Backlash

The Swedish Pirate Party, which promotes an in-depth overhaul of copyright and intellectual property laws, could win a seat at the European Parliament.

Founded in 2006, the Pirate Party has seen its membership rate soar since the much-publicized Pirate Bay lawsuit. The Pirate Bay is the largest search engine for peer-to-peer files. The owners of the site, who are planning on appealing the judge's decision, are currently looking at up to a year of imprisonment and a 3-million-Euro fine.

A few weeks ago, a high-quality work-in-progress copy of «X-Men Origins: Wolverine» leaked online, enraging Hollywood again.

A national poll now attributes 5.1% of vote intentions to the Pirate Party at the European Parliament elections – enough to secure a seat. With 42,000 members, this group has become the fourth most powerful political party in the country: fourth in the 30-44 age range, it represents the second party of choice for the 18-29-year-olds.

As a dissenting party, the Pirate Party doesn't define itself as either left- or right-wing. Its main battle is «freedom of Internet, without license, in an open society. Freedom of speech and communication is one of the basic human rights and is an important part of the European human rights convention. New technologies are something amazing. They need to be encouraged, not hindered by locking up people who provide necessary infrastructure.»

This seat could have a strong influence on the French debate around the Hadopi law, which is dragging on due to the incapacity of politicians to agree with one another and with service providers. European elections are taking place between June 4th and 7th 2009.