In English

Piraattipuolue (Pirate Party of Finland) is a registered political party devoted to protecting privacy and freedom of speech as well as upgrading the copyright laws to meet the reality of the 21st century.

Copyright legislation must not restrict non-commercial use of creative works. Pharmaceutical and software patents should be abolished as harmful to society and the entire patent system should be reconsidered. Neither copyrights nor external threats ought to be used as an excuse to excessive curtailment of fundamental rights such as privacy. States and the European Union should act more transparently and more democratically.

Prevalent political trends are counterproductive. More strict copyright laws are introduced that are threats to privacy, try to make the current absurd copyright terms even longer and are breaching consumer protection by encouraging DRM. Patents create more jobs only to law firms. Those frightened of the free speech in the Internet demand service providers and admins to take responsibility of their customers' opinions. States collect more and more information of their citizens while often operating behind closed doors themselves.

Non-commercial filesharing and other normal use of cultural works cannot be restricted without tampering with people's privacy. Such development towards a surveillance society must be stopped in Finland and in Europe.

Our political agenda in a nutshell

Protection of individual rights, especially privacy, secrecy of correspondence and the freedom of speech
Complete decriminalization of non-commercial use of creative works (copying, sharing, remixing etc.)
Shortening the copyright protection to 5–10 years
Abolition of software and pharmaceutical patents and reconsideration of the necessity of the whole patent system
Increasing openness in decision-making and reforming democracy through the information society

Electoral participation

Piraattipuolue is a registered party, eligible to set up candidates in parliamentary, municipal and EU parliament elections. We have not participated in any elections yet but aim to participate in the Finnish parliamentary election of 2011.

Openness

Piraattipuolue operates openly both in administrative and financial matters. Board meetings are held publicly in the IRC real-time messaging system and their minutes are published on the Internet. Details of the party's finances are published through the party's web site. Piraattipuolue also uses a public wiki for internal planning.

Key people

Pasi Palmulehto, Chairman
Ahto Apajalahti, Vice Chairman
Petri Lagus, Vice Chairman

Contact information

You can contact the party leadership in English by using the following e-mail address: contact -at- piraattipuolue.fi.

There is also a youth organization, Piraattinuoret.

Some important milestones

- 2008-05-24 Founding assembly was held in Tampere.
- 2008-09-12 Piraattipuolue started collecting signatures in order to gain the "registered party" status.
- 2008-12-31 The year ended with a demonstration against the Swedish FRA-law in Helsinki.
- 2009-01-30 Piraattipuolue hosted the Pirate Parties' fourth international conference from January 30th to February 1st 2009 in Helsinki.
- 2009-02-06 A large demonstration against a corporate snooping law dubbed "Lex Nokia" was held in Helsinki - the big media announced Piraattipuolue as the main organizer.
- 2009-02-26 A Piraattipuolue delegation met with the chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the Finnish Parliament to discuss Lex Nokia.
- 2009-03-25 A Piraattipuolue delegation met with senior officials from the Finnish Ministry of Education to discuss an anti-piracy white paper.
- 2009-04-20 After the decision in the Pirate Bay case was published, the membership count of Piraattipuolue reached 1,000.
- 2009-06-01 Piraattipuolue presented 5,000 signatures to the Ministry of Justice, followed by unprecedented publicity. After checking the authenticity of the signatures, the Ministry will grant Piraattipuolue the "registered party" status.
- 2009-06-08 Membership count reached 2,000.
- 2009-08-19 Piraattipuolue registered as an official party.
- 2010-03-22 Party activists Ahto Apajalahti and Kaj Sotala publish a book entitled Jokapiraatinoikeus ("Every Pirate's Right") which discusses Internet piracy, filesharing, fan culture, remix culture and commercial copyright from pirate perspective. The book is legally available for free as an e-book.