Pirate Party Gains Members in Verdict Aftermath
The Finnish Pirate Party logo.
Image: Piraattipuolue
The Finnish Pirate Party says it has seen a rush of interest in recent days in reaction to the guilty verdicts that were handed to the four Swedish Pirate Bay architects for breaching Sweden's copyright laws.
Sweden's Pirate Party has gained some 13,000 new members since the Stockholm district court handed prison sentences to the men behind popular file-sharing site Pirate Bay. Harri Kivistö, Vice Chairman of the Pirate Party of Finland, says his party has seen a similar surge of interest, however, on a smaller scale.
Kivistö says that while the Pirate Bay verdict has attracted new members, the party is mainly gaining ground because people want to see digital rights laws changed.
“People feel that there’s a conflict with their own sense of justice and current laws,” says Kivistö, referring to the shock that followed the Pirate Bay verdict.
With 30,000 members, the Swedish Pirate Party is currently the fourth largest party in Sweden in terms of membership rates. In Finland, the party is still 900 signatures shy of the 5,000 it needs to register as an official political party.
The Finnish Pirate Party’s agenda includes overhauling copyright laws and abolishing patents.
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