The party’s membership figures tripled within a week of the recent controversial Pirate Bay ruling by a Swedish court concerning on-line file sharing, despite the controversial Pirate Bay file-sharing website having no links with the political party.
Anna Troberg, told Swedish television on Sunday that “Privacy issues and civil liberties are important to people and they demonstrated that clearly when they voted today.”According to the BBC, Rickard Falkvinge, the party leader has stated that “We are writing history and we are securing civil liberties in Sweden, Europe and the world.”
It is anticipated that this political development will liven up debates on IP issues in the European Parliament and will provide a voice combating the recent attempts to extend copyright terms to 90 years, patent protection for software inventions and European patent courts. Is it the beginning of the end?
We’d like to see this development resulting in the European Union appearing on the US 301 Special Watch List. We think this unlikely however.
For more information, see Swedish Pirate Party wins EU parliament seat on the IPKAT.
