Back in 2006, a group of wacky Swedes founded the Piratpartiet, which is exactly what it sounds like, the Pirate Party. The party’s main platform revolves around copyright and other intellectual property reform.
Remember those crazy kids at the Pirate Bay trial in Sweden earlier this year? Right after the trial, membership in the Piratpartiet surged to over 30,000 members. Today, there are nearly 50,000 members.
While this may have been laughable earlier this year, just a few weeks ago during the European Union elections, PP earned a seat in the European Parliament. Further, PP members convinced former Social Democrat Jörg Tauss to leave the the SDP and join the German Pirate Party, or the Piratenpartei Deutschland.
Beyond these successes, the Pirate Party is spreading around Europe and around the globe. In the past few weeks alone, chapters in the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Estonia, and Switzerland have been founded.
This week, the United States Pirate Party is holding its annual elections — maybe they’ll soon be successful in getting someone elected to the state level?
