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Swedish Pirate Party Fails To Enter Parliament

pickens writes "TorrentFreak reports that with 95 percent of the votes counted, it is clear that the Pirate Party will not enter the Swedish Parliament. The Party is currently stuck at about 1 percent of the total vote, nowhere near the 4 percent threshold it needs. This means that neither WikiLeaks nor The Pirate Bay will be hosted under Parliamentary immunity and the Party won't get the chance to legalize non-commercial file-sharing or criminalize 'copyright abuse' as they planned. 'The Swedish Pirate Party did its best election campaign ever. We had more media, more articles, more debates, more handed-out flyers than ever. Unfortunately, the wind was not in our sails this time, as it was with the European elections,' says party leader Rick Falkvinge. The party will now have to wait four more years before they have another shot at entering the Swedish Parliament. 'Each generation must reconquer democracy,' adds Falkvinge. 'Nobody said it was going to be an easy fight.'"

38 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Ye dogs! by grub · · Score: 4, Funny


    Swedish Pirate Party Fails To Enter Parliament

    Arrrrrr!

    The Parliament had a portcullis made from the finest iron! The swine poured boiling oil on my mates from the battlements! But the archers... blast ye archers! The air was a maelstrom of quills and death!

    Arrrrrrr!

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Ye dogs! by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Funny

      Swedish translation:

      Errrrrr!

      Zee Perleeement hed a purtcoollees mede-a frum zee feenest irun! Zee sveene-a puoored bueeling ooeel oon my metes frum zee bettlements! Boot zee erchers... blest ye-a erchers! Zee eur ves a meelstrum ooff qooeells und deet!

      Errrrrrr! Bork Bork Bork!

      --
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    2. Re:Ye dogs! by sepelester · · Score: 2, Informative

      Parlamentet hade ett fällgaller av finaste järn! Svinen hällde kokande olja på mina stridskamrater! Men bågskyttarna, era förbannade bågskyttar! Luften virvlade av pilspetsar och död!

  2. Oh, the Pirate Party by MrHanky · · Score: 2, Informative

    When the real news is that the swastica-waving "democratic nationalist" party Sverigedemokraterna got a seat in the parliament.

    1. Re:Oh, the Pirate Party by j1976 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually they got 20 seats and a tipping point position, where they in theory could get power to deseat the sitting conservative/liberal government.

      But I agree with the point... the interesting (and scary) part about the election is that I can expect that one in every twenty people I meet down town actually voted for a nazi party.

    2. Re:Oh, the Pirate Party by ardiri · · Score: 3, Informative

      they got 20 seats
      http://www.val.se/val/val2010/valnatt/R/rike/index.html

    3. Re:Oh, the Pirate Party by __aardcx5948 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Is it "swastica-waving", though, or are they "just" racist?

    4. Re:Oh, the Pirate Party by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Posting AC as this is a really infected issue to be connected to.

      Sverigedemokraterna is not racists nor swastica waving. They are opposed, among other things, to the current immigration laws. In such a politically correct country as Sweden this defaults to racism. However the party has its roots, but has since been reformed, in the white supremacy movement, including some of its current high ranking officials.

      That aside, they do attract racist people and new-nazis.

      This is a semi personal analysis. But media, established political parties and swedes in general turned the blind side to the issue that they do infact raise. Sweden has a high immigration quota but has failed miserably to incorporate the new-swedes in its social and in its work structure. Combined with the fact that they were locked out from 99% of the debates left some swedes (read mostly young males) with the option of voting for the underdog that had radical views as opposed to voting for their ideological views.

      This is a very uncomfortable situation for the politically correct swedes as they are now forced to deal openly with the subject.

    5. Re:Oh, the Pirate Party by burisch_research · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sort of. You are referring to 'gyaku manji', or the reversed one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

      "In Japan, the swastika is called manji. Since the Middle Ages, it has been used as a coat of arms by various Japanese families. On Japanese maps, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing manji is often referred to as the gyaku manji (, lit. 'reverse manji'), and can also be called kagi jji (literally 'hook cross')."

      --
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    6. Re:Oh, the Pirate Party by horza · · Score: 2, Insightful

      BitZtream is obviously a little retarded himself. At the moment some Swedish residents have trouble going around and beating up people that are gay/black/muslim/etc, it's not the kind of thing people turn a blind eye to. So those that wish to are obliged to vote for a suitable candidate that will help them. On the other hand the whole country is quite happily pirating digital material to their heart's content, so there is less impetus to vote Pirate. Personally I think the Pirate Party is an excellent idea, and their members quite well reasoned, however trying to get a single-issue party into any national parliament is incredibly difficult.

      Phillip.

  3. Re:Democracy? by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How is democracy related to stealing revenue from other people?

    If this was successful... whats next, the auto theft movement for "Rightfully freeing car from their owner for anyone to use."?

    I'm going to need to to repeal some environmental laws on my property then. Ever since they passed a law prohibiting me from mining there, I've been unable to extract revenue from that resource.

    In case you missed my snark, how can you steal revenue from an object that you yourself own? Once a work is released, it becomes public property. The only thing these people 'own' is the granted right to control the reproduction of that public property. That right is granted by the government. I fail to see how the government ceasing to grant that right would be theft.

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  4. Re:Democracy? by mikael_j · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually it demonstrates that most swedish media ignored the pirate party for the last few weeks before the election and instead focused on the "standard" election questions of jobs, healthcare and similar issues. Also, there's been a lot of anti-PP hollering from people claiming that anyone voting for the pirate party would be helping the sweden democrats into parliament. Essentially the pirate party and their issues have been completely ignored lately.

    --
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  5. Re:Democracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Piraty Party itself ignored whole area of jobs, healthcare and so on. The actual important things that government should take care of, and what majority of people care about. For most people they are more important than the ability to get entertainment for free. That's how democracy works.

  6. Re:Democracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Please don't go down this road, I've argued this way too many times, just go to their website and read up on things before making arguments that have been answered a thousand times before.

  7. Kind of misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While the article is correct, the swedish green party, miljöpartiet, has officially supported decriminalisation of noncommercial filesharing since just after the EU election. I would guess that most of those who voted for the pirate party in the EU election voted for the greens now, since there was no doubt that they would get in.

    In fact, the greens were very successful in this election so despite the pirate party's failure, 7% of the riksdag actually supports legal file sharing which is not a bad situation in any way for the pirate movement.

  8. If they want to be taken seriously by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Then they need to drop the childish name. "The Pirate Party" makes it sound like they are a bunch of rebellious kids flaunting how they like to break the law and get away with it.

    If they want positive economic and legal reform, then they should adopt a name that is expressive of such reform, in a mature and positive light.

    Maybe some thing like "the digital party" or "the free information party" or maybe pull a trick out of the other side's hat and choose something like "the information protection party" or "cultural preservation party."

    I hope four years is enough time for them to grow up.

    1. Re:If they want to be taken seriously by CrackedButter · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My first thoughts as well. The Pirate Party is a stupid name. We have one in the UK but what's the point with a name that doesn't seem serious for a cause that is going to be hard to explain to the layman in the first place?

    2. Re:If they want to be taken seriously by RsG · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's an excellent idea. I know if a candidate was up for election where I am, and was a representative of the "Pirate" party, most people would think it was a joke (like the Rhinoceros party). The only votes they'd get would be for shits and giggles.

      Conversely, if they represented the "Free Information" party or something that conveyed the same idea but was less clunky sounding, they'd be taken seriously. Hell, the Green party habitually gets taken seriously, and they're much for fringe, and have a sillier name.

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    3. Re:If they want to be taken seriously by RsG · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not that I entirely disagree with you, but...

      You doubtlessly dismiss stuff all the time, because your first impression left you disinterested, or gave you cause for dismissal. Not just political parties, obviously, though likely those as well. A book you might have liked, but the title and cover just threw you, and you didn't pick it up. A TV show that might have been good, but the name and TV guide description left you thinking it'd suck. A charitable organization whose purpose you'd have supported, but for the dumb acronym and campy saccharine pitch they threw.

      And even if you're somehow above all that (doubt it), most people aren't. Why would you expect it not to apply to a political party? People make snap judgments every day.

      Now, you might say that politics is more important, and that people should apply a greater standard of examination than they do for entertainment. But I ask you: have you paid any attention to all those far-out third parties that doubtless populate your local politics? No. You'd dismiss most of them at first glance.

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    4. Re:If they want to be taken seriously by Tom · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Bullshit. A name has to stand for something, it doesn't have to be "good" in any sense.

      The green party is a good example. The were actually named simply "The Green" when they entered the german parliament. That's as silly a name as "Pirate Party". But people didn't care for the name, they cared for the program.

      --
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    5. Re:If they want to be taken seriously by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Is it any more stupid than "Liberal", "Labour" or "Conservative"?

      If a new party came along calling itself the "The Conservative Party" you'd probably come up with a few jokes. Their original name ("The Whigs") is even better.

      --
      No sig today...
  9. Let's say, hypothetically, you're not pro-piracy.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...but you're anti- million-dollar lawsuits over a few dozen MP3s illicitly traded, fed-up at the viciously draconian DRM schemes being pushed on consumers, and frankly downright concerned that your children could cause you to lose your Internet access and your house over a file transfer.

    Is it seriously that farfetched to consider voting for a party this extreme when there's absolutely nothing in the middle of the spectrum as far as protecting consumers and citizens from runaway litigation and settlement schemes?

    I absolutely believe that you should pay for software if you want to use it and the author is selling it, I've actually started selling some myself. But who else is out there to rein in the gross overreach of the copyright lobby or seriously fighting for privacy rights at that level?

  10. We Are Now Ready by xtracto · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Society is still not ready for this progressive thinking mentality.

    The people currently working in the government grew in a time when media (or intelectual property as some want to call it) was a scare resource, thus they do not understand the current situation.

    We need to wait some time, maybe one generation, when politicians, leaders, and in general other decision makers (e.g. grown people with some power) are individuals who grown understanding the nature of media; how it can be shared in a costless manner, and the advantage that such thing provides. We are still not ready, but we are getting there.

    --
    Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    1. Re:We Are Now Ready by krelian · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The people currently working in the government grew in a time when media (or intelectual property as some want to call it) was a scare resource, thus they do not understand the current situation.

      In a way Media is still a scarce resource. Media doesn't appear out of thin air and the actual cost of developing Media are much higher now then they used too. I am not even sure that the price (to the end user) of media has even caught on with inflation. The only thing that is cheaper these days is distribution of the media.

      As much as I don't like it personally, I think the correct way to treat most Media is as a service and not a product. If a phone call costs almost nothing to t-mobile it does not mean that it's somehow right or fair to not pay them for the service. In order to be able to offer the service in the first place they had to put a lot of money in to create the infrastructure. If companies are not allowed to recuperate their costs they will simply stop investing.

  11. Re:Democracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Would you care to elaborate a bit ? I hope you realize that file-sharing is not only about copyrighted materials.

    True, it is just 99.3% about illegally sharing copyrighted materials. Strangely enough it aligns with the vote percentages.

  12. Best election campaign ever? by narooze · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "The Swedish Pirate Party did its best election campaign ever. We had more media, more articles, more debates, more handed-out flyers than ever"

    How does he figure that? I (a Swede) haven't heard or seen anything from them since the election for the European parliament. I think it would be more correct to call it their worst election campaign ever.

    1. Re:Best election campaign ever? by Vintermann · · Score: 3, Funny

      I like his habit of using terms like "keeping the rudder quiet" and "wind in our sails".

      --
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  13. Sign of the times by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The swedish Democrats (read anti-immigrant party) did make it in. Intresting prediction by Gerald Celente in a dutch free newspaper today. "Hate of Islam can no longer be stopped". When even Sweden starts going natiolistic, you know things are bad.

    So, freedom of information. NO.

    No to immigrants. Yes.

    Sad. And yes there are issues, but the problem goes deeper then just Islam, you can see that with the Roma in France. There is a clash of cultures going on and a ruling elite that is totally in capable of dealing or even acknowledging this.

    The same free newspaper ran a story last week on the Roma being deported. It said the troubles started after Roma attacked a police station after police has shot one of them. Then it goes on to make the claim that this decision was totally wrong and ill thought out... NO, not the decision of the Roma to attack a police station in a country were there reputation already sucks, no, it is the FRENCH reaction to one of its police stations being attack in protest of the legal shooting of a criminal by foreigners that gets attacked.

    Talk about NOT getting the point.

    And no I am NOT going off-topic. The same applies to copyright infringement. The ruling elite would LOVE to make out that this is people stealing music from hard working artists who are begging for bread. What it is REALLY about is a mother scrubbing floors for a living putting a song performed by a multi-biljonair behind a video of child and uploading it on youtube to share with friends. If the copyright extortion industry had its way, we would have to pay a performance fee for singing "Happy birthday" and pay for having our earphones on to loud or if we whistle a tune. Any tune because every country has a collection agency that collects for every song regardless of whether the author wants it to be collected.

    Times are changing. The internet has changed the rules of copying and mass imigration has changed the rules about cultures meeting. And either we act on those changes or ignore them until things blow up. Remember the last time the ruling elite were unable to deal with a changing reality? I think it was about 1932 that it came to a boil. Read up on that era. There is plenty writting about the years after but far less about before. You can't stop it when it has happened, so how about learning from history how to stop it happening again?

    Copyright infringement is performed by millions, perhaps when so many do it, you just got to accept it as reality rather then try to protect the out of date business practices of a few filthy rich.

    If you look at the politicians who are pro-copyright, pro-internet filtering and pro-immigration, you notice that they all try to claim that their methods are working have worked for decades and any problems are just radical extremists. And if you are not careful a real radical will stand up and claim to have the answer and be listened to.

    What do they really want to do about filesharing? Create a war on filesharing? That went so well with the war on drugs. Put every filesharer in jail? Give every kid a criminal record for sharing Celine Dion? No, that is impossible especially since the police is undergoing budget cuts throughout Europe and has plenty of calls on its man power for the war on drugs and war on terror.

    And if you ask the current elite WHY they side with the copyright industry, you often don't get any better answer then 'eh, because that is how it always was'. No, copyright is a new thing. It was changed because of new tech, so why not change it again because of even newer tech?

    Either politicians change with the changing world, or they find themselves changed. Right now all parties in sweden have declared they won't work the new Swedish Democrats. Sure sure, we heard that before. Next election they will become far far larger because the current elite won't actually change anything and then they will have to work with them. And still they won't change a thing.

    The Roma were kicked out of France. It is to late to stop the revolution, it has already happened. 10 years ago, this would have been unthinkable. So the ruling elite didn't think about it.

    --

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  14. Re:Democracy? by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is democracy related to stealing revenue from other people?

    If majority A wants to screw minority B, then democracy has got you covered! Well, to within a constitution, but constitutions have never covered all possible methods of screwing.

    However, democracy doesn't protect against stupid decisions. Democracy is only as good as the people who use it.

    (Mods, bring it on! I'm not even trolling, but it never stopped you before!)

    --
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  15. Re:Democracy? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How is democracy related to stealing revenue from other people?

    It isn't, but it IS directly related to whether or not big corporations can buy their own laws on a whim.

    Cue the RIAA, DMCA, ACTA, etc., etc.

    What the RIAA is hoping is that downloading a $1 file can end up with you losing what has become a basic human right (ie. Internet access).

    Copyright laws are the foot governments are using to wedge open the door which allows them to spy on everybody. Every round of copyright laws gets more demonic. Seriously, how can a copyright law ("ACTA") be debated in total secrecy? What's to hide...?

    Voting Pirate is a sensible option if ask me.

    --
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  16. Re:Democracy? by Kjella · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just because the arguments have been repeated a thousand times, does not make the voters convinced. In fact, I think some of the more embarrassing moments have been when PP have been asked about their policy on something and pulled some really stretch logic to somehow connect one argument to their principles, because really they have no policy in that area. The party has been highly focused on causes and haven't really wanted a deeper ideology because they fear many would disagree with it.

    --
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  17. Re:I prefer this name... by Hatta · · Score: 2, Informative

    Copying something is obviously wrong

    But, it's not. Creating scarcity where none exists is wrong. If that's not obvious to you, you don't really understand or support Pirate politics.

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  18. Re:Let's say, hypothetically, you're not pro-pirac by Hatta · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is no rational middle ground on piracy. If you're going to take the stance that copying is bad, you have to fight it all out. Scorched earth. Anything less, and you might as well legalize file sharing. The risks of getting caught file sharing are so low, that you must have extraordinarily draconian punishments for the risk/reward ratio to work out against file sharing.

    There are three choices. You are either for locking down *everything*, for locking down *nothing*, or you are for ineffectual bumbling. Even the first option is more respectable than the last option.

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  19. Re:I prefer this name... by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is a particularly retarded analogy. My bank account information is not covered by copyright. It's not even especially secret. It's printed on every check I mail out. There's nothing wrong with copying that information as many times as you like. You only run into problems when you use that information for fraud.

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  20. Re:Dump The Friggin Name Overboard by horza · · Score: 2, Informative

    Eh? I would have voted for them if they had a candidate in my area, and I'm nearly 37. I'm also very smart. Hmmm I've just looked at your comment history, and you have a long history of calling everybody but yourself an idiot. From now on I'll just ignore you.

    Phillip.

  21. Re:I prefer this name... by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    'Socially acceptable' doesn't make something right. eg. Keeping slaves used to be socially acceptable (almost required if you wanted to get ahead in society).

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  22. Re:I prefer this name... by totally+bogus+dude · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But 'socially acceptable' doesn't automatically make it wrong, either. You dodged the question and tried to derail the conversation by making reference to an emotionally-charged issue, which has absolutely no relevance to the discussion.

  23. Re:I prefer this name... by davev2.0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So, it is OK to copy information as long as you don't use the information.

    But, when you make a copy of information, you use the copy repeatedly.

    And, it is not defrauding. It is correcting an artificial scarcity using YOUR assets. Just like you claim you are correcting an artificial scarcity using SOMEONE ELSE'S assets