p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- It’s a done deal.

In a major victory, Sweden’s Pirate Party, formed only three years ago, has won a seat in the European Parliament.

“This means that we can start work to secure citizens’ rights, something that we have fought for for three and a half years,” The Local has party leader Rick Falkvinge declaring.

“This is a reminder to the political old guard that if they take money from the pockets of lobbyists then they will lose their jobs,” he says.

The party’s leading candidate, Christian Engström, 46, from Nacka in Stockholm, will take his seat in the EU parliament in the autumn.

“A Swedish political party which wants to legalize file-sharing on the Internet scored a surprise victory Sunday when it took a seat in the European parliament,” says CNN.

It may have been a surprise to them, but not to anyone who has any interest in, of knowledge of, Net politics.

It also represents a blow to the entertainment cartels which are largely responsible for the party’s triumph.

“Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels have suffered a staggering defeat in Sweden where they’d hoped a court case they’d spent millions of dollars fixing – sorry, initiating, would finally put a halt to The Pirate Bay, the site which indexes and tracks .torrent files and which, according to the entertainment industry, is costing billions of dollars in sales losses,” said p2pnet yesterday.

Stay tuned.

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The Local – ‘A political sensation’: Pirate Party leader, June 8, 2009
CNN – Pirate Party wins surprise Euro seat, calls for Web freedom, June 8, 2009
p2pnet – Swedish Pirates on their way to Brussels, June 7, 2009