Don’t tell people what you do,” Per Sundin’s wife insisted as they went to a dinner party several years ago. Sundin wasn’t a banker, used-car salesman or weapons producer, but the head of a record label in Sweden. Back then, being a music industry boss in the Nordic country was a miserable job. Sales had more than halved between 2000 and 2008 as illegal downloading took over. Sundin, who has headed a record label since 1998, was known by international colleagues as the expert on The Pirate Bay, an infamous Swedish website used to illegally download the latest music and films.
幾年前，佩爾•松丁(Per Sundin)與妻子參加晚宴時，妻子叮囑他：「別跟別人說你是做什麼工作的。」松丁既非銀行家、二手車銷售員，也非軍火商，而是瑞典一家唱片公司的主管。那時在這個北歐國家，音樂產業高階主管的日子可不好過。由於非法下載猖獗，銷售額在2000至2008年間銳減過半。從1998年起便開始擔任唱片公司主管的松丁，是各國同事們眼中的「海盜灣」(The Pirate Bay)問題專家。海盜灣是一家臭名昭著的瑞典網站，人們通過它非法下載最新的音樂和電影。