Svenska Piratpartiets uppsving
Pirates of the European
Groups representing intellectual property rights holders have called for stronger measures to protect their interests. Civil liberties groups, however, feel that the measures proposed by the Commission go too far in protecting the interests of rights-holders. They argue that the proposed Directive, which is similar to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, will seriously harm consumers and small businesses, while benefiting large intellectual property rights holders. This is because technical protection measures can be attached to all digital content and circumvention in all cases is illegal - there are no exceptions.
Pirates of the European II: The Empire Strikes Back
In January this year, the Pirate Party (Piratpartiet) was formed, with an aim of competing in this September’s parliamentary elections. At first, it appeared it would be a small and obscure party that no one seriously would consider anything more than a student prank. The initial party program called for the complete abolition of all protection for patents and creative work, but the revised platform now calls for IP protection to last for a period of registration of 5 years.
The Pirate Party engaged in the public debate - quite vociferously - but gained little ground.
The police raid changed all that.
