Slashdot Mirror
Ask the UK Pirate Party's Andrew Robinson About the Issues
VJ42 writes "With the 2010 UK general election fast approaching, the Pirate Party of the United Kingdom will be fielding elections for the first time. The Digital Economy bill and ACTA are hot topics for UK geeks, and the Pirate Party is looking to pick up some votes. Their leader, Andrew Robinson, has agreed to answer your questions. Normal Slashdot interview rules apply."
Andrew, what do you have to say to pundits and critics who argue that the Pirate Party is an immature, self-defeating organization run by low-income manchildren who do not understand the size or scope of the actual problems involved in intellectual property and copyrights? Do you deny that choosing the name "Pirate Party" is a deliberate attempt to pander to a generation of mouth-breathing, spoiled shut-ins who have never done an honest day's work in their life? And, given the fact that piracy hurts content producers, legitimate customers, and even pirates in the long-term since its an unsustainable and selfish practice that produces nothing of value and contributes nothing to society, would you say that your movement is more of a cancerous tumor, or rather an infected wound? Thank you.
Curious. As you touch on your first, second and fourth bullet points, financial support or remuneration is necessary for most serious creative endeavours. So why be insulting when someone manages to point this out in a rather more concise ten word post? And in support of your own argument, no less.
Do you impress yourself with all the words you know? Does the Socratic method confuse you?
shouldn't content producers, artists, programmers, and basically anyone producing something have a right to their work?
A loaded question. Of course they should have a right to their work - that is not the question. The real question is: should media content producers have the right to profit off the artificial scarcity of digital goods?
When the cost to copy digital content is fixed, why should they have the right to charge for each digital copy as if it is a scarce item at many thousands of percent markup over the price to copy that item?
UKIP are not a far right or far left party. They are (as you highlight) a single issue party.
I'll happily vote UKIP, and I'll happily take up arms against the BNP. Putting them both in the same category is naive and/or disingenuous.