Swedish anti-software patent campaigners have won a seat in the EU parliament after winning more than 7 percent of the vote in the country’s European election.
The Swedish Pirate Party (Piratpartiet) won 7.1 percent of the vote spurred in part by the recent controversy surrounding the prosecution of the founders of The Pirate Bay file-sharing website.
In a statement released this week, Rick Falkvinge, chairman of the Piratpartiet said that the victory showed that there was support – particularly from young voters – for issues around digital freedom. “We have just written political history,” he said.”Politicians have learned that doing what the lobby asks will cost them their jobs. We’re the largest party in the segment below 30 years of age. That’s building the future of liberties.”
In April a Swedish court handed down a guilty verdict and a year in prison to all four defendants in a copyright test case involving The Pirate Bay. The four defendants are appealing the verdict.
Pirate Party International, which represents pirate parties across Europe, says its aims include reforming the copyright system which it believes has been skewed to benefit the interests of record labels and film studios.
“The official aim of the copyright system has always been to find a balance in order to promote culture being created and spread.The Pirate Party wants to restore the balance in the copyright legislation,” the organisation states. “All non-commercial copying and use should be completely free. File sharing and p2p networking should be encouraged rather than criminalised. Culture and knowledge are good things, that increase in value the more they are shared. The Internet could become the greatest public library ever created.”
The German Pirate Party also garnered support with 0.9 percent of the votes which its supporters claim will help attract more funding.
UK campaigners The Open Rights Group said that it was important that the EU elections gave proper attention to digital rights. “The story of digital rights shows that citizens will act to defend their rights while others seek to erode them, and will expect Parliamentarians to act in citizens’ interests. Defence of our digital rights, based on our human rights and legitimate user expectations, is an opportunity for parliamentarians to gain the trust of citizens if they have the political courage to act,” the group said in a blog entry.
Andrew Norton, head of Pirate Party International said the movement has seen increased support over the last few years. “In just 42 short months, we have seen drastic growth and massive awareness worldwide,” he said. “Governments are supposed to represent their people, to work for their good, and yet more and more governments are sliding either to the pockets of the Special Interests, or into the role of ‘Tyrant’.”
The Pirate Party is also campaigning to curb software patents and controls on personal privacy. “Following the 9/11 event in the US, Europe has allowed itself to be swept along in a panic reaction to try to end all evil by increasing the level of surveillance and control over the entire population,” the group states. “We Europeans should know better. It is not twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and there are plenty of other horrific examples of surveillance-gone-wrong in Europe’s modern history”
The four men who ran the Pirate Bay website were sentenced to a year in prison in April and fined 30 million kronor (£2.4 million), by a Swedish court which found them guilty of abetting copyright theft.
Pirate Bay, one of the biggest file-sharing websites in the world, was found to be an accessory to copyright theft, by directing visitors to material held on other sites. Warner Brothers, Sony, EMI, 20th Century Fox and others have been asking for 100 million kronor of damages to cover lost revenues.
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[Sadien Editorial]
I've seen this story floating around for several days now.
Piracy is bad. No question about it. I believe bigger question is, "What is an appropriate definition of piracy?"
Copyright holders should have an absolute right to protect their content, and distribute it as they see fit. If they wish to charge for it, great. If they wish to give it away for free, that's great too.
The point is, it should be the copyright holder's choice.
Forcing an individual or entity to GIVE AWAY their work-product, is slavery. And, I mean that literally, by definition.
If you had a 25 year old man. And you forced him work for 100's of hours to create a "widget"... then gave it away to the public for free... with no compensation to the young man... every special-interest group on the planet would be screaming the words "slavery" and "human rights violations" on behalf of the young workman.
Yet, when that "young man" is a multi-billion dollar content provider... the entire mood shifts to "Oh..they've got the money... screw 'em."
Is this fair?
Please understand, my group is NOT, ABSOLUTELY NOT, an advocate for "big-software," "Hollywood," or any other commercial group. We believe those groups can be unfair, unethical, and use heavy-handed tactics to push their own agenda.
Our opinion is that content providers and content users should co-exist in a mutually beneficial, peaceful relationship.
Which brings me back to my original premise, are we losing something in translation on this topic.
I mean, they're called "The Pirate Party." The American definition of "piracy," is "illegal theft."
It stands to reason that people (specifically Americans) might question a "Piracy Party" being elected to any office. They same way I would question politcal parties named "The Kitten Kickers" or "The Grandma Haters."
Did the EU just fill a political seat with a known, willful criminal element? Or are we missing something here?
Sadien Staff
Sadien, Inc.
http://www.sadien.com