Germany’s Pirate Party won roughly 9% of the vote this year, meaning they’re expected to have 15 seats in parliament. This is cool for two reasons.
One, it shows that the world really is getting fed up with all of the copyright bullshit that’s going on, much of which has been forced on other nations by the US. One of the leaked diplomatic cables, for instance, revealed that almost all copyright law being enacted in Sweden lately has been at the behest of US diplomats, at the request of organizations like the MPAA and RIAA. And that’s sad.
The other coolness is that it backs up my belief that the US is in desperate need of an EU style parliament system. One votes for a party, not an individual candidate, and parties get a percentage of seats based on percentage of votes, so that individual issues can be addressed rather than having to lump the issue in with one of two parties, who can (and do) then conveniently ignore it. The US system boils down to a two party system because it doesn’t allow for things like this: the two parties can fight over each election through the primary system, and in no one location can a third party properly get a foothold. It’s staggering, and shameful. Germany’s display of democracy here could never happen in the states.