Pirate Party swashbuckles into Finnish politics

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Sweden's Pirate Party supporter wears a T-shirt with the party's logo during European parliamentary elections evening in June 2009 in Stockholm. The Pirate Party, which first rose to prominence in Sweden during June's European elections, has now been officially launched in Finland, the group's leader said on Wednesday.

The Pirate Party, which first rose to prominence in Sweden during June's European elections, has now been officially launched in Finland, the group's leader said on Wednesday.

Finnish Pirate Party Chairman Pasi Palmulehto told AFP that the organisation, which like its Swedish counterpart calls for more relaxed laws on Internet downloading, has successfully gathered the required support to legally create a political group in the Nordic country.

"We are delighted to have been able to collect the necessary 5,000 signatures," Palmulehto told AFP, adding that it would now feature in the official party register of Finland's Ministry of Justice.

He said the party would call for "a reform of copyright laws, protecting privacy and freedom of speech as well as transparency in politics."

Palmulehto said the Finnish Pirate Party would look to stand in future local, national and European elections in Finland.

Copyright holder organisations in Finland were outraged at the news of the group's formation.

"We are absolutely against the idea that any political party can give their support to the idea of free use of protected content," said Arto Alaspaeae, the director of IFPI Finland (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry).

According to their website, the Finnish Pirate Party wants to decriminalise illicit filesharing, drastically cut the length of copyright protection and abolish software and pharmaceutical patents.

Sweden's Pirate Party stood on a similar platform in June's European elections, picking up 7.1 percent of the popular vote.

Following that success, copycat groups sprang up in Britain, the Czech Republic and Australia among other countries.

(c) 2009 AFP

   

• LariAnn - Aug 19, 2009
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
  IMHO, since the majority of the beneficiaries of copyright protection are the large media corporations and not the individual artists, reform in this area is sorely needed. The artist should be the primary beneficiary and the "rights" of secondary organizations that merely profit off of the artist's work should be severely curtailed. In this age of internet access, the need for centralized media distribution has diminished significantly, and will diminish even more in the future. I'm all for the artist being fairly compensated for their efforts, but think it is unfair for companies who had no real artistic role in the creative production to make piles of money from the artist's efforts. Besides, the media corporations are the ones who profit from "piracy" laws and lawsuits, not the artists.
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• gopher65 - Aug 19, 2009
  • Rank: not rated yet
  Uh, they want to eliminate pharmaceutical patents? Are they insane? Pharmaceutical are *already* cutting back on research because they can't make any money in some areas (antibiotics being one). And you want to eliminate any possibility of them making money? Right, cause we'll cure diseases *that* way.
  
  Smart:P.
  
  What is their alternative to get the tens of billions of dollars of money necessary to cure things like cancer, AIDS, and ageing? Or are these people all moronic conspiracy theorists and homoeopaths?
  
  Now copyright law, that needs to be changed. I agree with LariAnn's assessment of the state of copyright law.
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