Sweden and File Sharing

"Last Jan. 1, almost on a whim, 35-year-old IT manager Rickard Falkvinge got into politics.

Concerned about the reach of copyright and patent law, Falkvinge erected a web page with a sign-up form for a radical new pro-piracy party to compete in Sweden's parliamentary system. He didn't know if anyone would care, but the next day the national media picked it up, and two days later international media started calling.

The site was flooded with new members -- enough for the nascent movement to sail past the requirements for participation in the national election. Falkvinge now faced a decision: stay with his nice job and let the whole thing quietly sink, or quit and become a campaigning politician. He chose to become the leader of Sweden's newest and fastest-growing political party: Piratpartiet, or the Pirate Party." From Wired

File Sharing is clearly a hot topic that won't go away. The RIAA just released a propaganda video (Here's the recommended Boing Boing post), which is always a good approach towards winning over your enemies. The vid has already become a parody. Weird Al Yankovich, who's apparently still alive, has released a free song parodying the RIAA.













It seems that Sweden is at the center of much of this. The Pirate Bay, a well known torrent tracking site had its Swedish headquarters raided in May, making international headlines. The site was temporarily shut down, but has since been restored. Last week, a Swedish-based company released software that masks the user's IP address for a small monthly fee (part of the proceeds go to the Pirate Party. Arrrrrrrr indeed.) If the Pirate Party gets a minimum of 4% of the national vote, they get funding and a relative percentage of seats in the parliament. What can we expect to happen in the next year? five years? ten years? Will the record companies abandon tangible mediums of music distribution, opting instead for an Itunes-esque business model, or will they try to hold on to their archaic business model while suing music fans left right and center? Will we see a rise in political parties standing up for file sharing?