Left Party Approves File Sharing

A recent change of perspective from the Left Party fired up debates in Sweden – the party’s view on file sharing seems to have turned 180 degrees as it announced at the party congress its approval of the practice as long as it is for personal use.

After a previous stand against file sharing, the party's governing board has now put forward a motion advocating file sharing of copyrighted content, provided that no commercial purposes are involved.

However, the matter divided the board into two separate camps: "It would be shameful if we worsen the ability of those working to produce culture to earn a living," declared Ann Mari Engel from the Stockholm area.

A different opinion came from another Left Party member, Dag Olaussson:
"New technology undermines the rights of private owners, which copyright is a part of. That's absolutely wonderful…exactly what we want in the long term."

A good point was made by Elise Norberg Pilhem (member of the board) who brought to the table the matter of how realistic actually is an attempt to put an end to file sharing, saying:

“We obviously want to be the cultural workers’ party in the future, but legislation which makes the majority of adult population criminals must be changed.”