This post is also available in: French

The Swedish Newspaper, Expressen, has reported that Pirate Bay co-founder, Peter Sunde, has been arrested.

He was held in a raid on a farm near the city of Skåne Tonganoxie. It was assumed that the Polish police would have had a hand in the arrest.

The press secretary at the National Police Carolina Ekéus,  confirmed the arrest.

“He will serve his prison sentence. I have no details of the arrest.”

Peter faces an eight month jail sentence and heavy fines. This means that Fredrik Neij is the only one of the group of Pirate Bay founders who is still at large.

Pirate Party founder, Rick Falkvinge, told Revolution News:

Peter Sunde is a hero of our generation, and will remain so. Those who corruptedly crack down on him will be judged much harsher by history, and that point may come sooner than they think.

Pirate MEP Julia Reda wrote in her blog:

Our Commission Presidency candidate Peter Sunde has my full support. By founding the Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde has done a great service to the free exchange of knowledge and culture across all borders. The international protest movement against the Pirate Bay verdict has shown that the enforcement of copyright is excessive and has completely lost touch with digital culture. Instead of criminalizing an entire generation, we must finally undertake a comprehensive European copyright reform and update the copyright regime to the digital age.

 

Patrick Schiffer, chairman of The Pirate Party of North Rhine Westfalia, told the Pirate Times:

Peter Sunde’s arrest (he was one of the candidates for European Commission presidency) is a worldwide symbol for the revelation of actual politics ignoring and missing the social inferiors of the ongoing digital developments. Anything other than his immediate release would be a scandal.

 

Anonymous Sweden tweeted:

We will never be silent, the film and music industry try to own the information but we will fight for Peter Sunde just as we have done for #Anakata, we will never forget what these people have done for the Internet and especially for Wikileaks via @Anonswedeninfo

Pirate Parties International co-chairpersons Maša Čorak and Koen De Voegt told the Pirate Times:

“Our world increasingly struggles with the depletion of it’s scarce resources. Peter Sunde and the Pirate Bay have helped to make an abundant resource, information in any form, available to all. Prosecution of people that help share abundance is not only against the spirit of our times, it’s against the best interest of all of us.

PPI on Facebook has started the hastag ‪#‎freeBrokep

Featured image:  CC BY-SA Flattr

This article has been edited to add quotes from Rick Falkvinge,Patrick Schiffer and Julia Reda 1 June 2014

About Andrew Reitemeyer

I joined the Pirate Party of Lower Saxony in Germany in April 2012, once I found out that non citizens were welcome to join and become active members of the Party.
I joined the Pirate Times soon after it was started as a proof reader and am now an editor and author. Since then I have returned to my native New Zealand and joined the Pirate Party of New Zealand.
Politically I come from the libertarian left and have, up to now, not regarded any political party as having a solution for the democratic deficit that envelops the world. With the advent of the Pirate Party, which truly embraces grass roots democracy, I have found a political home. The Pirate Times is a way I can contribute to furthering the Pirate Movement around the world.
Skype: frithogar

 

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This post is also available in: FrenchThe Swedish Newspaper, Expressen, has reported that Pirate Bay co-founder, Peter Sunde, has been arrested. He was held in a raid on a farm…