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Swedish Pirate Demo
Arioch of Chaos writes "In Sweden, May 1 is still a day when many people get out on the streets to take part in the traditional demonstrations. Today, the Swedish site Piratbyrån organised demonstrations in several Swedish towns, demanding more bandwith and the abolition of intellectual property laws. This picture is just great. More pictures here." Congratulations to whoever made the AYBABTU sign.
...nobody at this demo is over the age of 16.
I still fail to see why people want the abolition of IP laws. If you don't want to pay for the music/game/movie, then don't copy it either. The reason for the charge is to pay peoples wages, buy equipment, etc.
Otherwise they wouldn't be able to make whatever it was.
Apparently, the local newspapers in Umeå thought that horse racing and Nancy turns 90 were more interresting than a hundred people demanding free bandwidth...
Geek rants since like... 2000 or something.
Open Source software.
All rites reversed 2010
In so many countries there are people who cant access certain content (especially political) even if they are willing to pay for it and yet these idiots think that they have some god given right to streaming porn and warez, come on!
Damn, I left my good sig in my other pants
Maybe someone can explain this to me, cause I just have no clue....
How much does bandwidth itself cost? I mean, once you lay the line, aren't your costs pretty much fixed, regardless of how much bandwidth you use?
On a pipe, you pay for:
Router, or other form of access --> one time cost
The line itself --> one time cost
Person/people to maintain it --> ongoing fixed cost
Internal switches --> one time cost
Servers --> one time cost, till they go down. Going down is going to happen regardless of bandwidth useage though.
Regular maintenance --> ongoing fixed cost. A fiber line is a fiber line. Granted, the better the equipment, the more it will cost, but still.
What am I missing? How is using more bandwidth more expensive? How are the ongoing monthly charges different for a T1 versus a T3? What costs are different? Aside from the "You want it more, so we're going to charge more" attitude ISP's take.
I'm only posting this as an AC b/c I'm sure I'll get flamed for being an idiot.
Sorry . . . But I did submit it under "It's Funny, Laugh" ;-) Basically, I agree with you but I do think it's good that someone starts making some noise. I am not against IP but I do think that we need a discussion about it in society. Nowadays, all you hear (except on /. and a few other sites) is the people crying "theft".
IAAAL - I am actually a lawyer
If they're fighting against copyright they are fighting for freedom, believe or not.
(in contrast, if they were really fighting for piracy, they would be for all those insane patent laws etc, making pirating more and more widespread)
My impression is that everyone living in one of the major cities in Sweden can have 10Mbit for just a few SEK montly...
...yeah I'm just another jealous norwegian :-P
It's not coincidence that 50%+ of all DC servers are(atleast was) located in Sweden...
They called themselves Vikings, predated, and were a lot better at it than pirates.
Aaah, it's good the young ones keep up the traditions. 1st of May is even today the day to drink copious amounts of mead.
All rites reversed 2010
Yeah. Internet access should be considered on the same plane as telephone access. All we ask...
Lalala
Congratulations to whoever made the AYBABTU sign.
Anyone else noticed, that at first the article linked to a picture which wasn't very good. But a short while after the article came on slashdot they swapped around two of the pictures on the server, such that now the link point to a better picture of their sign. DSCF0023.JPG DSCF0033.JPG
Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
I guess they'd steal from each other... like real pirates.
Or, they'd realise that each could provide a little something for the others to "steal" (in a digital world this word means something different) and together, each making a little bit, they would have some wonderfully complex and amzing things.
But I sure as hell think that sounds like communism. I'd rather massive corporations beholden to shareholders take monopoly over our cultural production and give us jail terms longer than those of rapists for exercising our fair use rights which are codified in law.
And remember kids- when you download mp3s, you are downloading communism.
ouch !!! right on target.
"So what you get in the end, is a place where content is free to all, but there is no content being created." That's right. The complete lack of freely available software out there today just shows how necessary it is to have these IP laws in place. It's human nature. People just simply won't make software, or music or films or perform any kind of artistic or creative endeavour, unless they've been co-erced and cajoled into it through the operations of the capitalist system. Don't those anarchists understand, if it wasn't for EMI's financing of Johann Sebastian Bach, we'd have no such thing as music at all today? How on earth could SpaceWar ever have been invented, if it wasn't for Electronic Arts working those poor MIT hackers to death with the promise of untold riches at the end of it all? The mind boggles.
Their banner seems so out-of-date. I guess it must be paying homage to the first inexpensive, mass-marketed electronic/electro-mechanical device that moved information duplication capabilities into the hands of the un-incorporated populous.
First, you are not free if you're forced to pay for someone else's high-speed porn link. Freedom is being able to say "no thanks". If the response is "tough luck" then you are not free.
Don't confuse democracy with freedom. They aren't the same unless you mean the majority is free to do whatever it wants to the minority.
Second, if there was enough money available by those that would use such a system, then a private company would step in to provide the service. If there is no such company, then obviously there isn't enough money available by those that would use such a system to fund such a system. Whether the government or company, someone has to get paid to do the work. People don't run fiber for free.
So, where will the extra money come from? It has to come from Tax payers that didn't want the system in the first place. QED they're getting used but you don't care because you're getting your broadband.
Sure, they will get it, too. But their use will be small in proportion to how much they pay. Again, if they thought it was worth it in the first place, there'd be no reason to tax them. They would have paid willingly.
Now imagine my dissapointment:
I live in a Central European country, one of the former "eastern block". We have just a few (15) years ago started the reforms from a socialist country to a modern democracy. Now we have flat rate 19% income tax and the coutry is moving toward a US-type economy (and away from the Swedish or German welfare state).
Since yesterday, we are in the EU. This is somehow great, since we are now perceived as a stabilised country, save to do bussiness in. What is less great is that the EU members are worried about our low taxes, driving their bussinesses from eg. Germany to come here (granted, they are also driven here by lower wages, but even if the wages were equal, they would still flee here to exploit our low taxes). So the EU has forced us to increase taxes on alcohol and tobacco, and imposed a limit on the lowest percentage for VAT. They (namely Germany and I believe Denmark, 14 days ago) have also threatened us (there is no other word) that they could cut the finances they pay us if we insist on our low income taxes. That way, we would get less money from the EU than we give EU, thus in fact financing other, more economically powerfull, countries.
What more, the EU is paying many times (five times or so) more subsidies to our farmers then they had before, which sounds great until you realize the whole farmer subsidy system is bad and that it is in fact you who is paying it through our state's EU membership fees. It is now perhaps more profitable to be a farmer then anything else, even if you don't actually grow anything. And those subsidies are now set to only 55% of those in the EU, they will grow gradually and the farmers will get more money for nothing then anyone else in this state for solid work.
We were on a way to a great democratic and capitalist state, with relatively low taxes and high economic freedom. Now we are still on the way, but are slowed down by the huge burden of socialist EU regulations. EU does not want us to be non-socialist, since we would (in a quite few years of course) be able to successfully compete with their ineffective welfare states.
Believe me. I have lived in a socialist state once. We all here have been. And we now know it's not the way to go.
What do governments do? They provide infrastructure. That's one of the reasons they collect taxes. The swedish government collects more taxes, so people expext to get more and better infrastructure. I don't know about you, but I would consider backbones infrastructure... It's something done not for direct profit, but for the convenience of the people.
Other countries work differently, and it might do you well to travel a little outside the US...
and free hospitals :D
Luckily I've got the key :)
(Anticopyright statement:) For starters I can mention that Piratbyrån [The piracy bureau, as opposed to the anti-piracy bureau, Swedish BSA] is serious about anti-copyright. We welcome (serious) debates and has yet to loose one. If you like e.g. copyright and GPL please consider why it's called copy-left (GPL is a hack, remember?). Creativity does not start with money nor stop without. Copyright is a detrimental restriction on the free market. Abolision of copyright does not meant it can't be replaced. Attribution for those wishing it can be handled with digital signatures. Copyright does not provide livelihood for most artists today; that problem already exist. Finally: why, now that we finally can spread all information to all of humanity, for free, should we choose not to?
Translation:
"Piratbyrån held a demonstration in three cities
Added: 2004-05-02 00:49
In three cities supporters of Piratbyrån held a demonstration with the watchwords "the welfare state starts at 100Mbit" and "Abolish copyright". In Stockholm nearly 200 people participated, in Umeå some 100 and in Malmö half a dozen brave champions.
The Participants shouted recently formed watchwords such as "Use the Force - Open Source" and "We want six, we want six, we want 600Mbit"[note: 6 and sex are homonyms in Swedish], and carried homemade banderoles with a pirate or file sharing theme. In Stockholm the first Copyswap in history was carried through, where those with homemade discs with movies or music shared them with their newly found friends. In Umeå there was a price for the best pirate costume, a real harddrive.
In both Stockholm and Umeå the speaches focused on the newly completed campaign "Stoppa Fluktarna" ["Stop the Peepers"], meant to put pressure on the ISPs not to accept the mafia methods of industry organisations when they, among other things, are spying on internet users to be able to report them to their suppliers.
In Umeå the protesters walked by three large ISPs with offices in town, and in Stockholm the final destination was Datainspektionen [data authority (of inspection or something)] where 23,000 signatures where handed in - on a burned CD. Datainspektionen considered themselves too busy to deal with Piraybyrån, so the list was put in their postbox.
Piratbyrån wants to thank all participants to the demo today. We showed that we are for real, and not a force to be ignored. Until the next arrangement - continue piracing!"
1865: People put down their lives to end slavery.
1945: Millions die to stop Hitler and preserve freedom.
1970: Massive protests for civil rights.
2004: Protest for the right to steal other's work.
Nah, this generation isn't spoiled. What makes you think so?
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Your Anonymous statements require proof.
"your invention is unprotected and copied and you make no money, the consequence is simple: no one invents any more."
I doubt that, needs would still exist and there would still be money to be made by filling those needs.
What would change is that 'invention' would become a different proposition going from get rich quick, and retire, to invent more often to produce an income.
Current IP law is becoming too cumbersome with innovation being killed by trivial patents that are interfering with development.
Many inventions are stillborn because of the threat of licensing of the obvious and that products are forced to produce enough income to cover the huge IP tax that licensing creates.
Abolishing IP laws might not be a good idea, but it might be a better idea than suffocation by IP extreme.
You didn't read closely, did ya. Or were you just looking for something to back up what you've already chosen to believe?
That wasn't dubbya. That was his dad. From what I've heard, (and mind you I haven't done a big investigation) this was pretty much an unsubstantiated comment credited to Bush (senior if you still weren't paying attention, just making sure) heard only by Robert I Sherman. Folks who favor Bush over this guy would tell you he's some sort of Atheist Crusader with an axe to grind. I don't like FUD, even when it's not directed at Linux.
No, really, he was. If he showed up today and started preaching his "give up all and follow me" schtick, he'd be condemned everywhere from the pages of the Wall Street Journal to fundamentalist pulpits across the land.
He probably wouldn't care about intellectual property and the RIAA and DMCA and MPAA, but he'd definitely condemn the hard-working, industrious Western world. You notice how he describes a man who "stores up things for himself"? He's describing a capitalist there, an entrepreneur - and condemning him.
No offence to anyone who believes he's the Son of God, but Jesus was a dirty hippy.