STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The founder of Sweden's Pirate Party has drawn criticism from Germany for proposing an end to the ban on owning child pornography.
Rick Falkvinge said as long as the child pornography ban remains in place, there will always be a ban on other kinds of information, Sweden's The Local.se reported.
"Child pornography is horrible and awful from every angle and in every respect," he said. "But it is not dangerous to the fabric of society. Censorship and electronic book burning, however, is."
Falkvinge said restoring overall freedom of speech means re-legalizing possession of child pornography.
His argument has drawn criticism from the German Pirate Party which distanced itself from his statements.
The Swedish Pirate Party founder "clearly got tangled up in his own thinking," said Bernd Schlomer, chair of the German Pirate Party.
Falkvinge served as head of the Swedish Pirate Party from its founding in 2006 until he stepped down in 2011.
