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Swedish Pirate Party Scores EU Seat

By Jess Kilby,  Newser User

Posted Jun 8, 2009 5:45 AM CDT

(Newser) – Sweden’s Pirate Party scored a major victory last night, capturing one of the country’s 18 seats in the European parliament, AFP reports. The party—which advocates for the legalization of peer-to-peer file sharing, stronger digital privacy protections, and reforms in copyright law—was formed in 2006 and saw its membership triple to 48,000 after founders of the Pirate Bay file-sharing site were convicted in April.


One of the  hundreds of supporters of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay that demonstrated in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday April 18 2009, waves a Jolly Roger pirate flag.
One of the hundreds of supporters of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay that demonstrated in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday April 18 2009, waves a Jolly Roger pirate flag.   (AP Photo/Scanpix Sweden, Fredrik Persson)
Rick Falkvinge, front, leader of the Pirate Party, celebrates while watching the preliminary results of the Swedish votes in the European parliament election in Stockholm Sweden, Sunday June 7 2009.
Rick Falkvinge, front, leader of the Pirate Party, celebrates while watching the preliminary results of the Swedish votes in the European parliament election in Stockholm Sweden, Sunday June 7 2009.   (AP photo/Scanpix Sweden, Fredrik Persson)
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This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept the authorities’ mass-surveillance. - Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
cfbailey
Jun 8, 2009 10:54 AM CDT
Good for them....I need to lose Vista and get Windows 7
Chudluv
Jun 8, 2009 10:30 AM CDT
Whoa!!! Good going, time to see a very small crack in the wall begin.
Rembrandt_Q_Einstein
Jun 8, 2009 7:54 AM CDT
Now this is good news.

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