Although the Pirates tripled the number of votes compared to last election, it was not enough.

Leading up to today’s elections several polls put the Pirate Party at one seat or more.

However, in the voting booths “only” 0.3% voted for the Pirates according to the latest reports (with 10% of the total vote counted).

Not enough to secure one of the 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament.

Full results are available at Google and Andrew Norton is blogging live.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Their biggest success came in 2009 when the party scored two seats at the European Parliament. During the last year this was followed by dozens more seats in German state parliaments.

For now, however, the Pirates have yet to be voted into a national parliament. With elections coming up next week the Dutch branch of the Pirate Party (Piratenpartij) has become a surprising candidate to reach this milestone.

The Pirates previously participated in the 2010 elections, but with 0.1 percent of the total vote the results were disappointing. This year the polls are more promising with several surveys listing the Pirates as a serious contender for at least one seat.

“There are several polls in the Netherlands, some put us at ‘almost one seat’ and others at almost two seats. Seeing how the Pirate Party also attracts a lot of first time voters who are not really represented in those polls, we feel that two seats is feasible,” party leader Dirk Poot tells TorrentFreak.

Poot is not the stereotypical pimple-faced geek most outsiders expect to see when they read about the Pirate Party. The 44-year old party leader studied business and medicine, and is currently employed as a programmer developing medical software.

Poot says that the Pirate Party is much-needed in the Netherlands for a variety of reasons, not least as a counterbalance to the growing influences of the copyright lobby. One of the prime examples of the damage this lobby has done is the local Pirate Bay blockade.

“The Netherlands is one of the few countries in the world where access to the Pirate Bay has been blocked. During our recent fight with BREIN over our proxy-service, none of the other political parties voiced any protest over the fact that a political party could be censored by a private lobbying organization,” Poot says.

According to Poot the political establishment is not doing enough to address the issues at hand.

“The Dutch Copyright law has been in effect for exactly 100 years, without any significant update. It has been clear for over 10 years that this law desperately needs an update, but this has also been ignored by the existing parties.”

“They have looked the other way while BREIN was allowed to continue building jurisprudence, resulting in a virtually unchallenged position of this foundation as the de-facto Dutch Internet censor,” Poot says.

When elected, the Pirate Party plans to put these issues on the political agenda. However, the Pirates aren’t limiting themselves to file-sharing issues. The debate over medical patents and their effect on the rising costs of the Dutch medical system also became an issue in the election race, in part thanks to the Pirates.

“It was the Pirate Party that managed to put the need for patent reform on the agenda, and the mere fact that we now are participating in the elections and even polling at one or two seats is forcing other political parties to start voicing concerns over the added healthcare costs as a result of pharmaceutical patents,” Poot says.

Freedom of information is also high on the agenda of the Pirates. Unlike other parties it is willing to take a stand for Wikileaks, and the party is protesting a recent proposal that would limit people’s access to government documents.

By bringing up issues that are important to a large group of voters, they are encouraging other parties to take a stand on issues that were previously ignored.

“The Netherlands needs a Pirate Party to show the existing parties that Internet freedom and the sharing of knowledge and culture is a legitimate concern for many voters; it will force the old and established parties to finally take a stand on these issues,” Poot says.

Skeptics claim that with a single seat in the Dutch parliament (there are 150) the Pirate Party won’t be able to achieve anything of significance, but Poot disagrees.

“Even one seat would put us in a position where we could ask questions from within the system, forcing the government to heed and answer those questions. Too often questions from outside groups have been ignored; a seat in parliament would force the authorities to finally answer these concerns. It might even help the authorities to see ‘the error of their ways’.”

“As Engström and Andersdotter [Pirate Party MEPs] have shown in the European Parliament, even one or two seats can make a big difference in the decision-making process, because we’d also be in a position to inform the other members of parliament, which up until now had to rely solely on lobbyist information,” Poot says.

At a minimum, the first seat in a national parliament will be a huge boon to the dozens of other Pirate Parties worldwide. The Dutch elections will be held next Wednesday and they could mark another milestone for the Pirate Party.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The lawsuit is the next move in BREIN’s attempt to deny Dutch citizens’ access to The Pirate Bay.

In January, a Dutch court ruled that Ziggo, the largest ISP in the country, and competitor XS4ALL, must block access to The Pirate Bay. As a result hundreds of individuals setup proxy websites allowing subscribers to route around the blockade, effectively rendering the order useless.

In a countering move BREIN obtained an injunction from the court to shut these proxies down, including one operated by the Pirate Party. However, the Pirates are determined to put up a fight and have taken BREIN to court to get the order overthrown.

The case, in which the Pirate Party asked the court to lift all censorship restrictions, was heard by the court yesterday. BREIN, however, did exactly the opposite by submitting a rather broad set of new demands essentially asking the court to gag the political party.

In short BREIN’s demands are as follows.

1. The Pirate Party should be banned from operating a reverse proxy for Pirate Bay

2. The Pirate Party should be banned from operating a generic proxy service

3. The Pirate Party should be banned from linking to third-party proxies

4. The Pirate Party should be banned from listing new IP-addresses / domains Pirate Bay registers

5. The Pirate Party should be banned from encouraging people to circumvent the Pirate Bay blockade

If the Pirate Party violates the above terms BREIN asked for a penalty of €10,000 per day, up to a maximum of €250,000.

Needless to say, the demands of the anti-piracy group are unprecedented for a copyright related case. It is essentially a gag-order to enforce a previously obtained court verdict. If the court sides with BREIN this will have rather far-reaching consequences for people’s freedom of speech. It may also invite other parties to consider making similar demands.

The question is also how far BREIN wants to take this. Should other generic proxy sites be banned as well? And what about VPNs or the TOR network? All of these services allow the public to bypass the court-ordered blockade.

Meanwhile, the popular Dutch weblog Geenstijl is making some noise as well, as they launched a redirection site (FuckTimKuik.org) that forwards people to available proxies. BREIN has yet to respond to this initiative, but it shows that it will be quite difficult to root out all circumvention methods.

The court’s decision in the case between the Pirate Party and BREIN is expected to be published in two weeks. This verdict will coincide with BREIN’s case against two other Dutch Internet providers that are still allowing access to The Pirate Bay.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Through the lawsuit the Pirates hope to overturn a recent order that prohibits the Party from operating a Pirate Bay proxy site in The Netherlands.

Today the party booked a first victory in court as the Court of The Hague ruled that BREIN can’t demand the Pirates to take down their generic proxy.

Last week the court ruled that the Pirate Party had to shutter its “reverse proxy, and BREIN used this order to demand the takedown of the generic proxy as well. However, the court has now ruled that this goes too far.

Next week the court will hear both parties to decide whether the initial “ex-parte” injunction will hold. If not, the Pirate Party can revive its reverse proxy as well.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Two weeks ago BREIN ordered the Party to take down a reverse Pirate Bay proxy. The site allowed subscribers of two Dutch Internet providers to bypass a court ordered blockade of the notorious torrent site, and BREIN argued that the proxy was sabotaging this order.

Initially the Pirate Party refused to give in to the demands, but when they were confronted with an injunction from the court right before the weekend they had no other choice than to comply. The Pirates took down the reverse proxy and replaced it with a protest page linking to dozens of other ways people can access The Pirate Bay.

On Saturday, BREIN sent a follow-up letter urging the Party to take down these links as well, including the Party’s generic proxy. However, aside from removing the hyperlinks, the Pirates rejected these demands. Instead, they have now announced that they will sue the anti-piracy group.

“By dragging BREIN to court, the Pirate Party finally has the chance to put forward arguments to strike the court injunction that was unilaterally imposed on it last friday by Dutch entertainment industry organization BREIN,” the Party announced today.

Through the courts the Pirate Party hopes to get the ex parte injunction overturned. The Party argues that they have the right to be heard, and say that the court allowed BREIN to take justice into their own hands by adding extra demands under threat of draconian penalties.

“It is time that the industry attack dogs understand that you can’t trample on people’s freedoms for your own monetary gain,” Pirate Party board member blauwbaard says.

“Today we’ll try to explain to the judge how giving BREIN one blocking instrument causes them to stretch it in unjust ways to stifle free speech and the free flow of information. Paraphrasing Victor Hugo, nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come,” he adds.

The Pirate Bay case is keeping BREIN busy this month as the group is also taking two new Dutch Internet providers to court to expand the local blockade.

The Pirate Party is glad that finally they will be able to strike back at their nemesis. Freedom of speech and an Open Internet are two core issues of the Party which they are eager to defend.

“The Dutch Pirate Party calls upon all pirates and freedom-loving landlubbers to stand up and support our fight against censorship. Because as Martin Luther King might have said it, were he alive today, ‘freedom on the Internet is indivisible, a threat to freedom of the Internet anywhere is a threat to freedom on the Internet everywhere’,” they state.

Update: Adding fuel to the fire, the prominent Dutch weblog Geenstijl created a proxy redirector at FuckTimKuik.org. Ouch.

Update 2: The Pirate Party scored a first victory in court.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The verdict was welcomed by local anti-piracy outfit BREIN, but several copyright lawyers and opponents at the other end of the copyright spectrum have heavily criticized it. The ruling sets a dangerous precedent for future cases and may very well lead to more control and censorship by the pro-copyright lobby at the expense of people’s freedoms, they argued.

Aside from the critique on the decision itself, the integrity of the judge who handed out the verdict has also been called into question. Immediately after the verdict people involved with the Dutch Pirate Party, which is on the ballot of tomorrow’s elections, pointed out that the judge might not be as objective as he could be.

It turns out that the movie company lawyer Dirk Visser, the same person who also scored a victory for BREIN against Mininova, has been organizing a course for copyright specialists where Judge Hensen was once of the teachers. This prompted the Pirate Party politicians to doubt the objectiveness of the judge. Sweden’s Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge, who’s currently supporting his Dutch colleagues in the election run, has been the most vocal about the issue.

“It’s stories like this that show why today’s politicians simply must be kicked from office,” Falkvinge told TorrentFreak in a comment. “If they don’t see a problem with this — and apparently, they don’t — then it’s absolutely critical to the integrity of society and faith in the justice system that, quite frankly, some heads roll in tomorrow’s elections in favor of the Dutch Pirate Party.”

“Every time something like this happens, you think the copyright lobby has fallen to a moral rock bottom. Then as soon as you turn your back, they take out a jackhammer and start digging.” Falkvinge added. “I expect this will boost support for the Dutch Piratenpartij, and for good reason. Today’s politicians need to learn that their seats aren’t taken for granted,” Falkvinge added.

In the current polls the Dutch Pirate Party is still lacking enough support to be able to scoop a seat at the local parliament, but there’s still a day to go for them. Undoubtedly, stories about conspiring copyright lobbyists and possible biased judges may help to give that final push.

Despite the election outcome, FTD announced today that it will appeal the verdict of the case. They don’t intend to follow up the bias claims, FTD’s lawyer told TorrentFreak.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

A few weeks later, the Pirates in Germany entered the local Parliament after a member of another party switched sides.

In 2010 the Pirate Parties hope to continue this hot streak, especially during the Swedish national elections later this year. However, Sweden is not the only country where a Pirate Party will end up at the ballot. In the UK the local Pirate Party hopes to compete as well and the Dutch party has now decided to do the same.

In recent months there has been a lot of political debate regarding Dutch copyright law which currently allows people to download copyrighted movies and music for personal use. Several established parties have shown interest in criminalizing file-sharers, something the Pirate Party hopes to avoid.

Instead, the Pirates would like to shorten the copyright term to 5 years and legalize sharing of all copyrighted material on the Internet. Tim Kuik, head honcho at the local anti-piracy outfit BREIN, is not afraid of politically organized pirates and described the Party’s plans as short sighted and unrealistic.

Samir Allioui, Chairman of the Pirate Party, told TorrentFreak that he’s very happy with Kuik’s negative comments. “He gives people a good reason to vote for us,” he said, referring to the negative view that most people have of BREIN.

If elected, the party will do everything it can to stop abuses of copyright, promote Net Neutrality and push for patent reform. The party is further committed to increasing transparency, strengthening fundamental rights and protecting privacy.

Despite the enthusiasm of the party’s members, there is still a long way to go before they can actually compete in the election on June 9th. One of the biggest hurdles is the requirement to deposit a sum of 12,000 euros, a barrier which is meant to prevent too many parties from entering the election.

Samir is confident that they will be able to raise the money in the weeks to come. He encourages all sympathizers to become a member of the Party and help to get the Pirate Party on the ballot.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.