Pirate Party pestered to join game expo, then banned

Political group the Pirate Party was banned from a Swedish game exhibition despite having already booked a booth, it has emerged.

The party, which supports reforms to copyright and patent laws, claimed it had been asked for two to three months to go Gamex, Sweden’s largest game show, before it agreed to attend.

The group had booked advertising and hotel rooms for the event.

But just last Tuesday, less than a week before the event was due to start, the group was informed it was no longer welcome.

“The Pirate Party would have been in place inside the show, but now we will not be,” Pirate Party leader Anna Troberg told TorrentFreak. “We are simply no longer welcome.”

She added that, last Tuesday, event manager Bear Wengse called to explain the decision, stating that the venue was not a place for political conflict, and that some of the party’s work “could be perceived as criminal”.

“I find it absolutely hilarious that a gaming fair banned the Pirate Party on the official pretext that ‘our culture is harmful to gaming’,” said party founder Rick Falkvinge.

Despite the Pirate Party’s ban, The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League was still allowed to appear, even though it supports the decriminalisation of non-commercial file sharing.

The exhibition, which had publishers and developers such as Activision, Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Nintendo in attendance, took place from the 3rd to the 6th November.