The European Pirates [1], who came together in Brussels in early spring to found their European party, took the opportunity to also choose their candidates for the President of the European Commission. The pirate movement will put forward not just one, but two persons: the current Swedish member of the European Parliament, Amelia Andersdotter, and the founder of the platform The Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde.
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Amelia Andersdotter played a key role in the fight against the anti-conterfeiting trade agreement, better known as "ACTA". Indeed, she was rapporteur of the ITRE (industry, research and energy) Committee on this issue and was able to convince the majority of her colleagues to reject this agreement. Thanks to the efforts of pirates and actors of civil society, the European Parliament then became aware of the dangers of ACTA for European citizens, and rejected it by more than 90% of the votes in plenary Assembly.
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By allowing everyone to share any file with the rest of the world, The Pirate Bay has contributed to the dissemination of knowledge and culture worldwide, as well as the fight against censorship. Sued for infringement, Peter and the other 3 co-founders firmly defended the neutral position of the platform to users coming from countries with very different regimes. They were sentenced with heavy fines and prison sentences by the Swedish justice, despite the conflict of interest of several successive judges who were subsequently recognised to be members of lobbying groups campaigning for tougher copyright laws [8].
With this duo, the Pirate Party gives itself a capable couple, able to represent its values. Combining both youth and experience, Amelia and Peter will carry the ideas of the Pirate Party into the European Parliament and the Commission. The Internet has shown the benefits of a distributed organization, based on cooperation among near equals: who better than Pirates to design and promote the European Union we need?
The European Pirates
[1] https://europeanpirates.eu/
[2] http://www.piratpartiet.se/
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piratbyrån
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattr
[5] https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-announces-encrypted-nsa-proof-communication-apps-130710/
[6] https://thepiratebay.se/
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent
[8] http://blog.brokep.com/2013/04/03/biased-judge-also-in-the-echr/
[2] http://www.piratpartiet.se/
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piratbyrån
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattr
[5] https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-announces-encrypted-nsa-proof-communication-apps-130710/
[6] https://thepiratebay.se/
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent
[8] http://blog.brokep.com/2013/04/03/biased-judge-also-in-the-echr/