Last weekend Pirate Bay “founder” (or spokesperson really) Peter Sunde submitted an emotional plea for pardon to the Swedish authorities.

After being convicted for his role in operating The Pirate Bay, Sunde should soon serve eight month jail sentence in a Swedish prison.

Serving this sentence would be a disgrace to the justice system and a personal disaster, Sunde pointed out in his plea.

Touched by this news, Adrian B started a petition on Avaaz backing the plea, with the plan to deliver it to Sweden’s Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask.

Sunde was humbled by the petition and noted that it could have an impact if at least 10,000 people signed it.

This number was reached today, with help from The Pirate Bay. The plea petition is currently featured on the site’s homepage, causing the number of signers to skyrocket.

“With 10.000 names on this petition we act with strength. With 50.000 we can have the Swedish government feel and act upon the shame that should be theirs,” The Pirate Bay team writes in a blog post.

With 20,000 signers at the time of writing, it looks like the 50,000 target will be reached within 24 hours.