Pirate Party Bags Seats on European Parliament
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Sweden’s Pirate Party this past weekend secured themselves two seats in the European Parliament.
Founded in 2006, the group is rallying a reformation of copyright and patent law. Naturally, with a name like the Pirate Party, they weren’t taken all that seriously. However, Friday’s voting saw the Pirate Party come fifth, garnering 7.1 percent of the Swedish vote. The first four positions went to the Social Democrats, the Greens, the Liberals and the Moderate Party. Given that Sweden has a total of twenty seats in the European Parliament, the Pirate Party’s 7.1 percent of votes translates to two seats.
PCWorld reports that nearly one quarter of voters under the age of 21 voted for the Pirate Party and according to TorrentFreak, the turnout at the elections was 43 percent, meaning 200,000 Swedes have voted for the Pirate Party.
TF goes on to highlight the huge increase in support of the party since the national elections in 2006, which only saw the Pirates win 34,918 votes. This surge in support has been put down to the very public Pirate Bay trial which took place in Sweden and saw four men sentenced to a year each in prison along with an order to pay substantial damages to music, movie and game companies.
Check out the full story on TorrentFreak.
Source : Tom's Hardware US
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Yaaar!
While I agree with the need to reform copyright law, I wish the party had chosen a better name.
(in the sense that I'm sure a lot of people don't take them seriously just because of the name)
It will be interesting to see if their support continues to grow.
That. Is. AWESOME! HAHAHA!!!
We need more of this type of behavior in the USA.
If ever there was a case for a majority government style parliament, this is it.
we just need people that know something about technology and engineering in our Congress. And political science DOES NOT count.
We need a different method of representation at all levels of our government (in the US.) This all or nothing winner takes all system is ludicrous. It is literally impossible for something like this to happen in the US.
We also need an economist as a president, at least once...
You'd think that would be a prereq to being the leader of the 'free world'.
hahahha pwned ....
I wana join the Pirate Party !!!!
We also need an economist as a president, at least once...You'd think that would be a prereq to being the leader of the 'free world'.
The definition of "free world" needs updating...
Woot to the pirate party.
I thought they got only one seat, at least according to CNN and Wikipedia...?
Yes, we need this in the U.S. too!!
nice pic to complement the article, Jane. cheers, me hearty! arrr!
hahahha pwned ....I wana join the Pirate Party !!!!
Yes, we need this in the U.S. too!!
There is Pirate Party in US already.
http://www.pirate-party.us/
And it is much more then just about free file sharing. Basic principles of democracy are violated. The corrupted governments in EU and USA are voting for laws that allow private organization to open our private communication in order to protect private interests. For example in France they voted a law that allows to be kicked out of Internet for 1 year without court order based on unproved accusation for copyright infringements.
It is time to take actions if we want to call us "Free world" in the future.
nice pic to complement the article, Jane. cheers, me hearty! arrr!
I know, pirates and Lego. Just when you think it can't get any better: politics.
"I know, pirates and Lego. Just when you think it can't get any better: politics."
That pic looks more like PLAYMOBIL. It's certainly not LEGO.
"I know, pirates and Lego. Just when you think it can't get any better: politics."That pic looks more like PLAYMOBIL. It's certainly not LEGO.
Some of the old Mega Blocks guys looked like that, too. But, just like the whole ipod/mp3 player thing, any type of construction toy similar to Legos are known as Legos.
Man I loved those things when I was a kid.
Play Mobil is basically Lego for smaller hands. The bigger your hands get, the smaller the bricks get.
Also, interesting: In Europe we call it Lego. As in, I have boxes and boxes of Lego. Imagine my surprise when I was told by the lads in the office that that was just like saying, "I have boxes and boxes of cookie."
we should have the Pirate Party here in the USA.Why not ?
there are a tone of folks out there who are totally fed up with rich bigwig suits stuffing their pockets on our hard work.
and how about legallizing pot for once.imagine if all pot smokers marched on wshington dc and did a sit down thru the city.
we definately need a new party and we do have a ton of folks who hate the current goverment.
Aaargh!
I am legitimately surprised. 7.1% is all reality is huge. Guess the Swedes are getting pissed.
Will be fun to follow how this goes.
The Libertarian party is probably the closest to a USA equivalent, and some states have Libertarian representatives. I'm not sure how much they actually accomplish, though.
there is a USA party already; SAL-e posted it:
http://www.pirate-party.us/
How does it go...
First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then you win.
Play Mobil is basically Lego for smaller hands. The bigger your hands get, the smaller the bricks get.Also, interesting: In Europe we call it Lego. As in, I have boxes and boxes of Lego. Imagine my surprise when I was told by the lads in the office that that was just like saying, "I have boxes and boxes of cookie."
Lego's called cookie overseas? That's kinda wierd. We've got Lego land here (amusement center thingy) to generate some revenue from the popularity .... and it's not called cookie land ...
Anyway, why you still have the lego? saving it for offspring? Many moons ago I sold mine to some ex junkie for a nice bundle of cash to fund some of my drivers license ...
I never had lego. My family was too poor.
We did have cookies though.
And, despite the existance of any political party on the national front other than the Democrats and Republicans, any US citizen that votes for a candidate from a different party is wasting their vote. (Excluding the select few "Independent" and "Green" Representatives.)
The US electoral system is broken because we don't use the "% of vote = # of proportional seats won" for parties. (We elect "individuals" who ally with one of the two parties to get support.)
The Pirate Party may exist, but at the best... they are just another lobbying group.
We had cookies and Lego... And in Canada we never called it Lego's it was just lego if you have 1 piece or 100.
It is not like money/monies.... it's simply Lego.
Awesome! They would have gotten my vote if I would have lived in Sweden.
http://www.pirate-party.us/