Dutch Pirates set sail

Britain is not the only country holding a general election this summer. In the Netherlands, the general election will be held on 9th of June, and the newly-formed Dutch Pirate Party, Piratenpartij Nederland, is hoping to take part:

In recent months there has been a lot of political debate regarding Dutch copyright law which currently allows people to download copyrighted movies and music for personal use. Several established parties have shown interest in criminalizing file-sharers, something the Pirate Party hopes to avoid.

Samir Allioui, Chairman of the Pirate Party, told TorrentFreak that he’s very happy with negative comments [from anti-piracy agency BREIN]. “He gives people a good reason to vote for us,” he said, referring to the negative view that most people have of BREIN.

If elected, the party will do everything it can to stop abuses of copyright, promote Net Neutrality and push for patent reform. The party is further committed to increasing transparency, strengthening fundamental rights and protecting privacy.

Despite the enthusiasm of the party’s members, there is still a long way to go before they can actually compete in the election on June 9th. One of the biggest hurdles is the requirement to deposit a sum of 12,000 euros, a barrier which is meant to prevent too many parties from entering the election.

Incidently the voting system in the Netherlands is list PR with no threshhold, so they only need 0.67% of the vote to get elected.