Interview With The Pirate Party

Found on Linux P2P on Sunday, 02 April 2006
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On Jan 1, 2006, Rick Falkvinge founded the Pirate Party in Sweden, beginning a new era in the fight for legitimacy of P2P. Rick was tired of the MPA/IFPI lobbyers and politicians who would not listen to reason, so he resorted to taking to the streets in a battle for voters in this fall's general elections.

LinuxP2P: How did you guys come up with the idea of creating a whole new political party for file-sharing and privacy?

Falkvinge: Basically, because the politicians didn't listen to their voters, but to yesterday's industry interests instead, which led them to criminalize 20% of their voters (1.2 million file sharers, 5.2 million voters).

LinuxP2P: What are your main goals?

Falkvinge: To stir a debate about the hidden costs of copyright and patents, and to stop the big-brother society trend. This needs to be done on a European level; we view Sweden as a beachhead in this aspect. You gotta start somewhere.

Every country should have a similar party, because right now nobody represents the interest of the filesharers and fights against the myths brought up by the industry.