11 Jun Pirateparty makes it to the EU
photo by: ©Billy R| Rick Falkvinge and Christian Engström thanking the pirate movement.
After the prosecution of admins of the torrent website thePiratebay.org, a European movement of Internet users who started to run for European Parliament under the name “the Pirate Party” gained many new followers.
The Pirate Party is the third largest party in Sweden in terms of membership. Its sudden popularity has given rise to parties with the same name and similar goals in Europe and worldwide.
As a result the Pirate Party has gathered enough votes to be guaranteed a seat in the European Parliament.
“The Swedish and German Pirate Parties are today celebrating their election success, after each gaining more than 200,000 votes in the 2009 European Parliament elections. This result marks the first ever elected seat for a Pirate Party, and fittingly comes from the piratpartiet, who has been awarded one MEP seat.”
The four admins of the torrent website The Piratebay.org received 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000.
An interesting podcast interview with the newly elected MEP, Christian Engström can be found here
more info
HWS: New Copyright Law
Torrent Freak
Pirate Party International