Sweden's free-Web Pirate Party captures Euro seat

[0iD]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/techno...5571HM20090608

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."

Yaaar!

[AntiTalent]

I'm against a charged-for tiered internet system, so fair enough. This probably raises the number of MEPs who understand how youtube, streaming, and copyright protection work to about 2.

That said I wonder what other policies they'll take a stand on, or will they simply jump on the gravy train and abuse the funding like the BNP will.

[Steve]

It's a shame the BNP got seats too.

[kalniel]

We'll be trading turnips before you know it

[neonplanet40]

Woooo go on the pirate party!!!

[aidanjt]

Yo ho, me harties.

[Georgy291]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttttttttttt

long live pirate bay

[pollaxe]

A good thing, in my view. Not because I'm a freetard or pirate but simply because I think it stands a slight chance of enabling more of a balance in future debates/legislation. Free-for-all copyright theft is not the way forward for a civilised society however neither is the bilge and blatant misinformation the various pro-legislation scaremongering pressure groups on the other side of the argument peddle around either.

[Russ]

It's a shame the BNP got seats too.

it's a great shame i have to work to fund people who dont want too, but hey-ho

[jim]

I might have voted for them if they'd have been standing here, got extremely angry with some of the ridiculous show-trials that were being carried out in the US by the MPAA/RIAA and the like a couple of years back.

[awm]

A good thing, in my view. Not because I'm a freetard or pirate but simply because I think it stands a slight chance of enabling more of a balance in future debates/legislation. Free-for-all copyright theft is not the way forward for a civilised society however neither is the bilge and blatant misinformation the various pro-legislation scaremongering pressure groups on the other side of the argument peddle around either.

I really couldn't have said it better myself. It's really a fight where you really want to see both sides loose.

[kalniel]

Yep and you have to say that if you don't agree with copyright law then forming a political party and giving people the chance to vote for you to enable a change of that law is exactly the right way to go about changing things. Unlike just disregarding the law like pirate bay freetards.

[GoNz0]

It's a shame the BNP got seats too.

not like there going to get any power, but finally a handfull are standing up and saying enough is enough.

[kalniel]

not like there going to get any power, but finally a handfull are standing up and saying enough is enough.

That's not quite all they're saying to be honest..

[Clunk]

[TheAnimus]

It's a shame the BNP got seats too.

Yes, and no.

One of the problems with racisim is when people deny it. I'm full of predudice, on the tube today at about 3pm (isn't gardening leave awsome!) i was in a half empty carrage when some girl started screaming leave me alone on the platform. We're in zone 3 london, so i assume i won't get stabbed and go see whats going on. I was immediately on the side of the screaming girl until i realised she was completely hysterical, there was this other bloke there who was so blind to the fact he knew nothing about the situation, it could easily of ended badly. These sort of things always make me think.

If we pretend we don't have any predudice, we can allow ourslef to make very foolish decisions, whilst we're actually giving in to it, or sometimes overcompensating. Having the BNP there in a pratically insignificant proportion might really help remind people to have checks and balances in both ways. Its not a bad thing outright, allowing mass migration can be quite devistating, what amazes me about the wounderfully openly xenophobic daily mail is how they never said "whats happening to poland suffering a brain drain?" To me it was poland who got the raw deal, we suddenly got a glut of sometimes talented, but always driven workers.

With a member like the BNP hopefully people will enter in to debate, its not as if the racists can just make decisions, they have to perswade others, and not be deswaded by their idelogy.

We'll be trading turnips before you know it

That was my thought! Brave new world, but like the racists above, you should always have a balance, we need some people on one extremitity to try and keep the other in check. Hopefully these people will ensure warrents are always needed etc.