“South Park: S13 E:7”
Walk the plank and take a plunge into Davy Jones’ locker or join me crew of pirate supporters known as the infamous Pirate Party. The Pirate Party originated in Sweden but resides in other nations under the umbrella organization known as Pirate Party International (PPI). These private parties all have three core policies: reform laws regarding copyright and patents, strengthen the right to privacy, both on the internet and in everyday life, and ensure that everyone has real freedom of speech. Leading the pack would be the Swedish Pirate Party where it all began while stemming from individuals beliefs, controversial opinions of legality and an important lawsuit filed against the “most resilient” BitTorrent site, The Pirate Bay.
- Pirate Party Logo
- Pirate Party International Logo
- The Pirate Bay Logo
Ye Ol’ Pirate Code
The basic principles of the pirate party were created relative to Swedish law. They want to promote global legislation to further adapt to the emerging informational society with the current times of daily technological advancements. Due to the advancements in technology they claim that today’s copyright system is unbalanced which is why they stand behind the decriminalization of file sharing in general. Another of their policies discussed is the patent and how privatized monopolies are one of society’s worst enemies and are obsolete because they put an unnecessary protection on innovation. The last policy upheld by the group is personal privacy and ending excessive surveillance by the government and big businesses by abusing the power of profiling, tracking and monitoring of innocent people.
Read More On Their Platform:
- Pirate Party Agenda – 3 Issues – Link to German post of party issues
- Analysis of The Manifesto of the Swedish Pirate Party by David Johnson – Blog
Shiver Me Timbers! Pirates Return!
On January 1, 2006 the pirate party website was launched and marked the beginning of a worldwide movement involving the creation of a new political party with a voice in government. The beginning started in Sweden where Pirate Party leader, Rick Falkvinge, collected 2,000 signatures to become recognized and later 1500 handwritten signatures to become official. Quickly they raised money to organize and print ballots for the election in hopes of enough votes to grant them membership in Parliament. On June 7, 2009 the Pirate Party polled at 7.1% during the European Parliament election initially giving it one seat. Instantaneously they grew in numbers and shortly became the third largest political party in Sweden of the seven and now hold two seats due to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty on December 1st, 2009 (Read More on the Process of Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty). Today Sweden is still the leader in political progress of the approximate 33 other nations who have also started pirate parties, some registered and other active but unregistered, all working together towards a common goal through Pirate Party International (PPI).
Alright Ya Scallywags! Surrender Your Plunder And Let Me Send My Shot Across Your bow!
“South Park S:13 E:7”
Waves of supporters flocked to the aid of pirate party during the early stages. Most of these supporters themselves have also pirated music, movies and games before and share the same beliefs of the party. One incident that has garnered large support for the pirate party occurred with the notorious website known as The Pirate Bay. 
The Swedish website, run by Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Peter Sunde (shown below in same order), indexes BitTorrent files.
What is BitTorrent? Are torrent files legal?
These torrent files allow for faster downloading of files using peer-to-peer file sharing. This allows a user to pull from multiple locations instead of a single location allowing for a faster transfer rate. The website however does not hold the files but instead it is a pointer to a location that does share the data.
On January 31, 2008 a case known as The Pirate Bay Trial involved the three creators of The Pirate Bay and Carl Lundström, a Swedish businessman who sold services to the site, were charged for the breach in copyright law. Over the course of ten days, many of the chargers were dropped but one charge did stick. On April 17, 2009 the court found them guilty (Convicted Pirates!) of being accessories to copyright infringement but all defendants have appealed (Grounds for A Retrial? / Perhaps A Conflict of Interest?) and are now awaiting their next hearing. This ten day trial caused the party to double after the verdict with the additional support of 25,000 more members making the party the fourth largest Swedish party with a membership count of over 40,000 members. The Pirate Bay raid incident also caused a surge in members when Swedish police raided multiple facilities housing servers of The Pirate Bay, causing the website to go offline for three days. These incidents led to a breakthrough for the Pirate Party in the public eye; the exposure The Pirate Bay has received has become a very large influence on the Pirate Party’s size and has greatly helped increase the amount of supporters for their cause.
Carl Lundström
More on Trial:https://mikefrangos.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=700
- Explanation of Pirate Bay Trial – A short video explaining the trial (*Turn off Volume*)
- Pirate Bay Guilty – Article posted on France24.com
- Pirate Bay Verdict – A more in depth video on The Pirate Bay Trial by G4
Cast Away! Course Be Plotted! This Young Vessel Be Leaving! Off Ye Go, Now!
Currently most Pirate Parties are looking for support and donations to officially register as a political party so they may have Pirate Party Candidates at the general election. The Pirate Party also has an associated youth organization known as the Young Pirate which is now the largest political youth organization in Sweden by membership count. Another current development is the addition of a seat in European parliament by the Swedish Pirate Party. Recently on December 1st, 2009 they obtained a second seat due to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which ironically they were against, and have given the second seat to Amelia Andersdotter, who is the youngest Member of the European Parliament (MEP) to date. She will sit with fellow pirate Christian Engström who had the only seat before the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty was signed on November 3rd, 2009. With the Pirate Bay Trial pending until 2010, the Pirate Parties are organizing and attempting to get their parties officially registered in hopes to hinder the government’s attempts to implement an internet censorship regime. The UK Pirate Party has officially registered at the Electoral Commission in August and Canada’s Pirate Party is active and is in the process of becoming an official, registered political entity. Following the rest, Pirate Party Australia is currently attempting to get the party officially registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. With the Pirate Party now holding two seats in Parliament, what is to become of the party and its agenda? Will the party muster enough strength in numbers or is it just another ship waiting to be sunk? Godspeed!
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Mike Frangos 
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