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IP and Politics: Sweden's Pirate Party fights Counterfeiting

For three decades the Quebec-based Rhinoceros Party ran candidates in Canadian Federal elections with a campaign platform promising the Canadian public that they would, among many other things, repeal the restrictive law of gravity, put the entire national debt on their Visa, ban those harsh Canadian winters, and count all of the Thousand Islands to make sure that the United States hadn't stolen one during the night. Not surprisingly the Rhinos never managed to win a seat in Parliament however, the same cannot be said for Sweden's Pirate Party; in fact earlier this month they captured a seat in the European Parliament with over 7 per cent of the popular vote in Sweden.  Clearly these Pirates are no laughing matter.

Formed on the first day of 2006 the Pirate Party's political focus is threefold; a complete overhaul of copyright law; total abolition of the patent system; and advocating all people's right to privacy.  Although it is not clear whether the issues are specifically confined to Sweden or are to be launched on a greater scope, the fact that the party is now represented in Europe may point to the latter.  In addition, that the Swedish Pirates not only advocate, but successfully assist in the creation of overseas Pirate Parties via the internet provides even more evidence of their internationality.  How exactly did they manage to gain so much popularity in such a short period of time?  The answer may be linked with the popularity amongst young people in Sweden of file sharing websites; the Pirate Bay in particular. 

According to a contemporary article, a Swedish research firm estimates that one in every nine Swedes engages, at least in 2006 - it may be more now, in online file sharing.  The Pirate Bay, launched in late 2003, as of this writing has over 3.7 million registered users worldwide, with many of these users probably originating from Sweden.  So when the Swedish police executed a raid on the Pirate Bay's servers in May of 2006 the reaction from the users of the site was predictably negative; the above article reported that the day after the raid the Swedish police main website was shut down, while one day later the same happened to the Swedish government's page, apparently in retaliation.  People felt that the police action was too heavy handed and caused unnecessary collateral damage as there were other websites not related to file sharing hosted on the Pirate Bay's servers that were also brought down during the raid.

The raid caused the Pirate Party's, who are related to the site in name only, ranks to swell dramatically.  The immediate political payoff was not noticed as the new party garnered only a rather insignificant amount of votes in the Parliamentary elections of 2006, but the recent trial and conviction of four operators of the Pirate Bay website (they are appealing the verdict) surely played a role in increasing the party's fortunes in the EU elections that were held earlier this month.  In addition, Swedish journalist Erik Palm reports that other political parties in Sweden are adopting a more pro-pirate attitude.  The Left and Green parties recently voted against implementing the EU's new anti-piracy IPRED law as well the Greens are, in conjunction with the Pirate Bay, creating a fund to aid in paying the legal costs of people charged under anti-piracy laws.

One can only predict how well the Pirate Party will do in both domestic and foreign politics, especially with a platform so focussed as it is.  Two things do seem certain however; the support of the rather liberal Swedish youth is rather evident, and the other parties in Sweden would do well to take note that these Pirates mean business.  The warning shot across the bow has been fired.