Petteri Pyyny
4 Jan 2006 0:24
New political party has been set up in Sweden that plans to participate to country's upcoming general elections. The party is called Piratpartiet as in Pirate party and it aims to remove copyright laws from Sweden.
Party plans to remove all immaterial rights, including copyrights and patents and also plans to stop Sweden's participation in international copyright organizations, including WIPO and WTO and to make it illegal to put any restrictions on distribution of digital content (in form of DRM, copy protections, etc). Party also states that it plans to uphold and push even further the strict privacy laws currently in place in Sweden and to make it illegal to track or monitor citizens' communications online and offline.
People behind the party have made it very clear that their idea is not a joke. To register an official party in Sweden, party needs to get 1,500 signatures to support its cause. Organization already managed to gather over 4,000 signatures in first 24 hours and now is in process of validating the signatures. Once validated, it aims to register itself as an official party and to participate in next general elections with their rather interesting agenda.
Source: Piratpartiet (in Swedish)