Rickard Falkvinge, leader of the PIRATES
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| Europe |
| Pirate party wins seat in EU parliament |
| 2009-06-08 |
| A POLITICAL party that represents internet pirates has been voted into the European Parliament. Sweden's Pirate Party wants to deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and reduce surveillance on the internet. It captured 7.1 per cent of Swedish votes in the Europe-wide ballot -- enough to win it a seat. "This is fantastic," said the party's top candidate, Christian Engstrom. "This shows that there are a lot of people who think that personal integrity is important and that it matters that we deal with the internet and the new information society in the right way." Sweden's Pirate Party was founded in 2006 after the country authorised email monitoring and tightened file-sharing laws. "When the verdict was announced at 11.00am, we had 14,711 members," the Pirate Party's founder Rick Falkvinge told TimesOnline.co.uk. "We tripled in a week, becoming the third-biggest party in Sweden in terms of numbers. All of a sudden we were everywhere." Despite the similar names, the party and the website are not linked. The party was founded in 2006 and contested a Swedish general election that year, but received less than one per cent of the vote. The party promotes civil liberties and has a core following of young, male internet users. "We are very strong among those under 30," Mr Engstrom said. "They are the ones who understand the new world the best. And they have now signalled they don't like how the big parties deal with these issues." The Pirate Party will take up one of Sweden's 18 seats in the 785-seat parliament. "We will use all of our strength to defend personal integrity and our civil rights," Mr Engstrom said. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #12 Ebbang, I recall that its been abused against Michelle Malkin and other righty bloggers etc, with false takedown notices and charges. He does have a point: copyright and patent law are broken and are not accomplishing what the founding fathers meant them to - giving incentive as you mention, the releasing things for the greater public to use them. The key phrase is "for a limited time". The other pet peeve is the patent mess was when they started allowing business method patents. 99% of software patents are trash. FYI, you;re wrong on this one too You think they're going to invest all that time and money just for the good of mankind? Yes. Look at Linux. Open Source. FreeBSD. Also, the commercial "record" business has existed only for a part of the century. It makes money for record companies and a very few artists. You want to know where they make their real money? Performing. No copyright needed there. SO your arguments do not hold nearly as much water as you think they do. I'm not as radical as the Pirate guys, but were I have to choose, I'd rather abolish all the copyright than have the crap that we have now. What I want is a return to sanity: no more business method patents, and pull copyright back to the 30 year window. Get enough of these pirate guys in government and the threat of losing it all may be enough to put sanity back into the system. Not to mention their stands for individual rights are pretty libertarian. I applaud Lagom and his Pirate friends. Europe needs a shakeup. And in case you had not noticed, we do too. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-06-08 23:51 |
| #11 By the way, how is DMCA used against non-leftist. Where do I look that up? I don't see it causing any problems for Rantburg. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-06-08 18:52 |
| #10 No, Lagom. If a programmer or a songwriter develops an intellectual property he or she should have the right to profit from that property otherwise they have no incentive. You think they're going to invest all that time and money just for the good of mankind? Just for your own personal amusement? I don't. Companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Apple are in business for profit. If there was no profit the technologies they invented would never have been invented. You think the Beatles or Abba wrote all those songs just for fun? I don't. They need to eat just like you and me. If they can't make a living writing music they'll do something else. I don't respect Pirat any more than I respect the pirates of Somalia. They're all thieves. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-06-08 18:50 |
| #9 Copyright has become generational and broken. It is oppressive and used as a tool to silence people politically. Look at your own DMCA and how it is used against non-leftists. You are being tied up and need to wake up too. Similar case can be made for "software patents" that you stupidly allow in the USA and the US government are pushing Europe to adopt. The Pirat are one of the few parties in this socialist landscape that promote individual liberties, civil rights and a reduction of the power of the state. You would like them here compared to the SocDems and other "Euros". So at least one voice for liberty exists now, to the surprise of many. The t-shirt argument is false. If I take a copy of your song, you still have it, unlike your t-shirt. Ideas are not physical goods and should not be treated as such, for to do so is to end up with absurdities like SCO wasting millions of dollars in its futile attempts to falsely use copyright law to demolish Linux. And Cornsilk Blondie I am sure that you are welcome to use the logo due to the the publicity will help. To Rantburg people: do not be foolish but look at yourselves for what we are trying to stop: an unreasonable and unreasoning dominance by government and corporations over individuals from abuse of the legal process. We say the process is broken and needs to be scrapped completely. Something better can be done. Our "constitution" specifically guarantees freedom rights for speech which the copyright laws in their current form abridge. Or you can continue to do the work of those who would be your masters by knocking down your allies. |
| Posted by: Lagom 2009-06-08 17:16 |
| #8 Arrgh! They be stealin' me trademark, the scurvy dogs. |
| Posted by: Blackbeard 2009-06-08 08:35 |
| #7 Pox on both houses. The 'industry' has bought our politicians of both sides of the aisles to make 'copyright' a 100 years long. The original intent of the founders was to end royal patents that were hereditary so they set the 'right' to 30 years which at the time of the framing of the Constitution an adult could consider a lifetime. They were interested in promoting individual innovation and creativity not build mega corporations. Those are now nearing completion of destroying 'public domain'. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-06-08 08:04 |
| #6 A better analogy would be if you allowed your friends and neighbours to take those shirts free of charge. |
| Posted by: Gaz 2009-06-08 07:50 |
| #5 Just for fun, let's say I decide to make my own shirts with their logo, and sell them to my friends, neighbors and assorted other people over the 'net. How much you wanna bet they are gonna go after me with everything they got? |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-06-08 07:47 |
| #4 Rickard Falkvinge, leader of the PIRATES |
| Posted by: EU Who 2009-06-08 02:54 |
| #3 You better defend your Constitution too, or, No Sweeden. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-06-08 00:47 |
| #2 Good luck with that, Idiots. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-06-08 00:46 |
| #1 Everybody wants something for free. I wonder how many votes would go a party that promises to plunder Sweden and have our way with their wimmen. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-06-08 00:26 |