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Pirate Party Wins At Least One European Parliament Seat

Posted by timothy on from the replace-amateur-clowns-with-professional-clowns dept.

reeeh2000 writes "According to TorrentFreak, with half of polling stations now closed in Sweden, the Pirate Party has at least one guaranteed seat in the EU Parliament. Currently, the party is sitting with 7% of the vote. Depending on how the remaining districts voted, the Pirate Party could win another seat, for a total of two." Reader lordholm adds a link to an article about exit polls in Sweden (link in Swedish) indicating that the Pirate Party will score two seats, writing "According to the polls, the pirate party is the largest party in the 18-30 year age category of voters. The final counting of votes (including around a million postal votes) will not be done until later next week."

30 of 674 comments (clear)

  1. Bravo! by siloko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A fantastic result. It seems that democratic representation means something even to filesharers! Who would have thought that they're not all teenage hoodies checking out of society!

    1. Re:Bravo! by Markspark · · Score: 5, Interesting

      actually a lot of people voted on the pirate party to protect civil liberties and personal rights. (I did for an example)

      --
      i find your lack of faith in science disturbing!
    2. Re:Bravo! by alexhard · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think that in the next 5 years the PP will focus more on presenting these issues to older people, as well. Singing to the choir will only get you so far..

      I think this has a lot to do with the way the party is represented by the media: when older people hear that the PP is "for the legalization of file sharing", they obviously don't think this is an important issue. If they knew the extent of the damage being done to personal liberties and privacy, they would be more willing to vote for the pirates.

      --
      Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
    3. Re:Bravo! by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sure, but the point of the party isn't really to become a "real" party but to force other parties into taking strong stances in making copyright weaker, protecting the fair use and the right to personal filesharing along with actually giving a crap about privacy. Perhaps it will take more than one or two elections, but 30-40 years down the road, the Pirate Party will most likely become obsolete as the other more "mainstream" parties will have taken up the pirate cause and then people will vote based on the economy, etc. because everyone will care about allowing filesharing and increasing privacy.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    4. Re:Bravo! by fishbowl · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >18-30 year-olds? So in the next EP election, the PP will be the favoured party of 18-35 year-olds.

      No, once they are over 30 something clicks and they become more interested in preserving their own wealth than in idealism, so they become conservatives.

      You would think that the counterculture generation of the 1960s would behave differently now that they are the dominant force in government and business, but look at the reality.

      --
      -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
    5. Re:Bravo! by hanssprudel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The current Swedish government has rushed through a number of privacy encroaching laws regarding the Internet, which have been deeply unpopular with a large part of the population, and yet have had the support of all the mainstream parties. These have included:

      - Unlimited wiretapping with court order of all International data traffic for the intelligence services (and remember that in a country of 9 million, a lot more traffic is international than say in the US - in fact a lot of domestic traffic is routed internationally!)

      - Forced data retention laws for ISPs, forcing them to keep information about all incoming/outgoing email as well as TCP connections.

      - Laws enacted to help the music/movie industry allowing them to demand ISPs reveal the identity of Internet users with little court oversight.

      These things, much more than the takedown of the pirate bay, has influenced people to vote for the Pirate Party, who have presented the only political opposition to them.

      In fact, my 58 year old mother just called me to tell me she voted for PP (and I didn't even ask her to). I promise that she has never torrented anything in her life - yet she doesn't like the government spying on her more than anybody else.

    6. Re:Bravo! by Mr2001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd be happier if the pirate party re-branded itself the 'lets kill off the digital entertainment industry' party, because that is the upshot of their 'policies'.

      That's a pretty ignorant interpretation of their policies. The digital entertainment industry in its current form might depend on copyright, but abolishing copyright would result in a new digital entertainment industry that separates producing content (their job) from making copies (not their job).

      I'm a very liberal voter who supports freedom of information

      But not, apparently, the freedom to share information. So what "freedom of information" are you talking about -- the freedom for information to exist? The freedom to own information and stifle the speech and actions of anyone else who wishes to use or share it?

      Copyright is a totally different issue to freedom and privacy.

      Only if your definition of "freedom" excludes freedom of speech.

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
    7. Re:Bravo! by skrolle2 · · Score: 5, Informative

      What civil liberties and personal rights are you voting to protect?

      The right to not have my traffic snooped on by the government as the FRA law in Sweden allows.

      The right to not end up in a logfile whenever I send an email or visit a webpage, as the EU data retention directive wants.

      The right to not have my internet cut off on the say-so of big copyright holding companies, as the French three-strikes law allows.

      The right to not have my home searched and my assets seized on the say-so of copyright holders, as the Swedish IPRED law allows.

      These things are important, not only for me, not only for those who download illegally, but for everyone who uses the internet. It is absolutely essential that civil liberties are respected on the internet and in real life. I didn't vote for the PirateParty so people can download stuff for free, I voted for them to stop the draconian surveillance bullshit that's being pushed in the name of stopping terrorism, child porn and illegal filesharing, but which in reality accomplishes nothing of the sort, it only lessens my right and my liberties.

    8. Re:Bravo! by Mr2001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In other news, car-jacking is to be called 'motor-car scrumping', hence making it seem socially acceptable.

      If "scrumping" means making a copy of a car while leaving the original untouched and fully functional, then it already is socially acceptable (it's just not possible). If you manage to invent a device that makes "scrumping" as easy as copying songs, you'll win a Nobel Prize and put an end to poverty and hunger.

      I won't hold my breath, though, since if you can't even imagine a business model that doesn't depend on copyright, I doubt you're going to be coming up with any revolutionary technology anytime soon.

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
    9. Re:Bravo! by rawler · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Pirate Party is nothing more than a bunch of college kids who want shit for free.

      Interesting. Looking at their top 10 candidates for national government a few years back, you'll find that their average age is 38, and that 7/10 is 40 or older.

      Among their top active public members, can be found an author, a musician, several with years of background in it consulting, one with a former background as director of a book publishing company, one with a background in national politics and a few with active backgrounds in other larger political parties.

      So while some of the members are certainly cheap greedy kids as you describe them, clearly that does not constitute the entire party.

    10. Re:Bravo! by Demonantis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This site is as much pro-piracy as a site demanding the closure of Guantanamo bay is a pro-terrorism site.

    11. Re:Bravo! by Hurricane78 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Simple. There are two factors:
      1) The party was founded there. Give it some time in other countries. (At least we have 0.9% here in Germany. Which means they get the campaign money back.)
      2) Education. The Nordic countries are known for their high education and open-mindedness. (Add Estonia to that group too.)

      Here in Germany, people like to talk about "stupid Americans" or British. But in fact, we're nearly as stupid. And it gets worse every day.
      Being dumb has kind of a "cool" and "you have to respect me" touch here. People nearly brag about their stupidity.
      Which does not surprise me at all, with our drone promoting school system and the B-vitamin killing stuff that most people eat.

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    12. Re:Bravo! by Hurricane78 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, ask FOX. ^^

      In other FOX news, if you disagree with them, you are a pedophile. (Think of the children! No not that way, pervert! ^^)

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    13. Re:Bravo! by Mr2001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, it's informed speculation. ;)

      In every other market, where you have (1) people who are willing to perform a service in exchange for money and (2) people who are willing to pay for that service, those people manage to come together and exchange money for services in a way that benefits both parties. Even when the law explicitly forbids it (drugs, prostitution, assassination), the market still operates.

      So if you're claiming that this won't happen with "digital entertainment", which is perfectly legal and for which supply and demand are well-established, I think the burden of proof is on you to show why it's an exception.

      What makes you think the same market forces that successfully provide every other service will fail when applied to creating music, movies, software, or other intellectual works?

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
    14. Re:Bravo! by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Every Slashdotter, deep inside, knows that piracy is wrong and that it screws hard-working people over.

      Metallica spend an hour recording tracks for their latest album. Then they leave and go out for hookers and blow while sound engineers spend the next 2 weeks cutting, pasting, and pro-tooling the hell out of the riffs and the cobbling the mess into something which resembles an album. Profit.

      "Hard-working" may have been true 20 or even 10 years ago, but piracy caught on just as quality and craft of Big-label music took a nosedive. If I were an actually hard-working and gigging artist then I'd encourage so-called piracy of my tracks and make money selling CD's. I've frequently seen local bands in different cities give away stickers and CDs just to get their name known.

      Shit, was I just troll'd? ;)

    15. Re:Bravo! by erroneus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think you seriously misunderstand what "the Pirate party" is really all about. The name itself is merely a persistence of the misnomer that copyright infringement was given by copyright interests in order to make their case more dramatic. But lately, it is more than just copying things. There is a great deal of injustice going on surrounding the issue of copyright and government laws and action put into place as a result. It has gone too far and has harmed many innocent people.

      Furthermore, many copyrighted works that would have, and should have, been in public domain and in the hands of the people have instead disappeared without a trace simply because the holders of the copyright or those licensed to publish aren't interested in making more copies for distribution. And keep in mind the agreement behind copyright is that eventually, the content would be released into the public domain but the copyright interests have managed to extend the term of copyright to virtually indefinite terms and have locked up content inside the media it is distributed in to prevent people from moving the content into storage that will stand the test of time and remain accessible if and when it EVER becomes public domain. It represents a breech of that agreement to have extended copyright beyond the original duration. And it is simply obscene that they do so 70 years after the death of the creators? If the creator is a corporation, then what? "FOREVER?" It is completely unreasonable.

      This has never been about artists. Artists have invariably suffered at the hands of publishers and their deals. The artists who have done well, whether musical or otherwise, are the ones who have managed to operate independently and create their own labels and publishing.

    16. Re:Bravo! by Mr2001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The quality of trolling on this site has really taken a nosedive over the last few years...

      I'll say. The old "misunderstand your opponent's position and harangue him for something he never posted" troll is so passe. Try to be more original next time. ;)

      WTF are you talking about? The way the content industry works is you create content and then you sell copies of it for profit. If everybody copies your work and distributes it for free, which is the way you seem to be suggesting the content industry should be working, there is no profit and hence no money to pay people for work done.

      You're mistaken: he isn't suggesting what you think he's suggesting (nor am I). That would indeed be silly. Let me break it down for you in the traditional Slashdot business-model format.

      The current model:

      1. Artist makes content for free.
      2. Artist sells copies of content.
      3. Profit!

      What you seem to think we're suggesting:

      1. Artist makes content for free.
      2. Artist gives away copies of content.
      3. ???
      4. Profit?

      What we're actually suggesting:

      1. Artist finds people who want content made.
      2. Artist makes content in exchange for money.
      3. Profit!
      4. Artist gives away copies of content.

      Notice that money changes hands -- or at least, an agreement is signed -- before any content is available to the public. By the time anyone has a chance to copy it, the artist has already been paid.

      So if we had king sized Star Trek type replicators [...] to, say... replicate cars, car manufacturer's coffers would still be filling up to the brim with all the imaginary goodwill dollars they'd be getting from all you and all the other people who pirate-copied their cars in these replicators without paying real world money for the privilege?

      Not quite. Car manufacturers would be obsolete, because manufacturing would be something anyone could do at home, without needing a factory.

      Car designers, on the other hand, would still earn a living as long as the public still wanted new car designs. That's because you can't manufacture a new kind of car until someone designs it, and if the designer says "I'm not designing anything until you pay me", your only choices are to pay him or to keep using the old designs.

      In other words, cheap replicator technology would force the auto industry to separate design/engineering (their job) from manufacturing (not their job), just like P2P will force artists to separate creation (their job) from making copies (not their job).

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
  2. Biggest party in Sweden for voters under 30 by BlackCreek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    http://www.thelocal.se/19928/20090607/

    Among voters aged under 30, some 19 percent are believed to have cast a vote for the Pirate Party.

    "They are the biggest party among young people, bigger than both the Social Democrats and the Moderates," said politics professor SÃren Holmberg.

    As I was just telling my girlfriend, one way or another, it should be the first time the EP gets people who actually understand present day computer technology.

  3. One great big.. by castrox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is one great big middle finger to the big parties who have ignored the privacy issues. Just this past month it's been very clear that the large parties are trembling because of the massive streams of voters who abandon them for the Pirate Party just because of these important issues. I really hope they will get with the program and realize that they can't dismiss the privacy debate and say that it's just a loud bunch who don't get it (the so called "pirates").

    --
    Fight for your digital freedom, join the EFF *now*: http://www.eff.org/support/
  4. German results by mseeger · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi,

    the pirate party reached in germany 0,9%. Concerning lack of attention from the media, nearly non-existent funds and that stupid name, this is a very strong result for them.

    CU, Martin

    1. Re:German results by adpe · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sadly, we germans somehow think it's a good idea to only allow parties who get >=5% of the votes into our (or the european) parliaments. Might be because of our history, but we (the german pirate party, I'm a member), need to gain significant support to actually be allowed to say anything.

  5. Pirate party is really Private party by Bjarne+Bula · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It should be noted that although they call themselves the Pirate party, the focus of the party is on questions of privacy and integrity. Issues where voters have been repeatedly ignored and even betrayed by the established parties.

    While one of the laws recently shoved down voter's throats, despite promises to the contrary, have been aimed towards curbing piracy, the real outrage has been against the privacy and integrity issues with this and other recently passed laws regarding interception of domestic communications etc. (Well, that, and giving corporations the ability to petition courts to perform searches that, under similar conditions, would not be granted even to the police.)

  6. Re:Are they a one-issue party? by alexhard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They also want to reform patent and trademark law, but that's it. However, the issues that they are dealing with, most importantly the right to privacy, are in my mind (and obviously many others) much more important than the issue of whether taxes should be at 31% or 32%.

    --
    Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
  7. More about the Swedish Pirate Party by TorKlingberg · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Pirate Party has an English page here that describes the basics. It has gained a lot of support after they, together with bloggers etc, managed to drum up public opposition to a wiretapping law, a law forcing ISPs to store traffic data, new copyright enforcement laws and the Pirate Bay trial. It has been growing since 2006 and spreads internationally, but this is the first parliamentary seat.

  8. The pirates like FOSS by CHJacobsen · · Score: 5, Informative

    It might be interesting for slashdotters to know that the top-candidate of the Pirate Party is a free-software contributor, and has been working a lot previously to establish open standards and to fight software patents.

    Their success might turn out to be an asset for free software as well as integrity.

    --
    Important stuff
  9. Seems to me like people in Europe enjoy more freed by melted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seems to me like people in Europe enjoy more freedoms than we do here in the US - the self proclaimed "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave".

    That's what you get with a single party system, my friends. And no, this is not a typo - Dems and Repubs are pretty much the same party with minor variations. There's nowhere near the diversity of political opinion in the US as what you'd see in Europe. We need a raving, rabid, card carrying socialists to balance the equation somewhat on this side of the pond. All branches of the government have been licking the Big Business' behind for far too long.

  10. I'm proud today by Hazelfield · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sweden has for a long time been known as an advanced IT nation with widespread computer use, broadband connections, IT companies and so on. In the last few years that has come to change with new repressive laws like FRA and IPRED, but today we took back some of our lost pride. It's good to see that we give Europe a voice for a reformed copyright and patent law, free culture, and privacy and democracy on the Internet. Even if it's difficult for this person - most likely Christian Engström - to affect decisions directly among 735 other MPs, his presence will have two important consequences:

    1) It gives Brussels some sorely needed competence on these issues to act as a counterweight against lobbyists trying to influence decisions.

    2) It sends a message to the other parties that they cannot continue ignoring the rights of their citizens forever.

    I voted for the Pirate Party and I hope this result will be the first step towards a European Union that cares more about our rights online.

  11. Re:Are they a one-issue party? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IIRC they didn't even want to be a "real" party. They basically wanted to get enough votes so other, established, parties would pick up their issues to harvest those votes back.

    I forsee the same development we had in the 80s with the Greens all over Europe. Nobody took the "eco-loonies" serious, nobody cared about environment issues, so a party was founded and behold, it was important enough to enough people that some "fluffy treehugger party" gained enough speed to become an established party. The Greens started out as a one-issue party as well: Environment and pollution. Now they're something the "established" old parties have to deal with.

    You'd guess they should've learned their lesson from the 80s, that they should pick up other parties' issues before they become strong enough that voters don't consider it a "lost vote" if they cast their vote for them. Appearantly, parties don't learn from history more than the average person does...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. Re:Mutiny in the EU. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not so much this one seat, it's the 7% that should shake up other parties. 7% is a lot, especially in Sweden. Hell, it would be a lot in most countries that don't consist of just a two-party system!

    7% is something YOU want for YOUR party. And it's not like you have to turn your party upside down to incorporate the issues of what is basically a two-issue party: Privacy and copyright/patent laws.

    Those 7% are yours for the taking. Take our privacy and our concern about the harebrained copyright and patent laws serious, and they could be yours!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  13. Re:I sure hope one seat doesn't matter much by skrolle2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In terms of voting power a single MEP sure doesn't contribute much, but the main benefits of having the Pirate Party represented is that there is now one person on the inside that can report on everything that threatens privacy and integrity or furthers the copyright maximalist agenda. He can expose and bring all those issues to the public eye, where other MEPs may or may not be interested in doing so. The other benefit is that he can talk, build alliances, educate and speak to the other MEPs as an equal, not as an outsider with an agenda, because he now has actual voter mandate to do so. There are also a lot of other MEPs from other parties that care about these issues, and there is now one person whose only job is to bring them all together and drive these issues in the direction we want.

    The nationalists may have gotten a few seats, but in this issue most other MEPs are engaged against them, educated about it, and know exactly that they do not want to work with them, so it's much more of an uphill battle for them.