Pirate Party agenda a 'pipe dream', says IP lawyer

A leading copyright lawyer has told IP Review Online that the Swedish Pirate Party is unlikely to find political backing, despite winning a Parliamentary seat in the European election. The party, which advocates unrestricted file sharing for music, video clips and games, won 7.1% of the Swedish vote – a result that has boosted the group’s profile. However, Field Fisher Waterhouse partner Hamish Porter is sceptical of the party's political future.

'In Sweden there appears to be a feeling among a significant part of the population that the internet is a territory where copyright laws do not apply,' said Porter – a media lawyer with over two decades of experience, and member of Field Fisher Waterhouse’s IP and Technology Dispute Resolution Group.

'This is inconsistent with EU laws,' he added, 'and if record companies can’t recoup royalties from sales of their music they won't have enough money to sign new acts. The party's attitude is blind to commercial issues. I think the idea that music should be fair game on the internet is a pipe dream. No government or commission is going to give that a second thought.'

Interest in the party was piqued in April by media coverage of prison sentences handed by a Stockholm court to the managers of torrent-tracking website Pirate Bay. The four men were convicted for assisting the distribution of copyrighted content, earning one-year jail terms and a €2.7 million joint fine. In the wake of the verdict, publicity over file-trading issues combined with the Pirate Party’s rebel status to lift the party's membership. This is now approaching 50,000.

Ballots cast for the party surpassed a poll prediction issued days after the Pirate Bay case, which tipped the group for 5.1% of the Swedish vote – enough for a seat. The figure, from newspaper DN.se, was eclipsed by polls carried out closer to election night, which put the group’s potential vote at 8-9%. According to Pirate Party leader Rickard Falkvinge, any result over 4% counted as a 'political sensation'. The party won support from almost 20% of voters under the age of 30.

Deputy chairman and top candidate Christian Engstrom is likely to fill the MEP role, although this has yet to be confirmed on the party's website. Other party officials who stood in the election include vice president Anna Troberg and youth board member Amelia Andersdotter. IP holders will be anxious to see how the party will capitalise on Sweden's six-month presidency of the EU, scheduled to start next month.

Founded by Falkvinge in early 2006, the Pirate Party grew out of a basic webpage requesting signatures of support. The page soon collected 2,000 names. This enabled the new party to register with Sweden's Election Authority to take part in the 2006 General Election, where it came tenth out of 40 participants. During this time, the group also developed its political agenda. Not only does it believe that a copyright holder's monopoly over an aesthetic work should be limited to five years, it also argues for open peer-to-peer file trading and an abolition of the patent system.