Free-web Pirate Party captures seat

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden's Pirate Party, striking a chord with voters who want more free content on the Internet, won a seat in the European Parliament, early results showed Sunday.

The Pirate Party captured 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden in the Europe-wide ballot, enough to give it a single seat. The party wants to deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and reduce surveillance on the Internet.

"This is fantastic!" Christian Engstrom, the party's top candidate, told Reuters. "This shows that there are a lot of people who think that personal integrity is important and that it matters that we deal with the Internet and the new information society in the right way."

Previously an obscure group of single-issue activists, the party enjoyed a jump in popularity after the conviction in April of four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing website.

The case cast a spotlight on the issue of internet file-sharing, a technique used to download movies, music and other content. The defendants have called for a retrial.

Despite the similar names, the party and the website are not linked. The party was founded in 2006 and contested a Swedish general election that year, but received less than one percent of the vote.

Engstrom credited the party's appeal to young voters for its success. "We are very strong among those under 30. They are the ones who understand the new world the best. And they have now signaled they don't like how the big parties deal with these issues."

The Pirate Party will take up one of Sweden's 18 seats in the 785-seat parliament. "We will use all of our strength to defend personal integrity and our civil rights," Engstrom said.

(Reporting by Veronica Ek, writing by Adam Cox)

I have to say I do not in anyway support the removal of copyright and patent. Yeah I think in some areas its out of control perhaps. But really it's stupid to want to do that. I mean if you put your time and energy into creating and inventing something you want to be able to see some return from that. I mean as far as music and such money shouldn't be your prime concern but reguardless it is what allows you to be able to continue and keep doing it. /rant

Downloading music on a personal level can be a really useful thing but on a large scale level I just don't understand it at all. They speak of rights and the such but the whole thing seems pretty ridiculous to me. I don't consider downloading equivalent to stealing as it ultimately depends upon the question, "Would you have bought it otherwise?" That's the question I'm going to be constantly asking myself. I'm actually going to start a "To Buy" list on my computer.

Sometimes musicians need money to be able to get the proper equipment and time to do their job better. That's how artists who aren't even interested in money can be affected.

I download music because I can't afford it. I can't find work and I have no money to spare. But, whenever I do get some extra money, I buy albums. I even buy albums I have downloaded before because I want to support the artists who make the music I love

Well, partly what Axe said. I don't have any money, so it's not like I could buy albums anyway.

But most artists I listen to don't even make more than a few hundred physical albums, so what would I buy?

I understand what you guys are saying. But you both agree that artists should have rights to their own songs. And you both respect and give back to the muisc by going to shows or buying shirts and whatnot. I mean I download as well. I often do it as a preview of an untested band or to listen to something thats out of print or very rare.

Definitely downloading is a good thing for an individual and can be used for the right reasons.

I think downloading music would be legal if people respected bands like we do. Not everyone is willing to actually purchase the album after downloading to support the band. I think people would abuse it too much and the artists would make any money

You could always just use a subscription download service. Alot of them are really cheap and give you the access to a lot of good music. I mean if you don't mind not getting the actually CD in your hand.