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back to article Swedish Pirate Party membership numbers sinks

Pirate Party membership in Sweden has plummeted by around 50 per cent as erstwhile supporters fail to renew their alliance to the party. The outfit saw a surge in interest this time last year when the four co-founders of The Pirate Bay had just been found guilty in a Swedish court of being accessories to breaching copyright …

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  1. John Hawkins
    Black Helicopters

    Going mainstream

    The success of the local PP has made the established pollies realise that they can't fob people off with a "trust us, we know what we're doing" and they're picking up on the issues the PP have had to themselves. The partial release of the ACTA text is a good example of something has happened internationally. The result is that many people don't really see the point of the PP any more.

    I guess that is the primary rôle of a single issue party, but I hope they don't die out completely as there's still a lot that needs doing.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    number of members in Sweden

    12:53GMT the number of members was 29462

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  3. NukEvil
    Flame

    Let's get this over with...

    "I am entitled to get something that doesn't belong to me for free!"

    "You're ruining creativity by not paying for crap!"

    "Copyright infringement isn't a criminal offense, it's a civil one!"

    "I don't want to pay $12.95 for a CD when I can just download the one song I actually want for free!"

    "Why should I pay for something not worth paying for?"

    "If you don't want to pay for it, then don't get it!"

    "*sob story about how I got screwed over by the entertainment industry via malware/spyware/viruses/etc, so I feel that I don't have to pay for anything else*"

    "How can they count it as a lost sale when I wouldn't have bought it anyways?"

    "*random comment about funding terrorism by not paying for a DVD*"

    and on and on and on...Now that all that's already been said, you tards can come up with some original content, right?

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  4. Andrew Norton
    FAIL

    reason for the quiet?

    "Meanwhile, the Pirate Party is keeping quiet. We've asked UK party reps and Engström about their thoughts on The Pirate Bay verdict one year on. But while last April's trial outcome may have galvanised the issue of illegal file sharing on the net, no one from the party has gotten back to us with any fresh comment."

    OR, just a shot in the dark, but PERHAPS The Reg has had it's email addressed put on the spam list; blackballed some might say, after it's breech of journlalistic ethics over the UK party's manifesto. I don't know about you, but every journalism textbook I've read has pretty much spelt that out as the consequence of breaking embargoes.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Pirate Party illiteracy

      Andrew Norton, Pirate Party USA - aged 8?

      :: The Reg has had it's email addressed

      1. [grammar] its, not it's

      2. [grammar] "email address" not "email addressed"

      :: after it's breech

      3. [grammar] - see 1.

      4. [spelling] breeches are something you wear, a breach is probably what you intended to write

      :: of journlalistic ethics

      5. [spelling] there is only one L in journalistic

      :: I don't know about you, but every journalism textbook I've read has pretty much spelt

      6. [spelling] Spelt is a grain. You can't spell.

      Back to school, Andrew. You may even need to retake the whole year again.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    DEBILL to block access

    > Digital Economy Act will allow the authorities to block access to sites like The Pirate Bay

    why? it doesnt actually host the content...just links to the content.

    last time I checked, I could also find those links by using Google. so will the DEBILL mean that my access to google gets blocked?

    idiots tend not to think of the real issues when making quick dirty laws. DEBILL must be repealed by the new government

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      he DEA is as vague as possible

      Meaning that any site that MAY be used for copyright infringement can be blocked, even if it doesn't already.

      The DEA also allows blocking of sites that link to copyrighted material, too.

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  6. Duke

    Pirate Party UK - not having membership trouble

    It is my, personal, understanding that PPUK certainly isn't too busy losing members to respond - if anything, it is too busy dealing with new members, running 9 election campaigns (our tenth candidate may have fallen afoul of the volcano issue) and helping to found Pirate Parties International.

    I spoke to several members of the Swedish Party over the weekend (at the PPI conference in Brussels) and while they acknowledge the decrease in membership, they are not surprised or worried by it. People are not walking away from their party, merely forgetting to renew their annual membership; once PPSe and these issues start getting back into the news, I think their numbers may swell again. Conveniently for some, the tPB appeal has now been pushed back to after the upcoming Swedish General Election (it was originally planned for late 2009).

    My understanding of the code that Ofcom is developing is that it is the parts described in sections 3-16 of the Digital Economy Act - the site-blocking measures are in Section 17 and can be done by any secondary legislation, with or without Ofcom. These could be put in place within a couple of months, and I don't think there is any doubt about tPB being the first target.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    TPB 4 Lyfe!

    Lets be realistic if TPB goes down there are plenty more out there and at current TPB is still up after having equipment confiscated and a guilty verdict and this is a year on! There are plenty more out there to choose from.

    Respect to TPB owners i will support you until the end and keep using your services just to prove a point!

    Anonymous coz :-)

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    Regardless of the copyright issues...

    ... do these politicians/lawyers seriously think they can stop file-sharing? Do they think their lawyers can out-nerd the P2P community? They can make all the legal verdicts and political nonsense they like... it won't change a thing.

    Only thing that *might* change is the URL of the P2P hosting sites people use, and the technologies the P2P community uses.

    They should stop trying to fight the likes of TPB and start trying to find a way to work with them. I mean, surely something can be worked out... Like say; asking TBP to include "buy now" buttons to legit digital media sites with the content. In many cases, people downloading are just checking if the stuff is worth buying. Having a handy "buy now" link might get an extra sale or two. I'm sure TBP would be happy to comply, if it got all them lawyers out of their way. -- Perhaps not a brilliant idea but at least I'm trying!

    - Anonymous because... well... I have no time to deal with lawyers xD

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  9. Reclaim The Law

    Reclaim The Law

    I wonder how many ORIGINAL artist(e)s are rotting in the gutter, having been royally ripped off by the media industry, then to see their material ascribed to some whore patsie "performer" and reach number one in the "charts" . . . ?

    the media industry is one of the biggest scam rip-off criminal organisations on the Planet - probably in third place after criminal fraudulent banksters and "legal" (but NOT LAWFUL) pharmacutical drug pushers. . .BRING IT ON YOU SCUM LAWYERS !

    btw, try doing a google search for EcoTort to find out about the REAL Nature of Law, and how it is a FRIEND of "we the PIRATES" (oops, I mean we the PEOPLE of course)!

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