Piracy & Social Change| From File Sharing to Free Culture: The Evolving Agenda of European Pirate Parties

Abstract

In this article, we explore the challenge of shaping Pirate policies to match political context: how to safeguard the unity of digital rights, freedom of expression, privacy, and access while adapting to local political realities. The article examines the political programs of the Pirate Party in five countries to present a representative image of contemporary Pirate politics. The analysis shows that the Pirate Party platform has extended to more broad notions of culture, participation, and self-expression. While the trinity of digital rights persists, a process of reframing and reconfiguring Pirate politics is detectable where the political arm of the movement has gradually drifted apart from core activists holding on to the idea of preserving digital rights as a single issue.