts mainly on raising awareness of copyright laws among Internet users.

It comes as the result of lobbying by ISPs and copyright holders whom were unable to reach an agreement on how to solve illegal P2P earlier in the year,

Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Information Society Francisco Ros says all the concern is misguided, and reiterated in response to the news that it’s an”urban legend” that there is more digital piracy in Spain than in other countries.

He noted in the past that “there is no objective data“ in the 2009 Piracy Watch List and that other countries with similar percentages of illegal file-sharing, like Germany for example, are not listed in the report.

What it all comes down to is perception, and copyright holders perceive that file-sharing is more rampant because the courts have been on the side of file-sharers. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean more people actually are.

Unfortunately, as we’ve always witnessed in the file-sharing debate, the truth rarely prevails and profits supercede the public good.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com