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Pirate Party victory gives it a real chance of influencing politics
As of now, the Pirate Party is more than just a symbolic vote for internet freedom, copyright reform or straight-up democratic change -- in Iceland, it could have a tangible effect. The party just won 14.5 percent of the total vote and 10 seats in Iceland's parliamentary election, giving a national Pirate Party its first real chance at forming a government (if only as part of a coalition). While the conservative Independence Party came out ahead with 21 seats, it's unlikely to have any choice but to partner with one or more left-wing parties. Outrage over corruption forced the once-leading Progressive Party down to just eight seats, and there's no guarantee that Independence will want to side with the Left-Green Movement (which also garnered 10 seats) or other parties.
Iceland resists Pirate Party push for early elections
Following the pseudo-resignation of its Prime Minister, whom the leaked Panama Papers tied to an offshore holding company, Iceland's ruling coalition remains in turmoil. Despite appointing a new PM on Thursday, the government is facing calls for early elections. And, to make matters worse, the opposition Pirate Party is surging at the polls with more than half of Icelanders reportedly willing to vote for them over the current coalition.
Pirate Bay goes on the lam from Sweden, heads for safe harbor in Spain, Norway
Despite a recent effort to move its servers to the cloud, Pirate Bay will be moving its base out of Sweden thanks to recent legal pressure. The Swedish Pirate Party that hosted the torrent site has been feeling heat from the film and music industry-backed Swedish Rights Alliance, which gave it until today to cut ties in order to avoid a lawsuit. As a result, the site has moved its operations to servers in Spain and Norway hosted by Pirate Parties there, saying it's had a contingency plan in place for awhile to do so. Anway, if the embattled site has to keep criss-crossing the seas while fighting legal battles to stay afloat, it might make for another good documentary.
Wikileaks to be hosted by Swedish Pirate Party, apparently Angelfire wasn't really working out
You know, we can't get enough of that Swedish Pirate Party. Not only is it fighting tirelessly for freedom, truth, and government transparency, but it just happens to have the most bad-ass name of any political party that we know. And now, deputy party leader Anna Troberg has announced that it's agreed to host WikiLeaks' servers from an undisclosed location, somewhere in the country. This isn't the first time the organization has stepped in to aid a beleaguered website -- you might recall how it announced that it would provide bandwidth for the Pirate Bay way back in May. For the time being, it looks like Julian Assange and co. (or at least their data) has found a safe haven, although it remains to be seen just how tolerant Sweden will be of the whistleblowers. Good luck, kids!
Swedish Pirate Party launches ISP to raise funds for its impending shutdown trial
As a fan of Swedish electoral politics, you're obviously aware that the Pirate Party (or "Piratpartiet") has been bedeviling officials in that Nordic country since 2006, doing crazy things like hosting the Pirate Bay's servers and launching the Relakks commercial darknet -- all the while flying the flag for privacy rights, copyright reform, and state transparency. And now? Northern Lights TV has recently posted an interview with Gustav Snipe, CEO of Pirate ISP, the party's very own service provider. How long can an ISP that refuses to monitor traffic or keep user logs keep the Swedish government at bay? We'll probably find out soon enough: it's already providing beta access in Lund, with plans to go nationwide at the end of the summer. Video after the break.
Pirate Party lights up Relakks, first commercial darknet
You know, the Pirate Party isn't really doing itself any favors by launching a commercial darknet (read: anonymized network), but then again, who are we to judge? It's not as though we're beyond temptation to kick its wheels and tempt fate with slightly dubious intent (hey, it's not our fault the Media Center didn't record 30 Days this week). The reality of the situation, however, is that the RIAA / MPAA's consistently absurd legal firing line is certainly enough to drive many "nefarious" (read: intimidated) users running for cover from legal embroilment -- hence Relakks. The network hits up its users for about $6.50 (€5) a month for service, which basically moves your data over VPN to servers in Sweden in order to cleanse its origin and proxy your traffic through a Swedish IP address. We might call it clever, but it's not much more than an encrypted proxy run by the peeps most likely to ensure your privacy, be you behaving naughty or nice online. While we suggest the latter, something tells us Relakks isn't going to get too uptight about you being the former, either.[Thanks, Mac & Fredrik]
