Pirate Party wins seats at EU table

Sweden’s Pirate Party has won 7.1% of Swedish votes in the Europe-wide ballot, comfortably over the 4% threshold and enough to give it two seats in the European Parliament.

Roughly 200,000 citizens voted for the party, making it the fifth most popular party in Sweden and the largest party representing under 30s, as well as beating more established parties like the Christian Democrats and the Centre Party.

With over 700 seats in the European Parliament, the Pirate Party won't be holding anyone to ransom just yet - but its popularity is ominous for the rapidly failing business model of the entertainment industry's multinationals.

The party was formed before the last elections in 2006 when it received only 34,918 votes, on a platform of reforming copyright law and protecting citizen privacy. The Pirate Party hopes to reduce the abuses of power and copyright at the hands of the entertainment industries, and to legalize file-sharing for personal use.

It is not affiliated with torrent sharing site The Pirate Bay in any way, but seems to have benefited enormously from the massive media coverage surrounding The Pirate Bay’s recent notorious court case.

The four Pirate Bay leaders were found guilty of copyright infringement in April, with each sentenced to 12 months prison and ordered to pay $NZ6.4m to copyright holders including EMI, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Music, Sony Pictures and Time Warner.

The trial was thrown into chaos when it was the discovered that not one, but two judges had conflicts of interest that have jeopardized the legitimacy of the ruling, reports Mashable.

Since the convictions Pirate Party membership has more than tripled to over 48,000 registered members, more than its total voters in the last election.

The party was also on the ballot in Germany where it only managed 0.9% of the vote; nevertheless enough to put it over the 0.5% threshold needed to qualify for government funding for a political party for the next elections.

"We have just written political history," Swedish Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge said to Ars Technica. "Tonight, politicians have learned that doing what the lobby asks will cost them their jobs. We're the largest party in the segment below 30 years of age. That's building the future of liberties."