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Pirate Party Banned From Social Networking Site
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that as the European Parliament elections loom, StudiVZ, Germany's largest social networking site, has opened up to political parties for election campaigning. That is, if you aren't the Pirate Party. "The other political parties were allowed to have a special account to show they are an organization and not an individual. The Pirate Party, however, was not allowed to have one and instead operated on a standard user account registered by an individual. StudiVZ noticed that the Pirate Party account was not a "real person" and despite it having a thriving network with hundreds of followers, it was summarily deleted. This means that it is impossible for the Pirate Party to have a presence at all on the largest social networking site in Germany."
Update: 05/02 19:17 GMT by T : Reader riot notes: "FYI: I just translated the press release to English."
Once you hoist the Jolly Roger, you excuse yourself from polite society. Isn't that sort of the point of being an outlaw?
One such member was quoted saying
"Aye. We just want to run for pARRRRRRlament!" No ninjas were found for comment.
Well, the established parties have always tried to make sure they get to squeeze out minority parties, fake or not.
In the US, we have an institutionalized two-party system that has acted to make it nearly impossible for a third party to gain major influence; the party registration and ballot rules help ensure it. The same kind of thing happens elsewhere.
What I wonder, is if the Pirate Party in Germany has actually fulfilled the regulatory requirements for being recognized as an official political party. If so, then they could've registered the party on the site the same as any other. This is the root of the problem, I suspect.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
But it's a private website. It is the website's call if they want to ban pirates or ninjas. I do some coding for a social networking site and we will delete accounts if they don't meet our guidelines (the site targets a specific audience, and we want it that way). The 'net is a big place... big enough to allow site owners the right to keep out unwanted parties. Don't like the site's way of doing things, go elsewhere. It isn't like there aren't a dozen social networking sites trying to fill the big boy's shoes.
But I'm an asshole I guess, as I have also never seen the problem with an apartment not renting to people with kids, or restaurants not seating kids, but that is illegal.
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
Except that they are more about civil liberties then they are about hijacking ships off the Somalian coast.
It does not matter what your party name is. If you have a sufficient sized following and your trying to get into power to improve your country why should you be treated any different than the rest of the political parties?
The Pirate Party is hardly a 'fake' political party. It has a well developed platform including protecting privacy (on and off the internet), copyright reform, and patent reform. In the 2006 elections in Sweden it recieved 34,918 less than 9 months after it was founded, making it the 10th largest (out of 40) political party in the election.
Prepare to be boarded by the cutthroats and brigands of The Crimson Permanent Assurance!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Sorry, maybe I misunderstand your comment, so let me make sure: are you seriously comparing the account deletion policy on a social networking site to the Nazis? Please tell me I've misunderstood. Please.
are you confusing "Pirate Party" and "The Pirate Bay"?
Second, this particular "victim" has perhaps the largest-trafficed site in the world. They don't need any help.
Pirate Party != The Pirate Bay
Especially true when speaking of the German Pirate Party. The Swedish Pirate Party has a slightly closer association.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
it is... they are running also for the upcoming EU parliament elections. Just to quote from the TF article: Andreas Popp, lead candidate for the upcoming European Parliament elections characterizes the censorship as undemocratic.
Sweet! So far this thread has produced comparisons between a social networking site's account deletion policy and both 1) the Nazis (see above) and 2) the Stasi. Can I get a Joseph Stalin up in here? Some Genghis Kahn metaphors? Or have those already popped up below my filter level?
Oh yeah, its a really short step from the denial of internet access to wholesale slaughter and genocide.
Godwinned.
In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
Officially registered pirate parties exist in Spain, Austria, Germany and Poland, while those in the USA, United Kingdom, Argentina, Finland, and Australia are currently unregistered, but active.
They have actually run for a state election in Germany, although only receiving .3% of the votes. It is possible the social networking site is unaware that the Pirate Party is an actual party: nothing I saw in the article indicates otherwise. It is also possible that the company is unaware of what's going on, and the entire situation got lost in bureaucracy. It was likely just some support person who deleted the account for violating the terms of service.
For the most part I agree with the platform of the Pirate Party, but it gives the impression that their primary purpose for existing is to support piracy of songs, software and movies, which I don't support. Their marketing department could probably use some work.
Qxe4
I just wonder what this "intellectual property of your work" is that StudiVZ generates? I rather thing it's a site where lots of personal information is shared in a nice package and so targetted advertising is made simple. However I lack to see what IP those sites generate (that could be turned into profits).
Who fucking cares if there are 1000 social networking sites if the social groups (or majority of) you intend to communicate with are only on the 1 you are banned from?
Also, just to clarify: yeah, I think this is a dick move (although I'm too lazy to read the details, so I could be wrong). But then, I remember Facebook having a whole passel of election-related gizmos last fall that only included the Republican and Democratic parties. As a supporter of neither of those parties, I naturally took this as further validation of my belief that Facebook is a stupid toy run by and for trivial people. You know what I didn't think, though? That FACEBOOK = NAZIS!!1!
Sorry, maybe I misunderstand your comment, so let me make sure: are you seriously comparing the account deletion policy on a social networking site to the Nazis?
Well the first thing the National Socialists did when they came to power was shutdown all the Christian Democrat and Socialist newspapers and arrest their party leaders.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Sorry, maybe I misunderstand your comment, so let me make sure: are you seriously comparing the account deletion policy on a social networking site to the Nazis? Please tell me I've misunderstood. Please.
Also (and I almost forgot), by not mentioning Nazi's by name he also includes the DDR (East Germany) who basically did the same thing to non-communist political parties.
There are plenty of people alive the lived under them and remember a time when openly joining a political party other than the Communists meant jail time.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
That's not the end of it. Those goddamn Nazis running the German government have also banned the National Socialist Party.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
The purpose of Democracy is two fold.
1. To reduce civil wars.
2. To force the government to at least TRY an pay attention to the nees of people besides those directly in power.
First, if you have enough men to fairly win a civil, then you should have enough men to win an election - with much less casualties. In other forms of government, you might have 90% of the population hating the leader, but without democracy the only way to remove them is to fight and die.
Second, a democracy requires the government to consider what everyone else thinks. In most other forms of government, who )(*&@ cares what the peasants thinks.
P.S. There is a third benefit that happens often, but not all the times. Democracies usually have voting fairly often, so it speeds up the process of removing the incompetent, as compared to many other forms. But this is not always the case.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Will you delete a site that /does/ meet the guidelines, but you have a /personal/ grudge against?
That's whats going on here.
Sorry, maybe I misunderstand your comment, so let me make sure: are you seriously comparing the account deletion policy on a social networking site to the Nazis? Please tell me I've misunderstood. Please.
One can compare and contrast many things, regardless of their relative value.
I can compare a penny to a dollar coin. A dollar coin is worth one hundred times more than a penny.
But they are both money.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
But it's a private website. It is the website's call if they want to ban pirates or ninjas.
And it is our call if we want to take them to task for it. This freedom of speech thing works both ways.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
That's not helpful. It makes your party look like a bunch of nutcase radicals. Think of ELF: it is true that taking care of the environment is good, but setting fires and destroying property as a way to get your point across doesn't help at all.
A reactionary party that goes to the opposite extreme is as bad as the original evil. If you want to change copyright, you are going to need at least some of those pro-copyright lawmakers to help you (unless you can completely take over the legislature, which if that is your goal, looking like a nutcase radical won't help you much either). To get those lawmakers on your side, you're going to come up with something reasonable.
Obviously there is a problem here, copyright gives too much power to the owners of the work. But if you want to change things, you're going to have to come up with a reasonable solution, not 'be as anti-copyright as possible.'
Qxe4
Dude, totally! And like, someday Germans will get to tell their kid about how joining a party other than the officially sanctioned ones could, like, totally result in not being able to get your Facebook feed updated with official party event invitations! You could only get invitations to events from some other person setting up a non-official facebook group for the party, which meant you wouldn't get the little blue background bar invites in your facebook feed! And sometimes the javascript didn't work right to update your Twitters, so you'd totally have to get it sent to email instead! Dark times, dude, dark times.
I'm sorry, but: do you really not feel that these comparisons are maybe just a little bit silly?
Do YOU know why your neighbor is coughing? DO YOU???
Pubic hair caught in her throat?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
That's not helpful. It makes your party look like a bunch of nutcase radicals. Think of ELF: it is true that taking care of the environment is good, but setting fires and destroying property as a way to get your point across doesn't help at all.
Whenever laws are unjust, about the only way to change them is through "radical" ideas. Just look at blacks in America after the civil war, they sought to maintain the old order of things in the south and nothing really was done that improved the lives of black Americans, until the civil rights movement where a few "radicals" were needed to bring about change. Same thing with copyright. And no one is going to have any property burned or lives lost with the abolition of copyright, save for perhaps the publishers who were on the way out anyways and served no real purpose.
A reactionary party that goes to the opposite extreme is as bad as the original evil. If you want to change copyright, you are going to need at least some of those pro-copyright lawmakers to help you (unless you can completely take over the legislature, which if that is your goal, looking like a nutcase radical won't help you much either). To get those lawmakers on your side, you're going to come up with something reasonable.
But if the Pirate Party can get enough seats, it would prove that many people do care about copyright and the end result would be copyright is weakened or at least not strengthened. If you have a small to medium amount of people who are willing to shoot down any proposed legislation that strengthens or doesn't weaken copyright, you will have no choice but to try to work with them or face many, many, many angry letters/calls/e-mails.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
[...] it's really the first step from the denial of free speech to wholesale slaughter and genocide.
There. Fixed that for ya.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
The problem is that people treat democracy as if it is virtuous, rather than accepting it because it does the least to restrict liberty.
I mean, a 9/10 vote to do something stupid still ends in doing something stupid.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
But that's precisely my point. I don't care what peasants think -- especially when I'm a peasant. Democracy doesn't force government to consider the needs o the people, it forces government to consider the vote of the people.
So if someone has an actually good idea, but it requires, oh, I don't know, a grade ten education to understand, then it can never happen because people won't vote for it because they don't understand it.
So then you start electing people who sound intelligent, not people who actually are intelligent. Those two tend to be inversely proportional.
Maybe a link to the US pirate party platform would be helpful for those who are incapable of googling.
or maybe sick of antisocial kids screaming and shouting in restaurants?
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
Not ALL Parties are allowed on that social network (StudiVZ) - only the ones which are currently in the Parliament... which the Pirate Party isn't... I'm angry about the lockout, too, but this report is just plain exaggerating!
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
Well the first thing the National Socialists did when they came to power was shutdown all the Christian Democrat and Socialist newspapers and arrest their party leaders.
So when this private social networking site takes over Germany and shuts down the Pirate Party, you'll have a valid comparison.
As a german I can tell you - the political situation here is BAD! censorship is back, surveillance is back, corruption... never left
the lockout of the pirate party is just a small puzzlepiece of opposition-oppression, but all in all - yes - we are headding for the fourth reich...
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
Strangely, the soon-to-be second largest party in Sweden, Piratpartiet, seems to disagree with you. Why are you against free culture?
Maybe you say that culture isn't free to produce. We know that; it's you who are stupid. Why are you against free culture?
Because filesharing is stealing? No, it isn't. Why are you against free culture?
Because the ones producing content have to be paid? No, they don't have to be paid. Why are you against free culture?
But then no content will be produced? No, that is a lie. Why are you against free culture?
Because you like putting annoying kids in jail. OK, I can't argue with you there, but it's a quite expensive solution.
God is dead! -- Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead! -- God
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
I can't speak for our German sister party, but as a member of the Swedish pirate party, I can assure you that the Pirate Party is not a fake party.
It's a party that has developed and gained support due to the increasingly anti-democratic attitude of our elected parliamentarians. Last year, parliament voted for a law giving a government institution the right to wiretap all international telecommunications traffic without warrant, suspicion and with minimal public insight. This year the IPRED directive was implemented with the added bonus (for record executives) that private corporations could go to court on their own (and not through the police as is common practice) to request information from ISPs on who was using a specific IP at a specific time. I'm sure you haven't missed ACTA if you've read /. with any regularity. The data retention directive will be implemented in Sweden this fall.
The Pirate Party is against all this. While the party is also of the opinion that non-commercial file-sharing of copyrighted works should be legalized, this is really sort of secondary. In order to enforce a ban on filesharing, you have to implement a totalitarian state that can monitor what every person does all the time. This is in our opinion NOT acceptable.
And many agree with us. In the first poll for the upcoming European Parliament elections, we got 5.1% of the vote, enough to grab one seat, with the Pirate Party not even being an alternative presented by the pollsters, and we are now the fourth, soon the third largest party in Sweden with over 42,000 members.
You may not value their ideas as much as they do, but that is certainly no ground for asserting that they are not a "real" (whatever that's supposed to mean in this context...) political party.
I could assert that Socialist parties are not "real" parties because "It's just a bunch of people that want to live off the system for free, regardless of any other consequences", but I would be terribly unjustified in doing so.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
The next thing they did was make all the corporations democratically run by the workers. Which really pissed off the foreign owners who were milking the country dry. That's what the war was about, maintaining the enslavement of the people.
They recognized that the capitalists and the money changers were guilty of crimes against humanity, and they tried to liberate humanity. That's why the blitz worked, because the people in the various countries they invaded actually greeted them as liberators.
The reason you think what you think about the Nazi's is because you were raised on a diet of propaganda designed to hide the shame of your forefathers. That's not to say the things you think you know are defensible, because they're not. The point is, nothing you think you know about the subject is actually real.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
It is easy to belittle those with viewpoints different then yours. Are you from the US? Are you a member of either of the major parties? What jokes - the "we just want to tax and spend like crazy and limit personal freedoms" party VS the "we just want to have ZERO taxes and totally dismantle all forms of government" party. I would say they are as fake as they come.
The pirate party isn't a fake party in Sweden though.
http://www.piratpartiet.se/
http://www.piratpartiet.se/storlek
We'll see if they get enough votes for the EU parlament or not.
I think there's a difference between a member doing something against the TOS and a member that you don't like, or have been told to not like. This, to me, is a political deletion, has nothing to do with getting rid of bad members.
I'd hazard a guess that your site isn't thriving if you can't tell the difference between a personal dislike and someone breaking the rules of your site. Where I live, if this happened, the site owners would find themselves infront of the ACMA quicker than you can say "politically unjust act".
Yes, you are an "asshole" as you said, but you're also an idiot too... but they usually go hand in hand.
It depends on what the political contribution laws are in the said country. Once a company starts allowing some political parties their services for free while banning them to others (like the Pirate Party which is a registered political party in Germany IIRC), that might be seen as an endorsement or contribution and could be in violation of some laws dealing with political contributions.
First, they came for the tweeters but I did not complain because I was not on twitter. Then they came for the facebookers but I didn't speak up because I didn't have a facebook account. Then they came for the myspace douchebags but I didn't speak out because I wasn't on myspace. When they came for the slashdotters, there was noone left to speak up for me.
I'm pretty sure being a member of the communist party is still acceptable discrimination if you are a resident alien seeking citizenship, applying to government related jobs, etc. in the US. My wife, formerly a Chinese citizen, was asked this several times by officials and in official documents.
I'm not really sure what we have is necessarily that altruistic.
primary purpose for existing is to support piracy of songs, software and movies, which I don't support.
You are right, your bias was clear at the start. Except you weren't applying at the start.
It isn't. It is fair for authors to be compensated for their work. Having to pay $6 for a movie that cost millions to create is not completely unjust.
Copyright is not the only way to pay for creation - your bias prevents you from distinguishing between the two. Copyright has just become the default because it has been an easy crutch to rely on. Until the internet became widespread that is.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I thought this was about social networking sites.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
So if you're a bar, you can't refuse admittance to a 9-year-old, and refuse to sell them an alcoholic drink that they're too young to safely imbibe? On the basis of age discrimination being illegal?
Oh, by the way... political beliefs and political party associations aren't in that list!
do you think that everyone woke up late may 1941, and said, "Hey, Lets have a Holocaust!". the answer of course is No. small changes like this culminated in atrocity. seriously, search slashdot for "yro germany", and tell me you don't see a disturbing picture appearing over the last 2 years. probably not a sign of impending genocide, but that was only one aspect of the regime. everyone focuses on it (and rightly so), but it's not the only bad thing they did.
You're a member of "The Ninja Party", aren't you?
"While the party is also of the opinion that non-commercial file-sharing of copyrighted works should be legalized"
I dont think the party even stands for this comment.
It's unequivocally stated in the party principles. Commercial use five years, all non-commercial use to be made legal. I doubt that every member agrees with everything, but they don't in other parties either. What the GP said is the official party line.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
But it's a private website. It is the website's call if they want to ban pirates or ninjas. I do some coding for a social networking site and we will delete accounts if they don't meet our guidelines (the site targets a specific audience, and we want it that way). The 'net is a big place... big enough to allow site owners the right to keep out unwanted parties. Don't like the site's way of doing things, go elsewhere. It isn't like there aren't a dozen social networking sites trying to fill the big boy's shoes.
This whole "it's a private website" argument has fundamental problems. Perhaps the website is acting legally and perhaps no law *should* be passed against it, but people and websites have social responsibilities beyond legality. Additionally, network effects (especially on a social *networking* site) make it hard for people to go elsewhere, destroying the normal methods of accountability for socially irresponsible decisions. Your post sounds like an attempt to discredit the discussion and say everything's perfectly OK. Yet, in your post, you point out that if a site does something you don't like, don't use it, and that's what competition is for. But that is exactly what this discussion could very likely accomplish: coordinating a boycott and publicizing the fact that many of us don't like the site. It's outside the realm of government. If you think the discussion is pointless, argue that, but don't argue that it's trying to intrude on the private rights of private websites, and don't smugly recommend that we do what we are already doing: coordinating not using the site and supporting the competitors.
How is that any different from being "sick of antisocial blacks screaming and shouting in movie theaters"? Do you think your personal prejudices justify legal/commercial discrimination?
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
+1 OHHHSNAP!
It's not about fate, it's about character.
there be no shelter here, the frontline is everywhere!
It is fair for authors to be compensated for their work.
The purpose of copyright isn't to compensate authors. It exists to encourage more works to be written. If it's not doing this very well (it's not), it needs to go.
But then no content will be produced? No, that is a lie. [citation needed]
I take my children to see Madonna(..), but I never for once ever thought I was in the same business.Chris Rea.
There is a limit on the number of "r"'s allowed and the pirates seem to go through them at quite a rate. Perhaps we could allow them in if they paid for each additional "r", but then we'd be seen as profiting from one party and not another so we can't win either way.
In the UK it's the British National Party (quazi Nazis), membership of this party precludes you from employment in the government, police, etc. Vile as they may be, they are a legitimate political party and legalising discrimination against them is even more vile, as well as the most dangerous precedent imaginable. Unfortunately this policy is actually quite popular in the UK - the sheeple will get what they deserve in the end I guess.
What is this nonsense about being against free culture? What do you mean by free culture? Being able to hear a song or watch a movie for free, regardless of the desires of the moviemaker, is not free culture, it's free stuff. Especially since the prices are quite reasonable.
Also, what is with the mantra crap?
There's plenty of free media, and you can make more. You and your Pirate buddies can go enjoy free culture all you want.
But that's not it. You just want free stuff.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.