[LINK] A Nation Divided Over Piracy

[Kim Holburn]

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71544-0.html

> STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Last Jan. 1, almost on a whim, 35-year-old IT  
> manager Rickard Falkvinge got into politics.
>
> Concerned about the reach of copyright and patent law, Falkvinge  
> erected a web page with a sign-up form for a radical new pro-piracy  
> party to compete in Sweden's parliamentary system. He didn't know  
> if anyone would care, but the next day the national media picked it  
> up, and two days later international media started calling.
>
> The site was flooded with new members -- enough for the nascent  
> movement to sail past the requirements for participation in the  
> national election. Falkvinge now faced a decision: stay with his  
> nice job and let the whole thing quietly sink, or quit and become a  
> campaigning politician. He chose to become the leader of Sweden's  
> newest and fastest-growing political party: Piratpartiet, or the  
> Pirate Party.


> Lawyers, academics and pirates agree: File sharing is an  
> institution here. Sweden has faster broadband with deeper  
> penetration than just about anywhere in the world. That, combined  
> with the techno-friendly attitude that pervades Scandinavia and a  
> government slow to take any kind of action, allowed file sharing to  
> root deeply in practice and popular culture.


--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961