The anti-Lisbon Treaty Libertas party has proposed an amnesty for all those charged with illegal downloading from the internet.

Tomasz Sommer, who is standing in the European Parliament elections on June 7 for the Polish branch of Libertas, says his group has prepared two bills which would lift copyright restrictions on Internet content.

“Legal restrictions on the Internet can only be compared to some kind of fight against society – a kind of socialist restriction - which hampers the development of the most advanced communication technologies,” said Sommer, head of the pro-free market Najwyższy Czas weekly and leader of the Libertas' Pomeranian list in northern Poland.

In April, founders of The Pirate Bay file sharing web received one year prison sentences for violating copyright law on the internet.  (jn/pg)