The majority of young people who will be allowed to vote for the first time this September during national elections are in favour of file downloading - despite the fact that it is illegal.

The youngest voters, those aged 18-20, say the law prohibiting file sharing is wrong and is a cultural phenomenon, according to a May poll conducted by the Swedish paper Sydsvenskan and Temo Synovate survey.

Over 75 percent of those asked said it was OK to download illegally from the Internet, said the survey.

When asked to respond to the statement “I think it is OK to download files from the Net, even if it is illegal”, some 38 percent said they adamantly agreed while 39 percent said they partly agreed.

“You adapt your morality on the basis of what use you have of the rules,” said Nicklas Källebring, Temo’s opinion expert.

“You think it’s OK to do that which you yourself can benefit from, regardless what others think.”

The survey was carried out a week before the Swedish file-sharing Web site The Pirate Bay was shut down by police during a raid.

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=4014&date=20060608