Tech | July 22, 2009 | 5 comments

Swedish Pirate Party gets a seat in EU parliament

source: http://technosharia.blogspot.com/2009/06/swedish-pirate-party-gets-seat-in-eu.html

ras_menelik
Sweden’s Pirate Party has won a seat in the European Parliament. The group - which campaigned on reformation of copyright and patent law - secured 7.1% of the Swedish vote.

The result puts the Pirate Party in fifth place, behind the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the Moderate Party. Rickard Falkvinge, the party leader, told the BBC the win was “gigantic” and that they were now negotiating with four different EU Parliamentary groups. “Last night, we gained political credibility,” said Mr Falkvinge.

“People were not taken in by the establishment and we got political trust from the citizens.”

The profile of the Pirate Party and issues surrounding copyright law have dominated headlines in Sweden over the past few months.

In April, a court in Sweden sentenced the four men behind The Pirate Bay, the world’s most high-profile file-sharing website, to a year in jail and ordered them to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages.

Mr Falkvinge said it had played a significant role in getting them the vote.

“The establishment is trying to prevent control of knowledge and culture slipping from their grasp.

“When the Pirate Bay got hit, people realised the wolf was outside the front door.

“That happened one month before the ballot opened, so it had quite a rallying effect,” he said.

Parties within the European Parliament tend to join one of the big voting blocs, otherwise their MEP can become marginalised.

Mr Falkvinge said they were still considering their position.

“We’re looking at four different EU Parliament groups,” he said.

“However, we’re probably going to join either the Green block or the ALDE group.”

The biggest loser in Sweden’s election was the eurosceptic June List party, which saw its share of the vote fall by more than 10 points to 3.6% of the vote. The Left Party also saw its vote halved to 5.6%.
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5 comments // Swedish Pirate Party gets a seat in EU parliament

  • artemis6
  • zoloftkid
    • 0
      zoloftkid  

    • Awesome. We really need to reform copyright and patent law. The law needs to catch up with the technology, the people, everything...seriously.

    • 3 years ago
  • ras_menelik
  • jubal
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  

    • re: pirate bay to pirate party

      AMERICAblog's John Aravosis and FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher interview Rickard Falkvinge, the leader of Sweden's Pirate Party, about the party and the details of their concerns about file sharing restrictions and eavesdropping legislation. Interviewed on June 30, 2009, at the Almedalen Week political gathering in the town of Visby, Sweden.

    • 3 years ago
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