Xboxist

Sweden's Pirate Party Wins Seat in Euro Parliament

European governments have taken a strict stance on the piracy of electronic media such as music and video games. A recently proposed law in France would have made it possible for the government to ban internet users found to be downloading games from Peer-to-peer networks (the kicker was that banned users would still have to pay for service). The law did not immediately pass through the French courts, but has been pushed forward to September for further consideration. In Sweden, a recent highly-publicized ruling against the operators of The Pirate Bay website resulted in a jail term and a massive fine for the defiant webmasters. That case has gone to appeal.

Results of the European parliamentary elections on June 7th show that piracy has become an important issue for voters. Sweden's Pirate Party, which gained popularity among younger voters during the recent legal prosecution of The Pirate Bay, managed to secure an astonishing 7.13% of the vote in their home country. This victory gives them a seat in the European Parliament in Brussels, where the party says it will fight for online privacy rights and the shortening of commercial copyright.

Party Founder Rick Falkvinge was immediately deluged with press interview requests, and seemed delighted with all of the media coverage:

"Our victory has resounded throughout the world. An international news search for "Pirate Party" revealed 2459 articles--two and a half thousand articles all over the world! If we instead look at Spanish-speaking media and search for "Partido Pirata" on Monday, there were 1898 articles--just under two thousand. Even more impressive is the French-speaking media, where we have 3537 articles around the world," he wrote on his personal blog.

The Pirate Party currently has more than 50,000 official members, making it the third-largest political party in Sweden. It will be interesting to see whether the success of Falkvinge's group spreads beyond Europe, and what significance this has for the video game industry.

A group of Pirate Party supporters protest in Sweden on June 3rd, 2009.