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WEEKLY NEWS - JUNE 08, 2009

This article is part of MIP Week, a weekly email newsletter written by the editors of Managing IP magazine. Take a one week trial to Managing IP and find many more related articles.

Pirate Party wins European Parliament seat

Emma Barraclough, London

Sweden’s Pirate Party has won a seat in the European Parliament after securing 7.1% of the country’s vote

The Piratpartiet took fifth place in the national vote, behind the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the Moderate Party.

Christian Engström
Christian Engström, vice-chair of the Pirate Party and newly elected MEP

It came ahead of The Left Party of Sweden, the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats.

The Pirate Party says it has only three issues on its agenda: reform of copyright law to make non-commercial copying and use completely free; the abolition of patents; and respect for the right to privacy.

The Pirate Party's electoral success comes less than two months after a court in Stockholm sentenced four of the operators of file-sharing network The Pirate Bay to one year in jail after it found them guilty of copyright infringement. That decision led to public protests - organised by the Pirate Party - in Stockholm, Karlstad, Goteborg, and Lund attended by hundreds of people.

Managing IP subscribers can read a debate between the Pirate Party's Christian Engström and Scott Martin of Paramount Pictures about the role of copyright law here .



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