In more than a dozen countries local Pirate Parties were also present at the ballots, with serious ambitions.

During the last elections in 2009 the Pirate Party surprised friend and foe by gaining two seats at the European Parliament. This year they hoped to equal or improve upon that success, but the goal proved out of reach.

The final results show that the German Pirate Party is certain of a seat, with 1.4% of the total vote. This means that 27-year-old Julia Reda will represent the Pirates in Brussels during the next five years.

In the Czech Republic the Pirate Party came awfully close too. They achieved 4.78% of the total vote where 5% was needed, just 3,337 votes short of a seat in Brussels. The party has announced that it will appeal the 5% barrier.

In Sweden, where it all started, the Pirate Party managed 2.2% of the total vote. That’s down from 7.1% during the previous European Election and not enough for a continued stay in Brussels for the Swedish Pirates.

In Luxembourg the Pirate Party did very well with 4.23% of the total vote. However, this doesn’t translate into a seat since the country only has six seats available. The result does mean that the party will receive funding from Europe during the years to come, which was an aim they had shared with us two weeks ago.

In all the other countries where Pirates were on the ballot the achievements are also below the threshold for a seat.

This includes Finland where Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde participated. Sunde is the most popular Pirate there, but the party only managed 0.7% of the vote, not enough for him to be elected.

While many had hoped for at least two seats, or more, the German seat is still quite an impressive achievement.

When the Swedish Pirate Party entered the European Parliament five years ago most people thought it was a fluke. However, the Pirates managed to stay in Brussels, supported by the votes of close to a million people all across Europe.

This sentiment is shared by Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party. “As a movement, we went from two seats to one, being ridiculously close to three seats,” Falkvinge tells TorrentFreak.

“Still, there’s no points for a near-hit in any game. The most important thing was that there would be Pirates in the European Parliament after this election day, and we achieved that. The story continues, and there’s representation on the inside,” he adds.

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

The Pirate Party movement currently has two Swedish Members of the European Parliament. In the 2014 elections the Pirates are participating in many countries, hoping to expand the success story.

With Sunde the Finnish party definitely has one of the most prominent candidates on the ballot.

As an Internet entrepreneur and the former spokesperson of The Pirate Bay, Sunde’s subversive work is already known to millions of people across Europe. Despite a pending prison term for his involvement with The Pirate Bay, he is determined to disrupt the European Parliament in Brussels.

Today, Sunde launches his run for the European Parliament elections with a rather unusual video. Instead of scolding the competition, the campaign will highlight several personality traits of the Pirate Bay co-founder, starting with his romantic side.

“Most politicians are boring and unromantic. Romance is needed because it means you have a heart and a soul,” Sunde told TF commenting on the relevance of romance in politics.

Most of all, however, Sunde wants to bring back ideology to modern-day politics. Instead of taking notes from powerful lobbyists and bashing other politicians, he wants to let people know what he believes in, and how that should be accomplished.

“I’m tired of careerists in politics who rather talk about what the other guys are doing wrong instead of talking about what our future should be. I see no ideology in politics anymore, but we never needed it more than today,” Sunde tells TF.

“Politicians in general, EU-politicians in particular, are prone to listening to lobbyists and afraid of not getting re-elected. I am clear with what I want, and I will fight for those no matter what lobbyists will say,” he adds.

Running for the Pirate Party, Sunde is in favor of decriminalizing file-sharing for personal use. In addition, he wants to keep the Internet free and open, without needless censorship and restrictions.

“We need a free Internet, an open democratic society, more transparency in governments,” he says.

The Pirate Bay co-founder is well aware of the fact that he is not the typical Parliament member, but that may be a strength rather than a weakness. In any case, he definitely stands out.

“I might be a weird fit for the EU but that’s exactly why I think I’m needed. My campaign videos are probably quite weird too, just for the same reason,” Sunde concludes.

In a few weeks we will know if the Finns agree that Sunde is the right choice to represent them in Brussels.

Photo credit

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

At the time the Internet looked entirely different from how it does today and as a result many lawmakers believe that significant reforms are needed to bring legislation into line with present reality.

Last year several Members of the European Parliament sent a letter to the President of the European Commission to take up this issue.

“People all over the EU are increasingly concerned that the copyright system is no longer for them, and that many aspects of copyright law as it is currently applied, managed and interpreted by courts in the member states is not satisfactory or relevant,” the letter read.

However, thus far the Commission has not followed this up, which has prompted the MEPs to take more concrete action themselves. This coming Tuesday European Parliament Members Amelia Andersdotter, Marietje Schaake and Pawel Zalewski will host an event to highlight the lack of progress and the need for change.

Talking to TorrentFreak, hostess and Pirate Party MEP Amelia Andersdotter explains that the current copyright directive is heavily outdated. It restricts people’s ability to enjoy and share culture, as they constantly have to worry about the legal ramifications.

“Infosoc has created a horrible licensing nightmare that no one is able to penetrate. Those who make use of culture – filesharers, DJs, libraries, schools – live in a constant state of uncertainty,” Andersdotter tells TorrentFreak.

“It’s really difficult to find out what the freedoms and rights are of those who use culture. What is permitted and not permitted? When is someone at risk of getting sued? The law really needs to make that more clear.”

Decriminalization of file-sharing is one of the issues that’s on the agenda. This directly affects over hundred million Europeans and will facilitate the development of new business models.

But, while the file-sharing issue is good for grabbing headlines, the changes called for by Andersdotter and her colleagues are much broader.

Information in general should be more readily available across Europe, without complex copyright limitations and restrictions.

“We want a reform of the copyright framework to enable greater legal certainty for those who make use of cultural works. Considerably more flexibilities should be worked into the system to enable better access to culture for libraries, online archives, research, visually impaired people and educators,” Andersdotter says.

“Decriminalizing file-sharing should of course be included in such a reform. That would decrease a lot of the negative pressure on new business models online, and on non-commercial uses of works.”

This coming Tuesday these and other issues will be discussed during “The Case of Text and Data Mining” event. This event has been setup to encourage a more coordinated effort among MEPs of various parties to get the copyright reform ball rolling.

“My hopes are that this event will be the first step towards a longer-term platform for collaboration between like-minded members of Parliament who keep the interests of the European public at heart,” Andersdotter says.

“Starting next year, we have a new parliament and a new Commission, so I have a strong feeling that we need to coordinate early how to ensure that better legal certainty, and more freedom to use culture is established as a norm. More than any other time in Internet history, it’s important to build common and shared platforms of cultural exchange and dialogue,” she concludes.

For those who are interested, tickets for the event – which will also be streamed live – are still available.

Update: a recorded version of the stream is available here.

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

One recognized the calls from citizens that there were problems with legal ambiguity, with the slippery-slope actions of the treaty, and that for a treaty on counterfeiting it’s odd that the main counterfeiting countries were not included. This group of MEP’s also noted several times that the treaty just won’t work, and that it should “go in the bin” as German MEP Cornelia Ernst put it. These MEP’s plan on rejecting ACTA.

On the other side were those calling to refer things to the European Court of Justice. This call is widely seen as a delaying move, pushing the vote months (maybe even years down the line) and allowing it to pass when public opposition isn’t so united. The main arguments here reiterated figures of job losses and economic impacts. Claims of a hundred thousand jobs lost every year were mentioned, and billions of euros in lost revenue and taxes were brought up several times, but the real heartstring-puller was counterfeit medicines. Plenty of pro-ACTA supporters mentioned that counterfeit medicines have killed people, and so this treaty is needed.

It was the end statements that were probably most interesting though. Karel De Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, played down the concerns of secrecy and lack of transparency by claiming he was the one that brought ACTA into the open. Clearly he forgot about when MEP’s were forbidden to discuss the contents of ACTA while he was in charge, causing Pirate MEP Christian Engstrom to walk out. He also tried to put the blame for any surveillance society that arises on member states, as that’s where the criminal sanctioned were negotiated.

Meanwhile, ACTA rapporteur David Martin commented on the parallel discussion on twitter, and observed there were two main demographic groups opposed to ACTA. One was the Under25’s, but the other group were central and eastern Europeans, who had previously lived with their freedoms curtailed and were frightened about it happening again. He also noted with incredulity that the impression of listening to the people that elected the MEP’s to office is being populist, while listening to multinational corporations is being responsive. His point being that it’s the job of the European Parliament to represent their Constituents, who are emphatically saying ‘no’.

The stage is now set for a showdown tomorrow. The decision will be between the European Court of Justice and more delays; or an outright rejection.

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

This week the Greens released a position paper with their view on copyright in the digital era, which mimics the Pirate Party agenda. The paper goes directly against the current trend of increasing control over copyright, and calls for a society that secures the interests of the public instead of a few multi-million dollar companies.

One of the key proposals is to legalize file-sharing for personal use. “Non commercial sharing between individuals should be allowed, for instance by widening the scope of the existing private copying exception,” the Greens write.

In addition, restrictive technologies such as DRM should be banned entirely, or at least decriminalized.

“It must always be legal to circumvent DRM restrictions, and we should consider introducing a ban in the consumer rights legislation on DRM technologies that restrict legal uses of a work,” the paper reads.

“There is no point in having our parliaments introduce a balanced and reasonable copyright legislation, if at the same time we allow the big multinational corporations to write their own laws, and enforce them through technical means,” it adds.

The Greens also want to reduce the copyright term from 70 to 5 years, with an option for copyright holders to extend it to a maximum of 20 years. The Greens call the current situation “absurd” and argue that society will greatly benefit from a more reasonable copyright term.

“Today’s protection times — life plus 70 years — are absurd. No investor would even look at a business case where the time to pay-back was that long,” they write.

Overall the paper suggests a reduction in the current stranglehold on creativity and a boost for the Internet to allow it to show its full potential. According to the Greens this also means that Net Neutrality should be guaranteed, and that remixes and mashups of copyrighted works for commercial use should be allowed.

Talking to TorrentFreak, Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom says that the Greens proposal perfectly resembles what the Pirate Party has been fighting for in recent years.

“I think it’s great,” Engstrom says. “The paper starts off by first going through what the situation is and what the goals are from a Green perspective, and then ends up in the same proposal for copyright reform that the Pirate Party advocates. This makes perfect sense.”

“The idea of copyright reform has existed among Greens before the Pirate Party got involved, but we have helped giving the Greens a push to really put it on the agenda,” he adds.

For Engstrom and all the other Pirate Party employees in Brussels this confirms that they can make a difference, and that the support the Pirate Party got in the 2009 elections was justified.

“I was sent to Brussels by 225,000 Swedish voters who voted for the Pirate Party, with the task to spread the Pirate ideas in the parliament, so that we can one day get the majority for the ideas that we need. This is of course a very big job, but this is a first milestone. It shows that the Pirates can deliver when they get the chance,” Engstrom concludes.

The enthusiasm of the copyright reform paper isn’t limited to Brussels either. Many pirate party members and volunteers will see it as a sign that they can make a difference.

“We know that our ideas are sound for the future, says Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party.

“It is great to see that they are getting larger and larger support. To see one of the seven party groups in the European Parliament adopt our entire perspective as its own is a gigantic leap forward for the civil liberties of the next generation.

“Just like the Green perspective took some time to be fully understood 40 years ago, so will ours. But understanding and endorsement of the pirate perspective keeps growing, and I expect it continue doing so until it is as common sense as acting sustainably,” Falkvinge adds.

The position paper of the Greens can be called revolutionary. However, the group is only a minority in the European Parliament, so there’s a long way to go before it will become law. It’s nonetheless a clear sign that copyright reform is gaining broader acceptance.

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

Although organizations such as the MPA(A), IFPI and the BSA announce press releases in public on a regular basis, much of the hardcore lobbying occurs behind closed doors. Today we present one of these backroom lobbying letters that the groups would rather keep to themselves.

The letter in question was sent to Jerzy Buzek, the President of the European Parliament, and deals with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). In summary, ACTA paves the way for draconian anti-piracy measures to be introduced globally. The ACTA text was finalized last year, but the EU has yet to sign the agreement.

To fully understand the implications of ACTA, and to ask whether it is compatible with other European treaties, the European Parliament indicated that it would like to hear the opinion of the European Court of Justice.

However, this is not appreciated by the pro-copyright lobby, who want to see the agreement signed as soon as possible. In their letter they therefore urge the Parliament to skip the legal review and sign the agreement without asking further questions.

“We support ACTA and believe that this Treaty is important to protect Europe’s innovative and creative industries from unfair competition and consumers from fake and pirated goods in a globalised marketplace,” the letter starts.

But after the obligatory introduction it quickly moves on to the core message:

“While we welcome the prerogatives in IP and trade matters conferred to the European Parliament under the new Treaty, we are concerned that the procedure of seeking an Opinion from the ECJ will substantially delay the final adoption and implementation of ACTA and weaken the position of the EU vis-à-vis its international trading partners as a leader in proposing and supporting effective enforcement of intellectual property rights globally,” it continues.

In short, the pro-copyright groups argue that asking for a legal review at the European Court of Justice could hurt the EU because international partners (US, Japan, Australia etc.) would no longer see them as leaders in intellectual property enforcement. They advise the EU to leave the Court of Justice out of the process and simply sign immediately.

“Given the Parliament’s signal that it supports strong enforcement of IP provisions in the EU’s trade agreements, we hope that the European Parliament will give its consent to ACTA with no further delays,” the letter concludes.

The above is quite a bold request of course, and the 21 outfits that signed the letter are fully aware that it’s not something the public would like to hear about. This is probably the reason why none of the pro-lobby groups included or even referenced the letter in their frequent press releases. When trying to maintain a certain image, it seems that some things are better left behind closed doors.

TorrentFreak obtained a full copy of the letter (embedded below) of which excerpts appeared on IPtegrity earlier this week. According to the document’s metadata, the letter was not written by any of the pro-copyright groups but by Joanne Scobie of the lobby firm Policy Action, which is by itself telling.

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

With 99.9% of the districts counted the Pirates have 7.1 percent of the votes, beating several established parties. This means that the Pirate Party will get at least one, but most likely two of the 18 (+2) available seats Sweden has at the European Parliament.

When we asked Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge about the outcome, he told TorrentFreak: “We’ve felt the wind blow in our sails. We’ve seen the polls prior to the election. But to stand here, today, and see the figures coming up on that screen… What do you want me to say? I’ll say anything”

“Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it,” Falkvinge said. “This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities’ mass-surveillance,” he added.

The turnout at the elections is 43 percent, a little higher than the at the 2004 elections. This would mean that roughly 200,000 Swedes have voted for the Pirate Party. This is a huge increase compared to the national elections of 2006 where the party got 34,918 votes.

Both national and international press have gathered in Stockholm where the Pirate Party is celebrating its landmark victory.

At least partially, The Pirate Party puts its increased popularity down to harsh copyright laws and the recent conviction of the people behind The Pirate Bay. After the Pirate Bay verdict, Pirate Party membership more than tripled and they now have over 48,000 registered members, more than the total number of votes they received in 2006.

With their presence in Brussels, the Pirate Party hopes to reduce the abuses of power and copyright at the hands of the entertainment industries, and make those activities illegal instead. On the other hand they hope to legalize file-sharing for personal use.

“It’s great fun to be a pirate right now”, Christian Engström, Vice Chairman of the Pirate Party told the press when he arrived.

Update: Sweden has 20 seats, but until the Lisbon treaty passes only 18 with voting rights. This means that the Pirate Party will have 2 seats.

Update: In Germany the Pirate Party got approximately 1 percent of the votes, not enough for a seat in the European Parliament. Andreas Popp, lead candidate for the German Pirate Party is pleased and told TorrentFreak: “This was the first time, we ran for the European elections. And although many voters have hardly known us, we got a great result. This shows, that many citizens identify themselves with our goals. I want to thank all people who supported us, we could not have done that without them. We have fulfilled our minimal goal of 0,5%. Now we can start up for real!”

Update: Here’s a feature article on the election night and outcome.

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

The report from Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis concerning security and the protection of fundamental freedoms on the Internet, has been accepted by an overwhelming majority. The European Parliament adopted the report with 481 votes in favor, 25 against and 21 abstentions. French proposals that would allow a ‘graduated response’ aka ’3 strikes’ regime to deal with alleged copyright infringers were rejected.

“While ensuring that the Internet is more secure is a legitimate goal for our societies, we must monitor and restrict the use of surveillance and control techniques that threaten our freedoms, especially in cases which question its necessity, proportionality and effectiveness,” says the report.

In a clear snub to both the French government and copyright holders the report says, “Governments or private companies should not see the denial of such access as a means of imposing sanctions, as proposed in some countries in the union.”

The report further states that computer and electronic literacy is the new literacy of the 21st century and that guaranteeing Internet access to all European citizens is synonymous with guaranteeing education.

The French tried to protect their upcoming 3 Strikes law, but failed. An amendment proposed to read, “Access to the Internet should not be the subject of abuse for purposes of illegal activities and that a balance between the various basic rights guaranteed in Community legislation must be respected,” was rejected.

At this stage it is unclear if this pressure from the European Parliament will cause the French to reconsider their ’3 strikes’ plans. It would not be the first time Sarkozy has chosen to ignore the democratic vote.

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

Even though the European Parliament has voted against so called “three-strikes” proposals twice before, this is also suggested as a viable measure against piracy. It’s proposed that ISPs should disconnect subscribers who share copyrighted content, based on information provided by the entertainment industry.

In addition, national courts are encouraged to take action against BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay. Apparently, the report deems BitTorrent sites to be illegal – which is a bold statement without any legal backup. Last year, Italy imposed a nation wide block on The Pirate Bay, but this was reversed in court due to a lack of jurisdiction; this might change if the new proposals are adopted.

In a draft of the report we read “The activities of websites that are part of the peer-to-peer phenomenon and which allow downloading of protected works or services without the necessary authorisation are illegal, and no exception can be applied to them. So the activity of internet users who send files to their peers must be regarded as an illegal act of communication to the public without the possibility of exceptions being applied.”

ISPs are further encouraged to identify and filter copyright infringing content on their networks. As we’ve said before, this might work on networks such as FastTrack/Kazaa, but it remains unclear what methods the ISP will have to implement to distinguish between copyright infringing and legal content on more tricky networks, such as BitTorrent. That will be a tough job, if not impossible. In common with RIAA recommendations, the report suggests that ISPs should be held liable for the actions of their customers.

More details are available on La Quadrature, with Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of the site commenting, “The Medina report is ridiculous and full of repressive measures. It is in total contradiction with what MEPs voted twice against ‘graduated response’ and with the realities of Internet. It only favors entertainment industries and doesn’t contain anything for culture, the artists, or their public.”

Of course, we encourage all of our European readers to write to their representatives in the European Parliament, as this is clearly not the right path to take.

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