[Infowarrior] - Sweden's Pirate Party captures Euro seat

[Richard Forno]

Sweden's Pirate Party captures Euro seat
Sun Jun 7, 2009 10:09pm GMT
http://af.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idAFTRE55623320090607
By Veronica Ek

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - 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."

Previously an obscure group of single-issue activists, the party  
enjoyed a jump in popularity after the conviction in April of four men  
behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing  
website.

The case cast a spotlight on the issue of internet file-sharing, a  
technique used to download movies, music and other content. The  
defendants have called for a retrial.

Despite the similar names, the party and the website are not linked.  
The party was founded in 2006 and contested a Swedish general election  
that year, but received less than one percent of the vote.

Engstrom credited the party's appeal to young voters for its success.  
"We are very strong among those under 30. They are the ones who  
understand the new world the best. And they have now signalled they  
don't like how the big parties deal with these issues."

The Pirate Party will take up one of Sweden's 18 seats in the 785-seat  
parliament. "We will use all of our strength to defend personal  
integrity and our civil rights," Engstrom said.

(Reporting by Veronica Ek, writing by Adam Cox)

© Thomson Reuters 2009.