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here you go! Courtesy of Labs2 and The pirate party.

Now, I can't read swedish,

They have a page in english too. It would be strange if they didn't, giving the amount of attention the party have received abroad. :)

Dude, before you assume this or that, please at least read the US analogue site's issues page: Issues.

Yes, it's hard to believe, but they actually foresaw that there would be some international interest in this whole thing. :-)

By the way, thanks for posting the HTML as plaintext - made quoting easier.

Dude, before you assume this or that, please at least read the US analogue site's issues page: Issues.

Yes, it's hard to believe, but they actually foresaw that there would be some international interest in this whole thing. :-)

By the way, thanks for posting the HTML as plaintext - made quoting easier.

Dude, before you assume this or that, please at least read the US analogue site's issues page: Issues.

Yes, it's hard to believe, but they actually foresaw that there would be some international interest in this whole thing. :-)

By the way, thanks for posting the HTML as plaintext - made quoting easier.

• Austria
• Belgium
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Poland
• Russia
• Spain
• Sweden
• USA

There are Pirate Parties cropping up across the world, working together through the internet and having the same goals. I believe this is a step in the right direction: politics need to be globalized, because economies are globalized already - no big corporations gives a crap about national borders.

If you look at the forums (e.g. the Swedish one) it is inspiring to see people disregarding national boundaries and helping each other out as equals. Added to that the sentiment that 'You can use anything I create and vice versa it'll be interesting to see what will become of it.

There are Pirate Parties cropping up across the world, working together through the internet and having the same goals. I believe this is a step in the right direction: politics need to be globalized, because economies are globalized already - no big corporations gives a crap about national borders.

If you look at the forums (e.g. the Swedish one) it is inspiring to see people disregarding national boundaries and helping each other out as equals. Added to that the sentiment that 'You can use anything I create and vice versa it'll be interesting to see what will become of it.

Right = anti-immigration, being tough on crime, corporate interests etc. Racism to keep the rabble happy while the rich suck them dry.

I live in China, where DRM effectively doesn't exist and bootlegs are widely available, without much chance of getting sued by the RIAA. It has killed the CHinese entertainment and everybody knows it. A recent movie of "Crazy Stone" stunned everybody by making a small profit. The key to its profitability was somehow, it took a whole week before quality bootlegs became widely available. That is a lot more important factor than the quality or basic appeal of a movie

Given the choice, people don't want to spend any money. Either you have to make new business models (typically involving all artists becoming advertisements), you have to abandon the entertainment industry, or you need DRM & copyright protection. Your system of people voluntarily giving money wouldn't work.

I live in China, where DRM effectively doesn't exist and bootlegs are widely available, without much chance of getting sued by the RIAA. It has killed the CHinese entertainment and everybody knows it. A recent movie of "Crazy Stone" stunned everybody by making a small profit. The key to its profitability was somehow, it took a whole week before quality bootlegs became widely available. That is a lot more important factor than the quality or basic appeal of a movie

Given the choice, people don't want to spend any money. Either you have to make new business models (typically involving all artists becoming advertisements), you have to abandon the entertainment industry, or you need DRM & copyright protection. Your system of people voluntarily giving money wouldn't work.

Surely any real predator would, in light of this, access their IM services via an anonymous VPN service, thus rendering the whole thing pointless. The only thing that this would get used for, as many stated earlier, is wasting police time.
Nice idea, though..

Piracy is not what the party is about, it's a name they picked to be noticable.
The consumer rights party would be a stupid name, as it would infer some capitalist values and the party does not take a stance in questions like that.
Everyone please read! http://www2.piratpartiet.se/international/english
The party is here to counter the police state we are turning into with Bodström giving the lobbying organisations whatever they want, and to put a stop to the silliness of patents and eternal copyright.

Frankly, I could live forever without their content. But I object very strongly to the idea that anyone, including them, should have a right to stop me passing on information if I choose to. I disagree with the idea that people "own" "information itself". Only copies exist. Only copies should be ownable. If they don't want stuff being redistributed, they shouldn't release it in the first place. Enforcement of copyright is used as an excuse for police-state building.

Hence my support for the PIRATE PARTY. Go pirates! http://www.piratpartiet.se/

For small parties in sweden there seems to be a rather fixed ratio between the party member count and the number of votes they get in parliamentary elections. Given the current member count of the swedish Pirate Party, they may get into parliament with a margin of a few thousand votes.

And the polls show that the other parties in Sweden are divided into two blocks of equal size that both want to have government power. So if the swedish Pirate Party gets into the swedish parliament, they may actually be able to decide who is going to form the next government in Sweden.

Christian Engström already gave links to their main pages in both english and swedish. I'd like to add a link to their donation information page (scroll to the bottom for international donations).

That's what one lawyer said, but there is no chance they go through with the case.

But through the ballot box I think it can, at least in Europe.

If somebody here knows Mr. Hogan personally, please feel free to direct his attention to the Swedish political party Piratpartiet (The Pirate Party). We are standing for parliament in the September 17 national elections in Sweden, and we have a realistic chance of gaining entry into parliament and securing a position where we hold the balance of power.

If we succeed, we expect to turn the tide not only in Sweden, but eventually in all of Europe.

We could urgently use USD 50.000 to fund the printing of additional ballot papers (which we have to pay for ourselves under the Swedish system), as well as other items. Money goes a very long way in Swedish politics compared to the US, but some is still useful.

I appreciate and respect the fact that people with funds don't want to be approached by strangers begging for money all the time, so we won't be making any attempts to take contact directly.

But if Mr. Hogan - or anybody else - wants to stick it to the MPAA in a way that they'll really feel, he is more than welcome to contact me to discuss the matter. My email address is christian.engstrom@piratpartiet.se

Smaller donations are also very welcome, and can be made via Paypal and other means. For more details, see www.piratpartiet.se

Christian Engström
Vice chairman, Piratpartiet

That's what one lawyer said, but there is no chance they go through with the case.

But through the ballot box I think it can, at least in Europe.

If somebody here knows Mr. Hogan personally, please feel free to direct his attention to the Swedish political party Piratpartiet (The Pirate Party). We are standing for parliament in the September 17 national elections in Sweden, and we have a realistic chance of gaining entry into parliament and securing a position where we hold the balance of power.

If we succeed, we expect to turn the tide not only in Sweden, but eventually in all of Europe.

We could urgently use USD 50.000 to fund the printing of additional ballot papers (which we have to pay for ourselves under the Swedish system), as well as other items. Money goes a very long way in Swedish politics compared to the US, but some is still useful.

I appreciate and respect the fact that people with funds don't want to be approached by strangers begging for money all the time, so we won't be making any attempts to take contact directly.

But if Mr. Hogan - or anybody else - wants to stick it to the MPAA in a way that they'll really feel, he is more than welcome to contact me to discuss the matter. My email address is christian.engstrom@piratpartiet.se

Smaller donations are also very welcome, and can be made via Paypal and other means. For more details, see www.piratpartiet.se

Christian Engström
Vice chairman, Piratpartiet

The answer is to become a Pirate. We have our own political party here in Sweden, Piratparitet (Pirate Party) http://www.piratpartiet.se/
Our homepage is in swedish for swedes ofcourse. But ther is a Pirate
Parties International Network just forming, the page is here: http://www.pp-international.net/

This makes it all the easier to argue against the "war on piracy" in all other countries. People outside the US don't like to be controlled by a government they didn't get to vote for...

I for one know a shitload of people who will vote for http://piratpartiet.se/, and so will I, in the upcoming election in Sweden. The revolution has begun.

Well, I'm also reading a lot of freedom into this page in English. Now, even though Piratpartiet and The Pirate Pay is not the same organization, a lot of their goals are touted as common. It could of course be that the only reason The Pirate Bay exists is banner money, but if they open people's eyes to Piratpartiet, that is a-okay by me.

According to the SVT (Swedish Public Service), MPAA was behind yesterday's raid against The Pirate Bay. This corresponds well with the MPAA public statement after the raid; ""the film industry has worked vigorously with Swedish and U.S. government officials in Sweden to shut the illegal (sic) site down".

In April representatives for the Swedish Department of Justice and Swedish police met American authorities who, on request from the MPAA, brought up the filesharing issue. Three problems with Sweden were listed:

* The Pirate Bay.
* Many filesharing sites are based in Sweden.
* A big share of filesharing material has its origins in Sweden.

The Department then asked the police and prosecutors to act against the Pirate Bay. When they responded that the legality of the situation was unclear, the Minister of Justice's state secretary contacted the Prosecutor-General and the national Chief of police who gave the orders for the raid.

According to SVT's Rapport, the MPAA contacted the White House. Then the American Ministry for Foreign Affairs contacted its Swedish counterpart and demanded a solution to the Pirate Bay issue.

The fact that they did this is quite serious as these actions implicate minister rule, which is illegal according to the Swedish constitution.

One might go so far as to consider Sweden's sovereignity violated. Add to this that it wasn't very long ago American CIA captured two people in Sweden (later to be transfered to Egypt), many are now upset over the Swedish government's submission.

Not only the Pirate Bay, but Piratbyrån (Pirate bureau), a site trying to influence public opinion - against copyright - was raided at the same time. Henrik Pontén at Antipiratbyrån (Anti pirate bureau) claims they (APB) mainly acted against this obviously not illegal organisation, quite pleased that they got shut down as well.

Maybe, but I doubt it. See the increase in the member stats page of Piratpartiet ("The pirate party") after the bust.

Maybe, but I doubt it. See the increase in the member stats page of Piratpartiet ("The pirate party") after the bust.

Indeed.

Clearly we should have elected the pirates instead. :^D

Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing whether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal.

I for one hope that this only turns into an opportunity to strengthen the PB. It looks like they are still accepting donations at http://www2.piratpartiet.se/

More importantly - support PB financially and publicly with Apparel! As I understand it, most of the profit from this store goes to the PB.

For the first time in more than 20 years, I am now a member of a political party. I went to http://www.piratpartiet.se/, followed the instructions and presto, I'm a member. I wouldn't normally support such a party, but things are not normal when Sweden is turning into China.

Oops, I messed up the formatting. Take 2. From my blog.

I just learned that The Pirate Bay and Piratbyrån were raided today. I don't know much about what's happened, but I really do hope that things have been handled very poorly. I hope that the allegations made by SVT that this was triggered by pressure from America are true and that it will cause public outrage. If Thomas Bodström is somehow involved (unlikely perhaps), that would be absolutely superb too.

Why do I hope for the worst? Because I want this to become a topic of fierce political debate so that it will be very clear who is a friend and who is an enemy in the upcoming Swedish election. It's been clear for a long time that none of the big parties are friends, but perhaps this will force some of them to make sensible decisions and become more friendly (look at what's happening in France, it's not impossible). I don't know if the recently formed Pirate Party are sane, but hopefully they'll be given a chance to present their views in the debate that will now follow.

The last time there was some debate about copyrights (when Sweden changed the copyright legislation to conform with EUCD last summer) I discussed and thought about these issues quite a bit. I arrived at the conclusion that copyright probably shouldn't be abolished all together, but that some of the following might be good ideas.

• Shorten the copyright term to something between 5 and 20 years.
• Allow all non-commercial distribution use of works covered by copyright. If the copyright term is very short, this may not actually be necessary. Conversely, with a long term it might be useful to allow even more non-commercial uses (e.g. sampling music or re-editing bad movies).
• Disallow distribution of works which have not been published. The idea is that a creator should have the authority to stop distribution of copies that have been physically stolen or otherwise leaked before they are completed an published. Without this, I think it would be legal to publish someones private letters or photos without permission, and that wouldn't be cool.

Why does it matter? I have a vision that my children will be able to access a wikipedia-like database of all culture that has been produced in human history, with high technical quality and instant access. It's much too hard for to find works of culture these days, at least works that are a few years old. If you have access to a warez top-site you might be able to get anything you want, but it's only for a small elite.

Why are we locking away old culture that no longer makes money for anyone? The works that do make money long after they were created are the ones that were very popular to begin with and don't need a long copyright term. Some people want to make piles of money from The Beatles even though half of The Bealtes are already dead! I want everyone to be able to hear The Beatles at will. Copyright is not given by nature, it's a political tool and we should use it as we see fit to get the results we want. This is the information age, and with the proper legal framework in place we could reach the point where quality culture is a commons, not something for economic and technical elites.

Support the pirate party by donating a few bucks. More here: http://www2.piratpartiet.se/#donate

...can be read at http://www.piratpartiet.se./ English one to come.
Here is my very rough NON-OFFICIAL translation:
"PRESS RELEASE
For immidiate publication
31 may 2006

For more information, see party webpage at http://www.piratpartiet.se/ or contact Rickard Falkvinge, +46733555293

The Pirate Party critizises the police for illegitimate intrusion

Swedish police has today taken all the servers of The Pirate Bay into custody, along with the servers of a number of other unrelated web hotel customers. The police chose to do this despite the fact that the services provided by the world's largest bittorrent tracker has been deemed fully legal in Sweden.

The police means, according to an operator of the site, that the police wants to test the legality of the activities.

"Which company would have accepted this treatment?", says Rickard Falkvinge, party leader of the Pirate Party. "Which Company would have accepted that the police arrived and ceased all company activity, before proven guilty of crime?. In this case the Pirate Bay has not commited any crime. They are disliked by large american media interests, that is true. But it is not a crime to be disliked, and definately not a reason for the swedish police to enter and shut down one of the worlds' largest communities for youth people."

"This is exactly the kind of raids that the Pirate Party wants to stop", concludes Rickard. "When the society sends the police on its youth population because they listen to music and watches movies, then it is not the youth that are wrong. Then it is the society that has to do better."

About the Pirate Party:

The Pirate Party is the largest of the new parties for the national elections in Sweden 2006. The party was founded 1 january this year and promotes an open information society, shared culture, and protected private life.

...can be read at http://www.piratpartiet.se./ English one to come.
Here is my very rough NON-OFFICIAL translation:
"PRESS RELEASE
For immidiate publication
31 may 2006

For more information, see party webpage at http://www.piratpartiet.se/ or contact Rickard Falkvinge, +46733555293

The Pirate Party critizises the police for illegitimate intrusion

Swedish police has today taken all the servers of The Pirate Bay into custody, along with the servers of a number of other unrelated web hotel customers. The police chose to do this despite the fact that the services provided by the world's largest bittorrent tracker has been deemed fully legal in Sweden.

The police means, according to an operator of the site, that the police wants to test the legality of the activities.

"Which company would have accepted this treatment?", says Rickard Falkvinge, party leader of the Pirate Party. "Which Company would have accepted that the police arrived and ceased all company activity, before proven guilty of crime?. In this case the Pirate Bay has not commited any crime. They are disliked by large american media interests, that is true. But it is not a crime to be disliked, and definately not a reason for the swedish police to enter and shut down one of the worlds' largest communities for youth people."

"This is exactly the kind of raids that the Pirate Party wants to stop", concludes Rickard. "When the society sends the police on its youth population because they listen to music and watches movies, then it is not the youth that are wrong. Then it is the society that has to do better."

About the Pirate Party:

The Pirate Party is the largest of the new parties for the national elections in Sweden 2006. The party was founded 1 january this year and promotes an open information society, shared culture, and protected private life.

You are more than welcome to place a donation to the swedish pirate party. This movement can surely spread to your country as well!

https://www.piratpartiet.se/ -> "Help the cause!"

(the servers are a bit overloaded by this, so visit us later!)

First comment from the Pirate Party: http://www2.piratpartiet.se/nyheter/the_pirate_bay _and_piratbyran_taken_down_by_police
"Swedish police has today taken all the servers of The Pirate Bay into custody. Two operators of The Pirate Bay are in police custody, and can't be reached.

Swedish police has today taken all the servers of The Pirate Bay into custody. The police chose to do this despite the fact that the services provided by the worlds largest bittorrent tracker are fully legal in Sweden.
The servers where located in a protected area, to which the police had no legal right to enter, but this was ignored.
Piratbyrån (the Pirate Bureau), a swedish pro-pirate lobby organisation, also got their servers seized, since they where located in the same room.
Two operators of The Pirate Bay are in police custody, and can't be reached.
This article will be updated as more news come in.
14:35: 50 policemen participated in the raid."

• Strike out immaterial law. Every last bit of it.
• Disregard WIPO and WTO completely. Even though the US will "go bananas" as they put it.
• Annul any further treaties or policies that hinder the free flow of information.
• Stand up for privacy. No data retention nonsense based on terrorism shills or failed **AA business models.

• Strike out immaterial law. Every last bit of it.
• Disregard WIPO and WTO completely. Even though the US will "go bananas" as they put it.
• Annul any further treaties or policies that hinder the free flow of information.
• Stand up for privacy. No data retention nonsense based on terrorism shills or failed **AA business models.

The Swedish Pirate Party wants a five-year copyright term, while allowing all non-commercial use from day one.

Those who argue "Serves them right, they knew it was a crime" don't realize just how bizarre this whole situation is. You have police come to your house, take your computer away, and you'll get fined with thousands of Euros for something which is utterly trivial. If this is taken to an extreme, it's even worse than the "war on drugs": You don't even have to leave your house to be labeled a criminal.

The music industry has this funny idea that they can scare consumers into using iTunes and similar networks. This will work -- for a while. But when you have all the technologies mentioned, copyright infringement that is undetectable will become prevalent -- because you just download 1 GB from your friend via IM, or swap DVDs (or soon HDDVDs), or use IRC and FTP. And it's not like you have to be a technology savvy guy to do these things. My mom can use IM, when she gets broadband, she can swap files.

So, what you are left with is completely arbitrary enforcement on some services, scare tactics that work against some, while the underlying "problem" keeps getting "worse" because of technology (hardware, software). Just wait until the next file sharing application with a built in "how anonymous do you want to be?" slider comes along.

The problem will only go away when those who make music embrace sharing as a way to popularize it. Those who like it, will pay. What will work better in the long run -- scaring people into paying? Or letting them choose to? If the industry doesn't realize the answer and tries to criminalize society instead, it's time for people to force them to. I really hope that initiatives like the Swedish "Pirate Party" are successful in working towards the decriminalization of non-commercial copying.

Marijuana is legal in quite a few countries. It can happen.

Market forces can't balance the problem. It's a matter of civil liberties. Perhaps you could cast your vote for a Pirate Party of some sort.

Well said. Vote for the Pirate Party on the upcoming elections (if you are in Sweden)!

Generally, yes, in Sweden, no. According to a recent law (last July), downloading without a license is also illegal. Thus Piratpartiet.

This law is supposed to be an implementation of a EU directive, so it will be "interesting" to see what the other countries make of it...

Very slim, unfortunately.

In Sweden, you only need four percent of the votes TOTAL to gain seats in parliament, in stark contrast to the UK or US systems where you need to gain majority in a certain area. There just aren't many enough technically savvy to gain absolute majority in a geographical region.

Four percent across the country may not sound like much, but if the left- and right-wing blocks get 48% each, like they typically do, then the Pirate Party will hold the balance of power. And that is a very good bargaining chip.

(In the last election, the Green Party achieved this position, counting in at 4.2% in the election, and they got basically everything they wanted.)

The party's home page is at http://www.piratpartiet.se/ -- the main site is in Swedish, but there's an English translation as well. And as a shameless plug, the party is currently doing a fundraiser to buy the necessary ballots. :-) Those small pieces of paper you put in the voting box cost obscene amounts.

Disclosure: I am involved with the party and am a paying member.

Retroactively.

After all of Disney's execs had a massive group-orgasm, one of the brighter ones would crawl out from under the sea of cum and realize the implications, ruining the party. They'd have to find each and every living heir to the guy who wrote Cinderella and negotiate the movie rights for the derivative work. For millions and millions. Per heir.

Add Snow White, The Hunchback and even Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill to the mix and you'd be looking at an instant bankruptcy.

After that's done, we could revoke copyrights altogether.

But, first you need to read this book: Lawrence Lessig - Free Culture. You'll love it.

People ARE getting organized.

Yes, the tide is definitely turning.

A year ago, this would have been considered ludicruous and impossible. Now it's for real.