The Pirate Bay has always taken pains to store no data on its users and, as the verdict in its file-sharing trial draws near, at least one Swedish ISP is following suit. Jon Karlung, the head of ISP Bahnhof, says that his company won't turn over any user data to authorities because it refuses to keep any log files. That decision is legal—for now.

Karlung is reacting to IPRED, the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive. The Swedish version of this European law went into effect on April 1, and it allows courts to force ISPs to turn over user data. The move stripped away the veil of anonymity that Swedish file-swappers have long enjoyed, leading to an immediate drop in Internet traffic and prompting people like Karlung to reiterate his decision to destroy user data.

"It's about the freedom to choose, and the law makes it possible to retain details," he said, according to Swedish newspaper The Local. "We're not acting in breach of IPRED; we're following the law and choosing to destroy the details."

Bahnhof won't be able to maintain the anonymity of its users' Internet habits forever, though. In 2006, the EU passed the Data Retention Directive to address just this issue. The directive requires all EU countries to implement some form of data retention legislation, and it specifies terms of six month to two years. Several nations have implemented it already, though Sweden is not among them.

IPRED's effect on Swedish Internet traffic, initially chalked up by some to "good weather" on April 1 in Sweden, has been remarkable. The data from a major set of Swedish Internet exchanges shows a dramatic decrease in total traffic from April 1 on, and traffic has not even come close to rebounding since the law went into effect.

Moves by more ISPs to destroy all user data could embolden file-swappers once more. So could services like The Pirate Bay's new ?5 anonymous VPN, IPREDATOR, assuming that those unwilling to pay for content are willing to pay instead for anonymous access to that content.