The Pirate Party started in Sweden and their platform is to reform copyright law, abolish the patent system and promote respect for the right to privacy. They won two seats in the European Parliament in 2009 and have scored some success in Germany as well. Membership wise, they are the second largest party in Sweden and their youth group has the largest membership of any Swedish political party.
In the US however, Pirate Party supporters seem to be a fractious lot. Besides the Pirate Party International approved Pirate Party of the United States, there once was a United States Pirate Party. Now there is an American Pirate Party, a USA Pirate Party and some time ago I found a third US-based Pirate Party web site. The Greens in the US had their own schism in the 90's, that was mostly resolved in 2000, but this situation seems a bit much.
While I like their ideals and positions, they really need to concentrate on building state and local chapters instead of creating more national Pirate Parties. sigh…
You should, perhaps, familiarize yourself with some history of the Patent System — perhaps entertaining abolishing the patent system will not seem so enlightened. Here is a great e-book on the subject: http://manybooks.net/titles/thompsonholetext01nvent10.html Give it a read.
Thanks for the book suggestion. Abolishing the patent system is quite a radical proposition, certainly. However, the patent system has strayed far from its original intention by allowing the patent of such things as genes, business ideas and software concepts. Additionally, the duration of patents, like that of copyright have been extended beyond their original intended duration.
Patents are sometimes used as means to stifle innovation rather than foster it as I point out in this post: http://www.jamesokeefe.org/2009/11/patents-schmatents.html. Some areas have had quite rapid development such as in fashion and they don’t have patents.
The Swedish Pirate Party’s stand on patents is outlined at http://www.piratpartiet.se/international/english and is worth a read.