The background for this is the news - reported since thursday by national swedish television - that political pressure from the USA was the reason for the raid. That pressure originated in the MPAA.

The swedish minister of justice - Thomas Bodström - is widely believed to have ordered the raid. That would be unlawful and a number of parliamentarians from different parties has moved for hearings. When these will be schedule is yet unknown. There is an election in september, and I am not sure how much the parliament will work before that.

And The Pirate Party has continued its surge in members, as I write it passed 5200.

If you want deeper background there is also my previous diaries:

Newsalert - The Pirate Bay has been raided by police

The Pirates of Sweden

There was two demonstrations today, one in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg demanding the resignation of the justice minister and the return of all servers. The one in Stockholm was arranged by the Pirate Bureau (Piratbyrån), The Pirate Party (Piratpartiet), and the youth organisations of the green party, the liberal party and the left party. The one in Gothenburg was arranged by the Pirate Party, and and the youth organisations of the green party and the liberal party.

I was in Stockholm. I did not take any pictures but others did, and since Pirates believe in sharing I figured I will write and post pictures about it.

The demonstration (which did not move as we had no permit to block traffic and such) was held in the middle of Stockholm. It is the parliament you see on the right. People are gathering:

There was a lot of funny banners. This one is from planka.nu, another organisation whose servers were taken as they were in the same room as those from the Pirate Bay.

The text says "Give us our server or we will take your fax-machine"

Some demanded "USA out of the Internet"

While others asked questions

The text says "There are many questions:
*How do you do it?
*Why do you seed?
*Is my upload to small?
Swedish Association for File-sharing Education"

A loving parody on the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, RFSU.

Some declared their position with the old skull and bones:

While others prefered a more modern style:

I think you can guess what "PIRAT" is...

There was speaches from the organising organisations, but I will not bore you.

The main thing about a demonstration is the crowd:

Now I should get some sleep and dream sweet dreams of piracy.

Update [2006-6-4 7:16:2 by A swedish kind of death]:: The pictures are taken by Marcus Andersson or John Bäckstrand. Their names leads to more pictures on their own sites. Sometimes their sites are hard to reach, then the pictures here will not load.

Thanks for the pictures!