Sweden's Parliament on Wednesday made it illegal to download copyright material from the Internet and approved measures to discourage people from burning copies of CDs and DVDs. The law, which takes effect July 1, also bans technology and software used to circumvent protections on copyright material, including music, movies and games.

Until now, it was prohibited in Sweden to make copyright material available for others to download. But downloading such material was legal.

The new law also makes it illegal to copy an entire book, including text books, on a copying machine.

It does not forbid making a copy of a CD or DVD for personal use but slaps a tax on recordable CD and DVD-discs. Consumers will have to pay a 24-cent tax for a 700-megabyte disc.