Pirate Party support soars with legal file sharing policy

A new poll shows a Swedish party that calls for legalising internet file-sharing could win a seat in the European Parliament in June.

The poll published yesterday in the Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter shows the Pirate Party's backing has surged after a court verdict against The Pirate Bay file-sharing site.

Four men behind The Pirate Bay were convicted this month of copyright violations and sentenced to a year in prison.

The survey of about 1,500 people shows 5.1 per cent of Swedish voters support the Pirate Party. Four per cent is the minimum for a seat in the European Parliament. The error margin was 1.8 percentage points.

The Pirate Party was founded in 2006 with the aim of legalising non-commercial file-sharing of music and films on the internet.