According to a study from analyst firm Mediavision, 30 percent of people have reduced or stopped downloading from free sources and many have shifted over to legal alternatives.

The move from illegal to legal alternatives is common among all age groups, the report shows, but the clearest trend is among women between the ages of 15 and 24.

Henrik Pontén, spokesperson for Sweden’s Anti-Pirate Bureau explains that legal alternatives and streamed TV are possible reasons for the shift and why internet traffic has recovered following a dip after the introduction of Sweden’s tough anti-piracy law (Ipred) on April 1st.

”Those that want to break the law in some way are finding it more difficult,” he told the newspaper Aftonbladet.

Gerard Versteegh, founder of film distribution company Bonver, also cites the Ipred law as a factor making a big impact on the market.

”The law is very positive. We had big expectations which have been exceeded,” Versteegh told the newspaper.

The company, which distributes movies to 1,500 stores across the country, reports that it is shifting 20 percent more DVDs for purchase and 30-40 percent more rental DVDs in comparison with the same month last year.

The firm is also shifting 70 percent more music and Versteegh claims that its broadband movie distribution business is expanding at a rate of 120-150 percent by volume per month in comparison to last year.

”We have clearly broken the trend,” Gerard Versteegh said.