Since 2005, a Brazilian senator has been championing new cybercrime legislation which would include tough measures against file-sharing. Yesterday, at the International Free Software Forum, the Brazilian President openly criticized the bill, and then posed for pictures with The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde.

Since 2005, Brazilian senator Eduardo Azeredo has been proposing new ‘cybercrimes’ legislation. Unlike some European proposals, the Brazilian one isn’t limited to dealing with copyright issues alone, but has expanded to include all “dangerous” online activities. Anyone creating a virus or simply sharing illicit files could be arrested and jailed for up to three years.

The International Free Software Forum (FISL) is an annual event sponsored by the Free Software Association taking place in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The event sees the coming together of researchers, social movements, entrepreneurs, hackers and free information advocates, this year including Peter Sunde, spokesman for The Pirate Bay.

At the event yesterday was a rather high-profile individual, Brazil’s President Lula. The President took the opportunity to publicly criticize the legislation supported by Senator Eduardo Azeredo.

“In our government it is prohibited to prohibit,” said the president during his speech at the event. “I consider this bill a form of censorship,” he added.

After meeting with others including Richard Stallman, President Lula noted that “..the Internet must continue free,” adding ”..the freedom is the source of the creativity”.

Also invited to the event was someone with perhaps an even higher profile in Internet-related issues than the president himself, The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde. Not wanting to miss out on a great photo opportunity to boost his popularity, President Lula Peter Sunde posed with Peter Sunde President Lula.