July 5, 2010 10:00

Swedish Pirate Party say they'll run Pirate Bay website from parliament

Single-issue party outlines manifesto

Photo: PA Photos

The leaders of the Swedish Pirate Party have said that they plan to host torrent-sharing site Thepiratebay.org on servers within the Swedish Parliament.

On Friday (July 2) the party, which is the new internet service provider (ISP) for the site, outlined its goals, having won a seat in the European Parliament last year.

The party chiefs said that they would try to use part of the Swedish constitution to get around any problems they would normally face in hosting the site.

As they would be hosting the site as part of their political mandate, they argue that they should get parliamentary immunity from prosecution or lawsuits relating to copyright offences with regard to hosting the site, reports Torrentfreak.com.

The party chiefs also said that they are seeking to criminalise copyright lawsuits against noncommercial file-sharers and websites.

A parlimentary election is set to take place in the country on September 19, with the party needing to win seats if the plans were to come into place.

Four people involved with setting up The Pirate Bay were handed jail sentences for copyright infringement last year. Their appeal is set to be heard later in 2010.