Pirate Bay could get parliamentary protection

Sweden's Pirate Party has announced that it is now acting as the Pirate Bay's internet service provider, and plans to use parliamentary law to protect the file-sharing site.

The party, which has two members in the European Parliament, said in a statement that it hopes to take over the running of the site from within Sweden's parliament if it wins seats in elections in September.

If the party wins a seat in the Swedish parliament it believes it can run the Pirate Bay servers without fear of legal action, since Swedish law forbids MPs from being prosecuted for actions carried out as part of their political mandate.

"In practice, this implies total immunity for any political action taken within this working environment," said the organisation.

"Some of the Pirate Party's prospective MPs intend to use this to host the entire Pirate Bay from inside the parliament, if today's operators of the site accept this and if we win a place in parliament.

"The Pirate Bay is actually both legitimate and legal already today, so technically no such immunity should be needed, but it is a practical way to get a short respite from the copyright industry's legal barrage."

:story: Full story: V3.co.uk