Another Viking Invasion

It may not cause the same sort of upheaval as the 8th-century Viking raids on the British Isles, but Sweden’s Pirate Party is now an officially recognised political party in the U.K.

Rather than sailing across the North Sea to rape and pillage and burn down a few monasteries, this time the Norse invaders want only to legalise Internet file-sharing, safeguard people’s online privacy and abolish the patent system.

The Pirate Party, which isn’t connected to Sweden’s Pirate Bay torrent site, was added to the U.K. list of political parties July 30. It means it can now raise funds, have Pirate Party candidates in national elections, and “do all the other things that political parties do,” as its Web site explains.

The party was founded in 2006 and later that year contested a Swedish general election. It received less than 1 percent of the vote.
However, the party’s popularity appears to have been boosted since the conviction in April of four men behind The Pirate Bay torrent tracker.

A couple of months ago it won one of its country’s seats in the European Parliament, capturing 7.1 percent of the vote.

A note on the U.K. Pirate Bay site says: “The paperwork is done. The Web site has been developed.

“We have put the legal and banking necessities in place. Now the party needs you. Yes, I know you were there for the party all along, but now you really can join this real political party.”