Why the UK Needs the Pirate Party

Barence writes "The UK Pirate Party wants to reform copyright and patent laws, abolish the surveillance state and increase our freedom of speech, and it's just been recognized as a political party. In this interview with PC Pro, UK Pirate Party leader Andrew Robinson explains how he's planning to shake up the political landscape. 'What we really want to do is raise awareness, so that the other parties say "bloody hell, they've got seven million votes this time out," or one million votes, or enough votes to make them care and seriously think about these issues.'"

Comments

So, about that DMCA...

[Hordeking]

This is great. When do we get one of these in the US?

Raising awareness works - example Germany

[Fusselwurm]

from TFA:

'What we really want to do is raise awareness, so that the other parties say 'bloody hell, they've got seven million votes this time out', or one million votes, or enough votes to make them care and seriously think about these issues.'"

In Germany, a recent poll showed a 2% support rate for the pirate party (Piratenpartei).

And lo and behold! Suddenly, politicians of other parties are discovering their love for the pirates' topics...

(links in German, and I'm too much a of a lazy ass to translate)

Re:Sounds promising, but...

[Andy_R]

As party leader, I can promise you that our policies are not more extreme than publically stated, we are well aware that there needs to be balance in copyright law, and that artists need to be financially rewarded when their work is sold... of course even though I've only been a politician for a couple of days you might not trust me, so I'd invite you to head over to our forum and actually take part in our decision making processes. You will of course see views expressed that are both harder and softer than the party's official line, but I hope you'll also see that we are a rational, balanced group of people.