Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
The need is there, no doubt. But need does not equate success...
"you can't sing "Happy Birthday" in the UK without paying a license fee"
I was at my nieces' birthday party the other day and we sang happy birthday to them and nobody asked us for a licence fee. Parent poster is wrong.
Yes, I believe technically the parent poster may be right that the song is still under copyright and payment should be made for public performance but thankfully the UK isn't the USA (yet!) and so we don't have lawyers suing us for breathing. A judge would laugh you out of the court.
You guys in the USA have brought a lot of good ideas into the world but exchanging common sense for lawyers is not one of them.
And I hate adverts with a vengeance. Given the choice between watching Bones or House or something on Sky with adverts or watching it on a DVD I bought/rented (so no adverts) I'd go for paying for it every time (as long as I had the money). If people can freely copy digital versions, what's going to encourage people to make the DVDs? And if they stop making the DVDs, what's to encourage them to make the show in the first place? The advert revenue on TV goes to the station, not to the show.
And everyone is going to act in the same way as you to a sufficient degree that it'll be able to fund all of the creative media we have at the moment? The reason why piracy and P2P has taken off is because people can get it for free with almost no chance of repercussions. If you then completely remove any chance of repercussions by removing the existing law against low-scale copying then what makes you think people won't just get more of the free stuff because it's free and because they don't need to pay for anything?
That depends on what you mean by a "normal" activity. At 11.5% then it might be a moderately common-place activity, but that's not the same as normal.
Exactly, and I'm not arguing with that at all. The current legislation is completely out of whack in favour of the big companies and record labels, but take it too far the other way and no-one benefits from putting their effort in to making music or books or games and so none of them end up existing any more.
IMO they could be wrong if taken literally and as far as they could be. I agree with their general ideas, but the extent of the ideal can be another thing. Also, it can be better to vote slightly too far one way than it is to vote way too far the other compared to your actual stance.