Pirate Party wins EU parliament seat

Sweden's pro-file sharing Pirate Party has won a seat in the European Parliament.

The Swedish political party set up to call for a reform of copyright laws has won a seat in the European Parliament.

With a 7.1 per cent share of the Swedish vote, the Pirate Party is now the fifth largest in the country and will have one MEP in Brussels.

Last month, opinion polls suggested that the party was on track for victory in the elections for the European Parliament.

Rick Falkvinge, its leader and founder, told TorrentFreak that the win has "changed the landscape of European politics".

"The citizens have understood it's time to make a difference," he stated.

According to the Pirate Party, the recent Pirate Bay trial, which led to the jailing of the website's founders, has helped to boost the popularity of the party.

Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of breaching copyright laws in April and sentenced to a year each in prison.

They were also ordered to pay millions of pounds in damages to a number of entertainment companies.

Prior to the verdict, an estimated 22 million people were using the Pirate Bay to download copyrighted music and film content for free.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Falkvinge, said: "When the Pirate Bay got hit, people realised the wolf was outside the front door. That happened one month before the ballot opened, so it had quite a rallying effect."

The intellectual property issue has been in the media spotlight across Europe in recent months, with new laws introduced in France that will see suspected illegal downloaders cut off from the internet after ignoring repeated warnings.