Pirate Party Swells After Spectrial Verdict

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Pirate Party Swells After Spectrial Verdict


Following yesterday's verdict in The Pirate Bay trial, a Swedish political party advocating radical reforms to copyright and patent laws has seen a significant surge in its membership

Piratpartiet, also known as simple 'The Pirate Party', saw its membership rise by 3,000 in seven hours after the guilty verdict was announced in the Pirate Bay trial, taking their total membership up to around 18,000, which is a decent size in Sweden and makes Piratpartiet larger than three of the seven parties that make up the Swedish parliament.

Speaking in a press release, Piratpartiet founder Rick Falk Vinge had this to say (translated from Swedish):

"The ruling means that our political work must now be stepped up. We want to ensure that the Pirate Bay's activities - to link people and information - is clearly lawful. And we want to do it for all people in Sweden, Europe and the world," he said, "we want it to be open for ordinary people to disseminate and receive information without fear of imprisonment or astronomical damages."

"We need our members. Unlike the other parties, we are a true grass-roots party, where each member makes a big difference. Of course, member search result that we are strengthened in the election campaign for European elections," he continued.

Piratpartiet has stood for election on a platform of radical copyright law reforms, the right to privacy and the abolition of patents. In the last general election, held in 2006, Piratpartiet won 0.63% of the vote, far short of the 4% needed to be represented in parliament, but enough to make it the third largest non-parliamentary party. Whether the influx of new members will change the party's fortunes in the 2010 general election remains to be seen.

Source: Slashdot [http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/17/2041208&art_pos=1]



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Tech Team FTW!

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Apr 1, 2009
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I'm all for radicals, but I hope that they don't get elected.
The abolition fo patent laws would be too damaging to Swedish industry.
 

Areani

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Dec 18, 2008
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I'm Swedish and the next election will be the first one I'm now old enough to participate in. Should I vote for them? Probably not, but I'm not at all happy with what has happened to The Pirate Bay.
 

WillItWork

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Apr 7, 2008
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At least part of that is becuase of the popular media attention. I don't think most of these new members actually care about the platform or message, and so will inevitably, drop out when the government crackdowns begin.

Of course Swede gov is in trouble, there's a huge amount of pressure from international affairs on them.
 

DamienHell

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Oct 17, 2007
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So you hurt the pirates, then they get stronger...like smashing popeye in the face with a can of spinach
 

kawligia

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Feb 24, 2009
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The abolition of patents is one of those ideas that will get softened up when it comes time for application.

They will see that abolition is not feasible or even reasonable and they will surely compromise on a reform.
 

KDR_11k

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Feb 10, 2009
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They're radicals, they don't really plan on getting elected. Like most radical parties I doubt they have any real ideas for stuff outside of their focus area (e.g. how would they allocate the govt budgets if they had to do it? What tax policies will they follow?)
 

fenrizz

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Feb 7, 2009
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I'd vote for the Pirate Party.
Hope we get one in Norway too:)
Until then I guess I'll vote for SV (Socialistic Left Party).
 

Skrapt

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May 6, 2008
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pantsoffdanceoff said:
Yeah, people shouldn't have rights to their ideas and to sell them, that would be foolish.
I agree with the philosophy behind patent law, however the people getting rich off of patents usually aren't the people who had the ideas in the first place.
 

CoverYourHead

High Priest of C'Thulhu
Dec 7, 2008
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... the abolition of patents...
Um... no. That doesn't make any sense, people should be able to make money off their ideas. This party just wants to be able to steal things.
 

LoopyDood

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Dec 13, 2008
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Skrapt said:
pantsoffdanceoff said:
Yeah, people shouldn't have rights to their ideas and to sell them, that would be foolish.
I agree with the philosophy behind patent law, however the people getting rich off of patents usually aren't the people who had the ideas in the first place.
Yes, better to just steal it to ensure that nobody's happy.

(Note the sarcasm)
 

DeadlyYellow

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Jun 18, 2008
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Skrapt said:
pantsoffdanceoff said:
Yeah, people shouldn't have rights to their ideas and to sell them, that would be foolish.
I agree with the philosophy behind patent law, however the people getting rich off of patents usually aren't the people who had the ideas in the first place.
Sure they are. They just wait and wait until someone else makes their idea successful, and then sues their ass off. It's less work that way.

Can't say I'm too fond of radicals, it's hard to filter out good ideas from a mass of faddish idiots.
 

Usagi_dono

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Mar 26, 2009
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Beeing a swede myself im pretty amazed to be reading this information here at the escapist. Although I dont support piratpartiet so much myself I give them one cheer for the effort, because it may be needed to make things shift if even a little
 

TsunamiWombat

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Sep 6, 2008
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I doubt with that platform they'll get anywhere.

Still, it may send a message that the people do NOT agree with the verdict.
 

lacktheknack

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Jan 19, 2009
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DamienHell said:
So you hurt the pirates, then they get stronger...like smashing popeye in the face with a can of spinach
When he's dead. The pirate party won't be kicking ass any time soon.