Swedish Pirate Party founder named a 'Top 100 Global Thinker'

It's not too often a pirate is celebrated by a high-minded international magazine for their disruptive stance on intellectual property rights. Actually, it's never. But Rick Falkvinge isn't your everyday pirate. The Swedish Pirate Party founder has made Foreign Policy's annual "Top 100 Global Thinkers" list, earning the 98th slot.

Photo credit: Falkvinge.net

Falkvinge made the cut thanks to his staunch advocacy of controversial p2p transaction system BitCoin and "for taking pirates into politics."

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Writes Foreign Policy:

His Pirates still aren't exactly mainstream, but the issues they focus on -- government transparency, Internet privacy, and copyright law -- are very much in the zeitgeist, and their ranks are growing. The Swedish and Swiss Pirate parties have aided WikiLeaks, offering the controversial site server space and web hosting; a self-described Pirate Party activist was named secretary of youth and sports in Tunisia's revolutionary cabinet; and in September, the Pirates won a shocking 8.9 percent of the vote in Berlin's state elections.

Other "Global Thinker" notables include Arab Spring revolutionaries (numbers 1 through 9), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey (a shared 17), Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul (50) and F-Secure Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen (61).

U.S. President Barack Obama earned the magazine's number 11 spot.

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Falkvinge was understandably shocked by his inclusion. "I am humbled by the recognition," he wrote at his info policy blog after hearing the news. "This is a good day to be a pirate."

The Pirate Party chief, however, remained grounded over the honor - despite not actually being grounded.

"I'm currently in-flight to Washington, DC where there will be an award ceremony gala in two days for the Top 100 Global Thinkers," said Falkvinge. "Any pirates or activists there who want to meet up, send me a text."

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