Intellectual Property Law

The Pirate Party Expands by Another Country

By Mike Madison

The Pirate Party has planted another official flag:  Finland, where its 5,000 signatures made it an officially recognized party.  [H/T:  Orgtheory.net]

About the Pirate Party, from Wikipedia:

The Pirate Party (Swedish: Piratpartiet) is a political party in Sweden. Its sudden popularity has given rise to parties with the same name and similar goals in Europe and worldwide. The Party strives to reform laws regarding copyright and patents. The agenda also includes support for a strengthening of the right to privacy, both on the Internet and in everyday life, and the transparency of state administration. The Party has intentionally chosen to be bloc independent on the traditional left-right scale to pursue their political agenda with all mainstream parties.

The Party participated in the 2006 Riksdag elections and gained 0.63% of the votes making them the third largest party outside parliament, where a minimum of 4% is required. In terms of membership, it passed the Green Party in December 2008, the Left Party in February 2009, the Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats in April 2009, and the Centre Party in May 2009, making it the third largest political party in Sweden. The Pirate Party’s associated youth organization, Young Pirate (Swedish: Ung Pirat), is now the largest political youth organization in Sweden by membership count. The Party is currently in the process of preparing for the 2009 European Parliament elections.

Here’s the official (English language version) of the Swedish party’s page.

It’s just a guess, but I suspect that like-minded folks in the US are unlikely to get very far with an enterprise named “the Pirate Party.”

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Full post as published by Madisonian.net on June 01, 2009 (boomark / email).