Pirates In Parliament!
I love Sweden. First the annual burning of the Christmas Goat, and now this:
“Sweden’s Pirate Party has won a seat in the European Parliament.
The group — which campaigned on reformation of copyright and patent law — secured 7.1% of the Swedish vote.
The result puts the Pirate Party in fifth place, behind the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the Moderate Party.”
The Pirate Party has a fairly simple agenda:
“The Pirate Party wants to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent system, and ensure that citizens’ rights to privacy are respected. With this agenda, and only this, we are making a bid for representation in the European and Swedish parliaments.”
They maintain that all non-commercial copying should be legal, and that copyrights should last for five years, that there should be no patents, and an end to excessive government surveillance.
They might consider adding opposition to the international parrot trade …
