Pirate Party captures Euro seat

[Flashermac]

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Pirate Party, striking a chord with voters who want more free content on the Internet, won a seat in the European Parliament, early results showed on Sunday.

 

The Pirate Party captured 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden in the Europe-wide ballot, enough to give it a single seat. The party wants to deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and reduce surveillance on the Internet.

 

"This is fantastic!" Christian Engstrom, the party's top candidate, told Reuters. "This shows that there are a lot of people who think that personal integrity is important and that it matters that we deal with the Internet and the new information society in the right way."

 

Previously an obscure group of single-issue activists, the party enjoyed a jump in popularity after the conviction in April of four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing website.

 

The case cast a spotlight on the issue of internet file-sharing, a technique used to download movies, music and other content. The defendants have called for a retrial.

 

Despite the similar names, the party and the website are not linked. The party was founded in 2006 and contested a Swedish general election that year, but received less than one percent of the vote.

 

Engstrom credited the party's appeal to young voters for its success. "We are very strong among those under 30. They are the ones who understand the new world the best. And they have now signalled they don't like how the big parties deal with these issues."

 

The Pirate Party will take up one of Sweden's 18 seats in the 785-seat parliament. "We will use all of our strength to defend personal integrity and our civil rights," Engstrom said.

 

 

Yo ho ho ...

 

[Faustian]

Cool! Agree with their aims, although they'll accomplish nothing...

 

Scarily 2 BNP (British National Party) members got voted in, by the british public. Essentially a fascist/racist party, the UK is definitely experiencing a massive swing to the right, in a reaction to the failure of the left (Labour party). UKIP (UK Independence Party) seems to have come second too! While they are not out and out racists, it is a nationalistic party. All very worrying and short sighted by the UK public. Knee jerk reaction time.

[Flashermac]

Maybe Max Mosley can pick up his father's torch.

 

 

 

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

 

I voted for them. Not for the reason of supporting illegal downloads of copyrighted material though. I have followed the debate of the IPRED law in Sweden, initiated by the EU parliament. Frequently I have seen how politicians have emitted hot air without having a clue. Artists and other copyright holders have been allowed to speak freely on prime TV time while people who actually understand the technical issues are ignored completely.

 

My main issue is the personal integrity of the internet users. In my opinion it's totally unacceptable that private companies are allowed to do criminal investigations. Not even the police are allowed to start an investigation against an individual without a reasonable level of suspicion. According to Swedish law only the police are allowed to do criminal investigations but apparently Swedish law is of minor importance when leading politicians can consort with artists and leading representatives of movie companies.

 

I don't think they will make any significant impact but a vote for them might send a message that there are people out there that don't want to live in a police state.

 

ALHOLK

 

P.S. It's possible that Sweden will receive two additional seats in the parliament in which case the PP could receive another seat.

[shygye]