Pirate Party 3rd Largest Political Party in Sweden
Written by Ernesto on May 06, 2009Support for the Swedish Pirate Party surged following the Pirate Bay verdict and today it became the third largest political party in the country. When they are elected for the European Parliament next month, the party hopes to end the abuse of copyright by multi-billion dollar corporations.
The explosive growth rate displayed after the Pirate Bay verdict has skyrocketed the Pirate Party’s member count and today they’ve surpassed that of the Center Party. Of all the established parties only the Social Democratic Party and the Moderate Party have more members.
The Pirate Party has tripled its ranks in only three weeks up to 44,000 members, and it’s on course to become the second largest political part in the country. TorrentFreak caught up with party leader Rick Falkvinge to congratulate him on this unprecedented achievement, and we used the opportunity to find out more about his future plans. First off, we asked him if the recent surge in members can be solely attributed to the outcome of the Pirate Bay trial.
“The Pirate Bay verdict was not a single event, but the final straw in a long series of events,” Falkvinge replied. “We tripled our member count in a week, and have kept growing at an accelerated pace. With just one month till the European elections, the timing of these horrible events arguably work as a catalyst for change.”
Falkvinge is looking forward to the upcoming European Parliament elections on June 6 this year. “I’m extremely optimistic,” he told TorrentFreak. “It’s not a question of ‘a’ seat any more. If everybody who is angry with the Pirate Bay verdict goes to vote, we will get at least one seat, and probably more.” Although things are looking good, the road to Brussels is not guaranteed yet. There are two hurdles left.
“One is to get our ballot papers out — contender parties are not served by the Election Authority, but have to distribute their ballot papers to all 7,000 polling stations by hand. That’s a logistical nightmare, but with 13,000 activists, we should be able to fix that. We had 1,600 activists in the last election, and covered 93%. The other hurdle is getting our folks to actually vote, but I believe they’re still angry enough.”
A question that has been under reported is what the party actually plans to achieve when they arrive in Brussels. One of the questions we asked is how torrent sites and trackers such as the Pirate Bay should be handled. “The Pirate Bay is infrastructure,” Falkvinge told us. “The messenger immunity, that the messenger is never responsible for the contents of a message, is crucial to how our society works. The Lobby is trying to gut that immunity, along with boneheaded politicians who see a chance to look tough on crime.”
“First of all, copyright needs to be reduced to cover commercial activities only. That would get copyright out of ordinary honest peoples’ bedrooms, which is badly needed. That would also make everything that happens over The Pirate Bay legal overnight, and so, there would be no copyright infringement that TPB could potentially facilitate. At that point, since they can’t be facilitating, aiding or abetting anything illegal [anymore] in any interpretation, this would also mean that they can be as commercial as they like.”
Falkvinge further told us that he’s toying with the idea of writing “Nothing that happens at The Pirate Bay violates copyright law” directly into Sweden’s copyright law. In 2010 the Pirate Party hopes to enter the Swedish parliament, and they want to make it absolutely clear that The Pirate Bay four will be acquitted on appeal.
“But that’s not enough,” Falkvinge told TorrentFreak. “The issues at stake are more important than that. The Lobby is constantly nagging on the gray area, making inroads, establishing new precedents, and acting very aggressively. They can do this without any risk at all, and that needs to stop. The Lobby is damaging the open society and our economy at a level that I think should be criminal, especially since they’re doing it as a commercial operation.”
So, the Pirate Party wants to reduce the abuse of power and copyright by the entertainment industry, and make that illegal instead. With the current level of support and indications by recent polls there is no doubt that they will get a seat in the European Parliament, and we hope they will be able to be heard there. Avast mateys!
Previously: Mininova Filters Copyright Infringing Torrents
Next: EU Rejects Three-Strikes Legislation, For Good
109 Responses
WOW
Anyone know why the pirate bay is still down?
It’d be helpful to put it on my site’s homepage…
http://isitup.org/check/thepiratebay.org
Where’s TPB? I think it’s down
Thats awesome this shows the torrent users are more main stream then anyone thinks
not sure how accurate this is… I believe the two parties with more members are actually the Moderate Party and the Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Pirate Bay is FINE, they have tech issues and will be back soon…
@okhghg whoops :)
I don’t think TPB is down because of legal problems. More likely, TiAMO got drunk again and flipped the wrong switch.
That’s what usually causes downtime. Not silly stuff like all the servers being stolen by the government, that would just be a minor nuisance.
Sweden is not the only country in the world. Well, it may actually be the only one where a small part of the public believes that it is OK to steal stuff because it has been digitized. Not someones private photos, videos and e-mails of course. Only music movies and software of big companies.
are you sure? perhaps i am confused, but it says
“Of all the established parties only the Christian Party and the Moderate Party have more members.”
We are not fine because we are now being sued by BREIN too.
I’ve never, ever used this expression before, but there’s a first for everything… So here it goes:
w00t!!!!!
Go Pirates!
okhghgwhatever is right, the article currently has a mistake stating that Christian Party would be bigger, when of course the Social Democratic Party is the biggest.
It is official. I will now be moving to Sweden.
Hurray for political greatness! Hoppas vi får ännu mer än de 5,1 procent som vi fått höra om!
>it is OK to steal stuff because it
>has been digitized.
Theres no stealing, they _copy_ it.
Is it OK to copy stuff thats not been digitized?
Sounds promising, but please, will the ‘oooohhhh TPB is down’ retards, just get a f**king grip. You’re pathetic.
Having many party members doesn’t necessarily mean getting more votes. I think the Social Democrats and the Moderate Party are the two candidates that get all the votes for people who are not that politically active.
Still, weird.
>It is official. I will now be moving
>to Sweden.
Even if you dont live in sweden, you can help. Send them money for the election campaign. Try doing it soon, since the european elections are already in June. If you ever, EVER wanted to do some higher good in your life with your money, it’s now or never.
I’m confused…
“First of all, copyright needs to be reduced to cover commercial activities only…. … That would also make everything that happens over The Pirate Bay legal overnight”
then he says
“…this would also mean that they can be as commercial as they like.”
good news at last :)
now let democracy prevail!
@Fredrik Neij – lol…silly dutch people…
Hoop Hoop Hooray! Hoop Hoop Hooray! Hoop Hoop Hooray! Wow! The revolution has begun and I am so thrilled to learn that the Pirate Party is kicking ass in Sweden. It is just the beginning of what about to happen at the global scale throughout the world. I am very proud of the Pirate Party! I hope they will continue to grow and multiply exponentially and ultimately become the dominant voice of the great intellectuals in the 21st Century. All the people from the U.S are totally supporting you guys except the few idiots from the “entertainment industry”.
Keep up the great works! We will find ways to show our support by organizing efforts and financial contribution campaign as you are fighting for the just cause. Stay the course and keep on fighting the corrupted political systems that oppressed and suppressed our freedom to share our love and kindness for one another via the internet.
God bless you all!
“Of all the established parties only the Christian Party and the Moderate Party have more members.”
You mean the social democrats and the moderate party.
“The Pirate Party has tripled its ranks in only three weeks up to 44,000 members,”
The IFPI made a huge mistake with their rigged swedish trial. The rigging was a little bit too obvious.
But even so the general outrage was certain world wide.
Talk about shoting yourself in the head!
The boycott is expending more rapidly against the movies and the music “industry” since then.
Just last week I bring 25 more people to the boycott instead of a typical few a week before. And remember that many of these will bring more people to the boycott too.
Soon we will be able to rebuild the entairtainment industry without this sworm of parasites.
FINALLY!
Thank you thank you thank you thank you IFPI!
You just helped our cause a great deal.
Good job IFPI! This time you really did it. Someone at the IFPI pushed the auto-destruct sequence button at the IFPI. Yippy!
Next time the word change don’t try to force the world to change back.
ADAPT!
way to go, europe!
@20 if its not illegal for non business’s to pirate copyrighted works then tbp isn’t assisting in copyright infringement and can be commercial
Go Pirates go!
Great news and hope these guys do indeed get in.
Its a shame though pirate parties havent become more mainstream and popular in other European member states.
I LOVE RICK FALKVINGE AND PP!
Originally Posted by torrentshredder
tpb state is also available at:
http://reprobate.se/tpb-status/
Epic win.
“become the second largest political part in the country.”
*Part = Party
goodbye tpb!! hahahahaha!!!!
a swedish PIRATE PARTY FOR THIEVES TO WATCH AMERICAN AND BRITISH CONTENT FOR FREE?
Get a life hahaha
PirateBay is back!!!
protest all you want!! you just will not have any content to watch or listen to if we pull ours away idiots!
Well you know its democracy, atleast theres going to be 2 sides fighting and thats ALWAYS better then one side and only their solutions.
Thats the way to think about it.
@34
Pirate Bay is Fine….
hahahahahaha!!!!!!!!
Really curious how this will go… Hope it will push industry harder to change their biasness models…
Information copyright can not be protected anyways technically and theoretical.
You can create laws but if you do not have means to enforce them then they are just words on paper. And there are no technical/theoretical/philosophical means to protect information from being copied.
So I am very curious how things will go with Pirate Parties growing around the world and wish luck to Sweden PP as they seem to be first to go mainstream :)
tpb down please shut up. You live in your own little world every youngster today will be pro-piracy because it is so natural today. In about 20-30 years the ifpi and the other organisations will be dinosaurs therefor copyright will have it’s downfall. I’m very shocked that you can’t see this, is it funny to live in a bubble with yourself?
“the avalanche has already started. it’s too late for the pebbles to vote” – Kosh Narnek
in case it’s not clear:
avalance = pirate party.
pebbles = ifpi, mpaa, riaa, italy.
tpb down111111 – Clive Davis, is that you? Big time entertainment exec with the power to pull content from consumers. So pleased to have you posting at TorrentFreak. [/sarcasm]
ondmis.dk is a JEWS
Amazing :D
Nice, my kind of party dammit!
privacy-web.net.tc
I live in Sweden and will be voting soon.
While I am all for freedom of information, I most certainly don’t want these spoiled brats making decisions on healthcare, taxation, foreign policy, military matters, etc etc.
All they want to do is download movies for free. Not good enough.
Niall wrote: “All they want to do is download movies for free”
That’s not true at all. They defend us against wire tapping of the whole Swedish people, the horrific data retention EU directive, and fight for the right to privacy and a more balanced copyright system (is there any other party that even fights for a shorter copyright term?).
EU patents will be a prioritized issue for the Swedish government this autumn they say. Who will defend us against software patents when the traditional parties said one thing and voted entirely differently last time this issue was up on the table (because they didn’t understand the issues)?
Even if you don’t support legalisation of noncommercial file sharing the Pirate Party still stands for a lot of good things.
what to say…
it ROCKS !!!
finally, people are gonna get power by the internet…
We’re from internet…definitely :)
FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
for whom ??? for those who understand Internet will free so many people by letting the information be free and not broadcasted by the government…
oups, hope BigBro is not behind me
This is interesting, but I am not as optimistic as most of you people.
Hard times are ahead and this trial was just the beggining. The corporations are leading the expedition that have started by the governments of certain countries (U.S is leading, of course) for removing the freedom of speech and sharing information over the Internet.
We live in a money – government driven world. Be prepared, there is no indication how long there is before they make it.
Gather all neccessary information now, and be prepared.
What remains to be done before that day is the founding of a communication channel that could bypass government – corporation control. I hope it will be done soon.
Go on Pirates! Lets fight before we fall, and fight ’till the last breath!
^
One or two seats doesn’t mean they will be balancing the budget and drafting wars.
It’s already too late. The RIAA/MPAA/IFPI already control us all.
No single entity or group should have unlimited power to control and manipulate politicians, laws, corporations and technologies. They do so strictly for their own selfish financial gain.
They manipulate, extort, threaten and exploit everyone including the artists that they claim to want to protect.
They fabricate imaginary projections about how much money they’re losing to those that can’t afford to buy their products in the first place.
They threaten and extort from poor people. They destroy families and put them through so much stress by threatening and extorting them. They destroy the futures of university students by threatening and extorting them.
They twist and manipulate the news organizations to that they can get out the information that they want to get out their to manipulate and control the public. They even want to control the way we think.
I thank all that is holy that there are web sites like this giving us balanced information from a side that the RIAA/MPAA/IFPI doesn’t want us to hear.
The RIAA/MPAA/IFPI would want nothing more than to shut down web sites like this so we could be fed only the information that they want us to hear. They would want nothing more than to stop us from speaking out and would do everything within their power to shut us all up.
They have the power to kick people off of the internet.
They hate us. They don’t want us to speak our minds. They want to stop us from sharing all information with eachother. They won’t be happy unless they become even bigger, stronger, wealthier and even more powerful to the point where they will control every single one of us.
The evidence is all around us. They control you and me. They control those that are supposed to protect us. They control the internet, our computers, our politicians, judges, corporations and even how we transfer and share 0’s and 1’s.
No one should yield that much power and control. This is why they must be stopped. We can not afford to give up our freedom and liberty. This is all happening now but we are powerless to stop it, and they know this because we don’t have the financial resources to stop it and we’re far too passive.
If you think this is tough now, imagine what it’s going to be like in ten years. They will control absolutely everything.
They have the power do yield their powers without proof or evidence. No one has the right to defend themselves. No one can afford to defend themselves against multibillion dollar organizations.
It’s already too late. You are being manipulated and controlled and you can never get out.
all of the pirate bays sites are gone from the internet!!!
Wow!!!
It is never too late. Even when we are dead, there will be others that will keep going on. Their way leads to a dead-end.
We all must understand that, in reality, we are in complete control of ourselves. If we manage to get over the artificialy induced stressed for more consumption, we see we have unlimited power. We can decide for ourselves whatever we like. We will die one day. Noone lives forever. We may aswell decide to do what makes us feel better.
They have the power to take our money, our homes, even our freedom (if they catch us unprepared). In the end none of this matters. It is our actions that count.
We must never give up hope. I am writing this in the hopes that people will be able to be prepared for what lies ahead.
We must fight for our right to live in real freedom and have a just society.
Just don’t keep the illusion that we will win without a fight. The fight will be long and hard.
well, nice point riaatard, though if I were ont hese people’s shoes… it’d be boring to control everything because then there’ll be nothing left over to explore and control (if you know what i mean). So lets suppose this happens, lets suppose that the industries control everything.. well, they did it. They have contyrolled everything… and, what next? There’s nothing else to control anyway. It’d get to the point where it becomes just BORING to control everything… the point of them controlling everything is rather an insane one to grasp. Though I agree on most aspects–the dollar is what brives. money talks, bullsh*t walks, right?
Gordon Brown should adopt this stance, start waving a Pirate Flag in the House of Commons and then he’d get re-elected no worries.
Wow! Let’s spread the word for June 7. A seat or two in the european parliament would be great! Finally an alternative — I’ll vote for them instead of the green ones i’ve always seen as the least evil party :P
Well, with this number of “potential” voters, it’s about time the PP starts to broaden their political platform.
What I mean is, all is well about being pro-freedom, against copyright misuse, and all that. But, getting this much support, and representation, it’s about time to hear how they stand on other issues as well. After all, there’s a bit more to life then just internet freedom. Not that I belittle that purppose in any way.
I hope to read an article about their stand on mainstream political issues. Being a one cause only party, will remove them very fast from any decision center.
So, Rick Falkvinge or anyone with power to represent the party, should start to use their voices about their political plattform.
After all, with that level of representation, anyone from the media would love to interview you.
I don’t pretend to teel anyone how to run the party, but, being in the center of the attention of all the P2P world, and being the first PP to make it to this level, it would be good for everyone to see what this dream party really stands for.
If I could, I would vote for you guys, and that with or without knowing, but I would very much rather do it, Knowingly.
Best of luck.
@FatGiant, #57:
The Pirate Party cannot take a stance in left/right issues since that would lead to a breakdown of the party.
Laugh all you want. Celebrate this. But I make content for a living and if you win, I’m going out of business. You’ll be stuck watching old TV shows and silly cat videos from YouTube. If the pirates win, the professionals are gone.
You know, I like watching my kids acting on the stage at school. Amateurs are cool when they’re your kids. But it’s torture when they’re not.
Welcome to pirate land.
@53…..
Sure it is… Is that why I can still access TPB through a IPv6 address but not an IPv4?
Idiot…
http://ipv6.thepiratebay.org.ipv4.sixxs.org/
Great job
Just make sure everyone in the party gets out and helps out. Go Vote
Support your party.
Everyone relax. Its going to be alright
@59, Yea right, you’re business will be just as dead as people like you predicted it would be, just to name 2 examples out of many more, when the radio entered the scene in the 1920s or when the VCR became common in the late 1970s- early 80s.
I think in the interest of true democracy it should be made a law that polititians or political organisations shell only allowed to recive donations from private persons and _not_ from any lobby/commential group/person, and ofcause thare should be a monthly limit that would be set so that the impact of reach people would be very limited.
I hope the Pirate Party prevails and atleast grabs a seat..
If everyone in the pirate party gets out and votes, they will get a seat.
I think that party members are motivated enough to do that
If all those damn Swedish kids dont get off there ass’s and VOTE this is all for naught.
I’ll wait and see. Young voters are legendary for evaporating at the polls and thats exactly what the Swedish Parliament is counting on.
Vote over there —> [PP]
[MAFFIA]<— Fart over there
Type your stuff in here
@#66
This use to be the case in America, until the last election. Clearly young people will get up and vote.
I’m also confident that young Europeans are more likely to vote than young Americans. From my observations abroad.
One (1) seat in European parliament?
“The Parliament is composed of 785 MEPs”[Wikipedia]
ONE SEAT ?!?
The pirate parties influence on the EU will be exactly none; it is absolutely important that they revise their NATIONAL copyright+legal system INSTEAD of fretting about the EU.
Because in politics, 1/785 = 0/785.
While this is all very well and good, I think Rick Falkvinge is in desparate need of a reality check. Even assuming that the Pirate Party manages to win one or two seats in the upcoming European Parliament elections (and this is a very big if…support is primarily in the young male demographic, and as @66 said, young voters are notorious for not bothering to vote…), that’s only one or two seats out of a total of 785. Given their extremely narrow policy platform (let’s face it, they’re basically a one or two issue party) and controversial views (eg their proposed copyright amendments would require withdrawal from a number of international copyright treaties, not to mention the WTO), their MEPs will be completely excluded from any real policy making and, at best, will fulfil the time honoured role of ineffective backbencher.
As for winning seats in the Swedish Parliament in 2010 and “writing ‘Nothing that happens at The Pirate Bay violates copyright law’” or setting aside the Pirate Bay verdict, frankly any party that actively campaigns on the premise that, it it wins, it will interfere with the judiciary and set aside a verdict it doesn’t happen to like, should be a major concern to anyone who supports the most basic principles of democracy…
“and fight for the right to privacy and a more balanced copyright system”
——————
what they are proposing is not balanced. “non-commercial” fair use is BS entitlement whore propaganda. most of the film industries gross profit comes from DVDs. take that away and the industry will devolve into an even more cliche version of itself where only the big name, lowest common denominator movies marketed to the widest audience are released. that means more kids movies, more romantic comedies, more “products”, less innovation, less chances taken, less “art”. certainly no more r-rated movies. nothing with any “edge” to it.
hardly balanced, hardly fair. the pirate party is a joke, a flash in the pan, a fad destined to die like so many others…
row row fight the powah
@59
Then hurry up and get it over with already. According to anti piracy folks you should have been out of a job 5 years ago.
@71:
Troll-season again?
STFU!
For all these ‘Bob’s, ‘tpb down111…s’, the ‘Anonymous’ contributor above me and all those that take umbrage upon TPB & PP achievements, hear this:
Everyone, who releases an artwork of theirs (lets call it copyrighted work), and then decides to make it public (by giving permission/license to broadcast it by public reception TV or radio for all audience – and I say PUBLIC here INTENTIONALLY!), and *THEN* thinks (s)he can use current copyright law to weed out subsequent public Internet *sharing* of such a work, is an idiot with capital I. You, who try to achieve such a goal, please realise that you are basically fighting an Quijote fight: to restrict people from copying such information, you’d have to gain total control over ALL their real life behaviour, not just an Internet, and in turn restrict their very basic human rights, such as a right for freedom of expression, by censoring all their inputs/outputs. In a pinch: you may eventually succeed in scaring off people for sharing publicised commercial artworks over the Internet, but they will always find another way, be it a mobile HDD frequently changing hands, non-Internet networks, VPN transport, you name it. There is simply *NO WAY* to control anything, that once went public, from spreading further, becouse again, you’d have to monitor/censor all behaviour of human being.
Now, I have intentionally said artwork thas has been made PUBLIC once, since this kind of artwork wont earn big money anymore (consider that whole population already had a chance to record such a work on their PVR), SO: WHY TO *EVER* RESTRICT SHARING OF (NO MATTER WHETHER COMMERCIAL OR NOT) WORKS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE RELAYED TO PUBLIC BY THE AUTHORS DECISION? And guess what: the copyright law in most countries knows this by ‘artwork made public’, yet it still imposes a restriction on sharing by granting its rights owner protection for ‘right for communication of the work’.
This is *EXACTLY* one of more points where current copyright law needs to be redefined to reflect current reality of widespread sharing and information technologies.
Also consider that really, for people, ’sharing will always mean carying’, no matter the cartels propaganda. GNU movement (in the software world) is a beautiful example where such a revolution has already started.
It is not simply possible to take away from most of the people what they take for granted for a decade, and call them criminals, giving equal sign between this and pirate. Criminalising vast majority of young population just becouse of its “infringing” upon IP law means only one thing: the IP law needs to change.
Why to chase poor people for sharing such kind of works, when it cant be effectively stopped? Moreover, why to chase your own customers (consider how many people will *BUY* stuff they like once they have first seen as the illegal copy)? Realise finally that from any potential customers PoV, it is only fair to first see/hear the artwork completely before one can judge whether (s)he likes it or not, and *THEN*, based on this finding, making their decision whether to buy such artwork or not!
“I wont buy becouse I have it already downloaded” wont apply in this very case, as again, the work has been relayed to public by authors decision, and as such, everyone could have it recorded from TV or radio…
And, should there be any compensation demand from authors in case of sharing such works among people (becouse they wouldnt buy a DVD worth few cents), it could be very well done by some kind of NON!-compulsory minimum levy, that could, given its tiny value, well be part of monthly flat rate access payment that even no ISP customer would ever notice (they dont know where their money they pay for connectivity go, anyway).
And for those that object that big commercial businesses (such as those united under MPAA, RIAA etc.) need gears to to “protect” their assets by punishing ordinary people for IP infringement becouse they allegedly ‘lose money’: this is a total fud. Why? Well, by watching something, it simply DOES NOT MEAN I’D BUY IT. Period. I may do so, but then again, I may decide not to, becouse quite frankly, I may not like it. So any calculation of loss based on this is pure speculation and as such should be outlawed as an argument in front of jury.
I must always laugh at someones opinion that ‘big businesses need to be protected by strenghtening copyright becouse of their value’. Go watch one of the lectures of prof. Lawrence Lessig “How creativity is being strangled by the law”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q25-S7jzgs
, particularly the part referring to ‘ASCAP’ and their fate. Isnt there parallel to the current entertainment cartels trying to essentially ‘commercialise all your entertainment time’?
The practice of taking poor people to court and drain them for huge statutory damages just becouse of sharing (note, IP address is NOT NECESSARILY person!) a copyrighted work and thus infringing on IP law, should have never happen: it will only scare people, but wont change their mind.
Indeed, cartels may have short-time profit from this and it appears to be their ’sue them all’ objective, but this will only create rage and hatred in heads of young people, it wont persuade them otherwise.
*Sigh*.
Now, since I write from Czechia: the czech Pirate Party started just few weeks back, as a direct consequence of unfair judging upon TPB. It almost immediately attracted around 2400 members, so a new party has born. This itself is a *huge* success. Few (perhaps stupid?) people such as Mr. Hlavac from czech’s BSA have complained that “noone should have a right for interfering in author’s rights”. Indeed this concern is a nonsense, lol. He doesnt seem to get that law is always created as a compromise agreement, at least in a democracy.
And law itself is an arbitrary rule, it does not imply it will always be optimal. The only undeniable author’s rights are 1. authorship, and 2. right to decide about FIRST publication of the work. The rest are property rights that MAY change.
An opinion poll put them on 5.1%, which would gvie them one seat.
Pretty good for a single issue party that was only founded 3 years ago.
Who cares about who owns content? I don’t :)
It’s not about the rights of a small group of people it’s about the freedoms of an entire planet.
If the levels of the content go down(if it possible to be more low) so be it.
People are so greedy that I doubt it will stop people from making films or content they just will do it to sell others things instead(aggregated value).
The DVD is dead, hardware lockdown is dead, channel distribuition deals are dead. I don’t see how one will be able to control those things in the future.
Maybe people start making movies with a button on the side that will let you see what the people are using and let you buy the same clothes and furniture LoL
@8, ”’ernesto”’
“Sweden is not the only country in the world. Well, it may actually be the only one where a small part of the public believes that it is OK to steal stuff because it has been digitized. Not someones private photos, videos and e-mails of course. Only music movies and software of big companies.”
FIRST: don’t use his name like this, get the fuck out PLEASE.
SECOND:
Corpo_merica is not the only country in the world. Well, perhaps the only where people live that act like it’s ok to murder/torture/censor/suppress/brainwash people for cash.
TROLL MY ASS.
ass.
Oh, and pleeease get into the EU; otherwise i’d have no party to put my VOTE OF CONFIDENCE into.
Wow, you beat the green party and communism.
http://young-alumni.com/lolgallery/data/media/2/1239604013584.jpg
didn’t the German pirate party make the membership requirements as well?
so many choices and just one vote..
Vote, Swedes.
Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! ,, vote for the Swedish Pirate Party! ,, and send the scurvy dogs to the plank! ,, Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!
“Wow, you beat the green party and communism.”
————
they didn’t “beat” communism, heavens no…they ARE a new breed of communists!
“they didn’t “beat” communism, heavens no…they ARE a new breed of communists!”
I’d rather say liberalists…
@Bob
“But I make content for a living and if you win, I’m going out of business.”
Good. If you can’t sell your content without the industry putting a proverbial gun to the heads of consumers, then your work can’t stand on its own merits.
I’m sorry that you can’t survive without progress being held back for you, but that’s just too bad. Progress is tired of waiting.
@ Anonymous
“they ARE a new breed of communists!”
LOL. So?
@80: ditto.
Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! ,, vote for the Swedish Pirate Party! ,, and send the scurvy dogs to the plank! ,, Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!
@70 – The swedish juidical system is very political to begin with – this sort of behavour is not at all uncommon. The courts interpret the will of the legislator (the parliament), there is no constitution to uphold or anything like that.
Doing it the way Rick suggests is not really out of the ordinary. Of course, him being in a position where he can actually accomplish that is extremely unlikely. Winning seats in the Swedish parliament will be much harder than doing so in the European Parliament.
Fvck Yes. I’ll be there, voting, voting.
Don’t forget to nominate the pirate party for your local parliament, too, if they’ve got an established party in your country and then after they’ve been admitted, vote for that, too!
CHANGES NEED TO COME!
pirate (or equivalent) party for portugal pulize!
I’m amazed that some folks think that the Pirate Party doesn’t have enough experience in other aspects of government, since when is running a country rocket science ?, if it was rocket science then our pm’s would be scientists surely, currently all I see corrupt politicians doing the bidding of greedy corporations, and the people don’t benefit from this corrupt relationship either.
I am going to vote for the Pirate Party for they actually have a valid mandate to vote for and I doubt they’ll be worse than the current batch in other aspects of running a country.
Considering that most of Swedens political parties have been struggling with drops in membership for years now and that (pp) never had a campain for increasing it’s membership .. Even if only one in a hundred members are willing to vote for them it DOES look like we’ll have pirates in the EU yet.
*yarrrr*
The precedent for dumb and corrupt politicians was set by the previous aministration in the USA, not only was George W. Bush the dumbest politician ever, but he was also the president of a powerful country, and you’re worried about voting for the pirate party…sheesh, there is no comparison at all, the pirate leadership is honest, intelligent and moral in comparison to that bunch previously in the white house.
Estou certo que o melhor para a sociedade é que haja o pagamento de um pacote básico mensal o qual dê direito aos usuários da internet de poder baixar e usar todos os programas, músicas, vídeos, clips, livros literários e científicos. Sendo que a distribuição do dinheiro seria feita com a média ponderada aos serviços e produtos utilizados.
I’m sure that the best for the society is a monthly payment which give to the user the opportunity for downloading and using all programs, musics, videos, clips, books available in the internet (business that are in the project). The money would be shared in weighted average way.
Maybe too simplistic an idea but why not a “Donate” button on something like youtube, where you can donate an ammount once only, once a day, or what ever time span, direct to the Artists account, with limits to stop money laundering etc., so the banks handle the details and calculate the tax.
I’m so damn proud right now. PP ftw!
Guys, you don’t get it.
Having a seat means you get recognized and, most importantly, FUNDED!!!!!!!!!!!
If you think people are willing constantly lobby for P2P issues while not getting reimbursed for their time, well, think again.
And no, this is not irony due to artists not being paid, and at “Bob”, and all others: Read the god damn arguments PRO culture flatrate being both legitimate and necessary if technology and social change has made the per-piece sale model obsolote.
Wake the f**k up to the 21st century and get with it.
As for the whining about flatrates:
We’re not shelling out pay per view per minute but subscribe per month, so why should we pay per minute of music etc etc?
Go TPB fuck em all!
All the angry and hostile posts by MAFIAA drones show me that they are really scared of the Swedish people voting for freedom.
Where can foreigners donate money to help? Can’t we have an article about what people from other countries can do to help the Swedish Pirate Party?
Hollywood sure is manipulating and corrupting the other Swedish parties we should counter that by supporting those that are our friends.
I hope the people who believe and fvote for this party will put some effort in it, what they are trying to do is commendable.
“If you think people are willing constantly lobby for P2P issues while not getting reimbursed for their time, well, think again.”
—————-
IRONY ALERT! CODE RED!
Hell. Yes. I want to send my whole paycheck to support them…
@FatGiant
It would be political suicide for Rick Falkvinge to take a stand on other issue that would lead you away from the central issues we all can agree on and that has rallied so many people here.
If the party were to start leaning left or right it would only devide the voters. Leave the left and right politics to the already established parties, who warry greatly in sweden.
You only get one chance in life to change something fundamental in society and now is that one chance.
We now have a weakspot in the system. They greatly underestimated peoples resolve and how utterly superior we are on the stage that is internet. They can not win on the internet. Here, we create our own news sources, our own laws and our own communities and societies. They can’t win on the internet as it is now, so they will do everything to try to limit and controle the internet. We can all agree, left or right, that this is a fight worth fighting.
Let’s all throw our selfes at the cracks in the system and use this one chance to do something worthwhile.
They should start another internet.
I don’t know what it would take but have heard that it wouldn’t be difficult to do.
They could even sell domain names to help support it.
*why is torrentfreak saying that I’m posting too quiclky when I didn’t even post yet?
@58
“here’s a bit more to life then just internet freedom”
It’s not “just internet freedom”, pal, it’s just freedom, which is a bit broader term. And when you don’t have freedom, there’s nothing to life that matters.
Annnd… THE REVOLUTION BEGINS!
Also, this’ll make torrenting copyrighted content legal, yes?
*books flight to Sweden and says bye to loved ones*
@103 and others:
All donations are most welcome. Running an election campaign isn’t cheap, and we still do it without getting paychecks.
http://www.piratpartiet.se/donate/
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