The Swedish Pirate Party is reportedly launching a log-free broadband Internet service that offers customers the luxury of anonymous browsing all while funding the group's anti-copyright efforts. With the help of ViaEuropa (the company behind the iPredator VPN), the "Pirate ISP" is already beta testing in the city of Lund. The party hopes to take 5% of Lund's broadband market before expanding to other locations in Sweden. A "big" rollout expected by the end of the summer, according to TorrentFreak.
The announcement comes briefly after the party revealed a clever plot to shield the popular torrent site The Pirate Bay with parliamentary immunity by hosting the site from "inside" the Swedish Parliament. By utilizing a part of the Swedish Constitution, the activist group could protect TPB against prosecution or lawsuits for anything done as part of their political mandate, which is focused on government transparency, free speech, patent reform, and of course, piracy and copyright matters.
To accomplish this, the Pirate Party needs to secure a vote of at least 4% in September's elections. That's entirely possible, considering the 7.1% they received in last June's European Parliament elections, which represented about 200,000 Swedes - a massive increase from the 34,918 votes the party received in 2006. Their success could also affect the upcoming appeal of TPB's owners, who were fined $3.54 million and sentenced to prison after being found guilty of copyright infringement last year.