[A2k] Swedish Pirate Party set to win EU parliament seat

[Anne-Catherine Lorrain]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
http://www.theparliament.com/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/swedish-pi=
rate-party-set-to-win-eu-parliament-seat
Swedish Pirate Party set to win EU parliament seat *A surge in support for
Sweden's Pirate Party could see the controversial internet file sharing
campaigners win a seat in the upcoming European parliament elections.*

A new poll commissioned by Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter shows that the
Pirate Party, which campaigns to protect internet users' freedom to share
files on the internet, is set to grab 5.1 per cent of the Swedish vote,
enough to send its leading candidate Christian Engstr=F6m to the Brussels
assembly.

Pundits put the rise in support down to the recent stiff sentences handed
out by a Stockholm court to four founding members of online file-sharing
site Pirate Bay.

The party has also benefitted from a public backlash to recently introduced
Swedish wire tapping laws, and government plans making it easier to track
people who file share copyrighted material over the internet.

Within hours of the sentence being handed out on April 17 - a year in priso=
n
and a damages fine of =802.7m =96 the movement's ranks skyrocketed.  Accord=
ing
to Swedish press reports, the Pirate Party now has around 42,000 members,
and could soon become Sweden's third largest party in membership.

The poll also revealed that the Pirate Party has drawn supporters away from
the country's Green and Left parties, and is the second most popular party
among 18-29 year olds, particularly male voters in this group.

In a written statement, Engstr=F6m said " There is a growing frustration to=
day
among young people against how repressive legislation=85 interferes in thei=
r
daily lives.=94

Pirate Party Leader Rick Falkvinge told online file-sharing website
TorrentFreak that the latest poll figures, "confirms our recent phenomenal
growth in support, and says there will be pirates in Brussels after this
election.=94

=93Scoring like this in a poll will further enhance support for the party.
While there=92s still much work to be done, we=92re on the home stretch and=
 have
the goal in plain sight. June 7 is election day. On the morning of June 8,
we=92ll know.=94

-------

Anne-Catherine Lorrain

Intellectual Property Policy Project

The* **TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue* (TACD)

80, rue d'Arlon, B-1040 Bruxelles

aclorrain@consint.org

Mob (Belgium): +32 473 99 97 92

Tel: +32 2 740 28 17, Fax: +32 2 740 28 02
www.tacd.org

www.tacd-ip.org/blog