During the spring of 2008, the Swedish Publishers Association conducted a survey of the illegal file sharing of audio books and e-books through The Pirate Bay (www.thepiratebay.org). The Pirate Bay is one of the world’s largest websites for illegal file sharing (a so-called Bit Torrent tracking site), where music, movies, audio books, e-books, computer software, gaming software etc. are made available without the permission of the rightful copyright holders.

The survey shows that there are currently about 1,700 Swedish audio books and slightly more than 300 Swedish e-books listed on The Pirate Bay. At each scan, the number of unique titles had increased.

The result of the survey is shocking and in many ways discouraging. Even though the Swedish market offers good legal download services for audio books and e-books, the electronic piracy of these products are growing.  An analysis of the Swedish Publishers Associations sales statistics for 2007 shows that the number of new audio book are increasing while the sale is decreasing. Thus, the illegal file sharing is now having an apparent affect on the new and fragile market of audio books. 
 

A couple of months ago, a new website, which is seen as an outgrowth of The Pirate Bay, were launched. The site, Student Bay (www.studentbay.se), requests students to upload and share their educational books. There are today almost 300 titles available on this illegal website. Legal actions will probably be taken against the site later this year.

The attitude towards copyrights and illegal file sharing is often debated in Sweden and unfortunately, the respect for the Copyright Act has been undermined by different political statements and actions. The Swedish Publishers Association continues to inform politicians as well as the public about the importance of a strong and respected Copyright Act. Through different contributions to the debate and these kinds of surveys, we hope to increase the understanding for this very important issue. 
 

The survey has been documented and commented upon in a report, recently published by the Swedish Publishers Association. A summary of the report “Audio books and e-books on The Pirate Bay – English summary of a survey of illegal file sharing” can be seen below.