Interview With Pirate Party Leader Rick Falkvinge

mmuch writes "In the wake of the recent copyright debate in Swedish mainstream media, the P2P Consortium has published an interview with Rick Falkvinge, the leader of the Swedish Pirate Party. He comments on the mainstream politicians starting to understand the issues, the interplay between strict copyright enforcement and mass surveillance, and the chances for global copyright reform." Some choice Falkvinge quotes: "What was remarkable was that this was the point where the enemy — forces that want to lock down culture and knowledge at the cost of total surveillance — realized they were under a serious attack... for the first time, we saw everything they could bring to the battle. And it was... nothing. Not even a fizzle. All they can say is 'thief, we have our rights, we want our rights, nothing must change, we want more money, thief, thief, thief'... Whereas we are talking about scarcity vs. abundance, monopolies, the nature of property, 500-year historical perspectives on culture and knowledge, incentive structures, economic theory, disruptive technologies, etc. The difference in intellectual levels between the sides is astounding... When the Iron Curtain fell, all of the West rejoiced that the East would become just as free as the West. It was never supposed to be the other way around."

Comments

Am I really...

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

... supposed to respect a man with such a simplistic view of the situation on hand? He can't seem to properly distinguish between the music labels and copyright, or music and politics. His philosophy just takes and takes and takes from artists, and when they complain, they're basically just told to deal with it. His philosophy abuses anonymity, and then whinges loudly when there are pushes to take that anonymity away. I'm sorry to everyone who liked this interview, but this guy's a complete hypocrite.

Seriously need to get some perspective

[antifoidulus]

I'm sorry, anyone who uses "war" metaphors when it comes to downloading movies and compares not being able to download movies as worse than life in the former Soviet Union REALLY needs to get a grip. Which is worse, having to pay $10 to see the latest Hollywood claptrap or being forced to go fight in a bloody war when you are just a teenager and given less than a 50% chance to live? Which is worse, having to pay $10 for a Soundgarden cd or having someone in your family "disappeared" because they said something that could be misconstrued as being against the party?

GET A FUCKING GRIP!

I instantly lose respect for someone who tries to make this out to be the greatest injustice in the history of humanity. Maybe if you could frame the debate in less grandiose terms I could be bothered to listen to you, but until then grow up.

Re:Fuck you America

[dangitman]

Dude, you're trying to roll the big boulder uphill like Sisyphus. 99% of humanity is now batshit insane with rigid ideology and rabid hate.

Riiiiiight. 99%. Whatever you say, boss.

You can't argue with people like this. They are blinded far beyond reason and critical thought.

Uhhh... I believe the GP (tyroneking) was being humorous. His post even had an "emoticon" at the end to let you know he was joking. I know slashdotters have a poor sense of humor, but it's truly sad when people don't even get a joke that is explicitly marked out as such.

So, who is really the one blinded to reason and critical thought? Your comment sounds like the mirror equivalent of the mindless America basher. I guess you must just be part of that 99% of humanity you mentioned earlier.

Bashing The U.S.A. (one of the most diverse nations ever created) with generalizations is just the latest excuse people use to avoid having to actually think.

Yeah right, whatever. I guess you also believe any criticism is "bashing".

Atanasoff and CERN

[DrYak]

computer (well, us and the Brits),

Konrad Zuse?

John Vincent Atanasoff?

It's fun you mention Atanasoff. I just shows a trend that is even getting worse these days in the USA : Atanasoff was Bulgarian.
These day the tendency is even getting worse : more and more foreign brain go in the USA to obtain PhDs and other academic achievement, whereas the US government is fucking-up it's own school system (see the "No More Teaching Evolution" fiasco mentioned on /. a couple of gays ago).
It's really sad when a country with so much academical achievement has to count on foreigner for them as it is completely unable to supply its own brains for it.

And also, to go back to the grand parent poster I may, add :

And Americans mostly did invent the Internet,

CERN (Geneva, Switzerland) - designers of the WWW, the internet as Joe-6 pack knows it.
Yes, of course it's a question of which layer you're speaking about, as the infrastructure on which the web runs does predate it with Arpanet, but the data exchange system that most of the people use today (yeah, that and MSN & Bittorrent protocols) and that actually brought internet to the masses was developed here in Switzerland.