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Pirate Party Wins Seat In Berlin
An anonymous reader writes "The Pirate Party won its first seat in the Berlin state elections with almost 9% of the vote. From the article: '"We will get right to work," top Pirate candidate, Andreas Baum, told ZDF television. "This is all new for us."'"
Pirate seat won in Berlin, wow!
...others can copy their strategy?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
is the Ninja Party?
.... considering how "cool" it is becoming in Germany to associate anything and everything with "Piraten". Pirates are in baby.
They haven't just won one seat but about 14-15. Interestingly, more seats would have been mostly useless to them as they have only nominated 15 candidates -- if they gain more seats than that or if they have to replace a member mid-term, they will have to leave that seat empty.
(+1, Disagree)
Chances are that everyone on their list, which comprised only 15 candidates, will win a seat in the Berlin senate.
prospects Are Users all over the
Stop screwing creators. We deserve to get paid for our work, and your desire to get other people's valuable hard work for free is not only unfair, but it's ultimately self-destructive (just like forcing doctors and teachers to work for no pay will come back to haunt you in the long run despite the desire that healthcare and education be free).
(And, no, I'm not defending the long-copyright terms or the large fines imposed on pirates.)
how long is this going to last, your country is already dropping pants to any demand by any company
Oh apple says we need to ban samsung? OH YES SIR right away sir!
even France has more balls
Between the Greek bailout fiasco, ethanol fuel fiasco, atomic energy extension then reversal, FDP falling on their swords, Stuttgart 21, etc., I don't think any of the mainstream political parties have any credibility with the German voters left. Maybe the Green party has some, but they'd blow it after a couple of years in power. I think Mrs. Merkel is looking for a new coalition partner, maybe she should advertise on one of those in search of web sites.
The funny thing is of course how the other parties reacted. When it became clear that the Pirate Party would likely get into the parliament (predicted to get 6.5% at most), they were already scandalized, how anybody could vote such loonies. Now, I must confess I haven't watched all the reactions of other parties, but after the election both SPD and CDU were dismissive to the point of insulting those who voted for the Pirate Party. (Whose voters are more educated than the average of the electorate.)
... but the Pirate Party gained about 6% over that result - reaching 9%. Also none, none of the other parties saw fit to even mention the name Pirate Party even once. They all skirted the issue by saying something like - those others, a new party in the left spectrum or whatever.
... oh ... well what? The people? Who's that?
A representative of the Left party pointed out that having to few members nominated than the seats they won indicated that they must have overestimated themselves (sic!). Green Representative Renate Künast claimed that her party got the most gains of all parties - the Green Party gained 4.5% more votes than during the last election in 2006
Aloofness abounds among established parties, caring about their claim to power first, other parties in the government next and the people
EOM
It's much more a technically aware party that does lots of things right where other 'conservative' parties just still behave like 40 years ago ..
For me the name 'Pirate' ist the worst part of the party, as this is probably why lots of people won't ever take them serious .. even if they have good ideas. (Just like the Chaos Computer Club (CCC)... )
Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel has won a seat for the Silly Party.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
This is a huge win for the german Pirate Party, as it puts it on the radar of all the mainstream press, even those that tried to ignore it so far.
By this time tomorrow, everyone in Germany will have heard about the Pirate Party. That one of the old, established parties has been decisively kicked from parliament (~2% of the votes, with 5% being required to enter parliament) only strengthens this perception, as the Pirate Party is called a "replacement" in some circles - the party kicked out is the Liberal party, which aside from being strictly capitalistic also used to ride on the tickets of things like freedom, liberty, individualism - stuff that is close to the Pirates as well.
Also, the PP has gotten through other important barriers straight away: They're officially a faction, with all the rights (an office in the parliament building, etc.) of the old parties. It will be receiving campaign money (Germany has a system where the parties receive tax money to cover their expenses during the campaigns, based on the number of votes they got, but you need a certain amount to receive any at all. The purpose of the system is to make sure not only the rich can afford campaigns, and parties don't need to rely on contributions from lobbyists/companies/etc. to campaign).
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
This be happenin' on a most auspicious day, me hearties! Haul anchor!
[2011-09-19 00:17 local time]
So will the pirate party become the Singularity Party. Or will it happen before the politicians even notice at (endogenously to the planet perhaps)?
Pirate Party is basically libertarian.
Here is from wiki:
The party supports the preservation of current civil rights in telephony and on the Internet; in particular, it opposes the European data retention policies and Germany's new Internet censorship law called Zugangserschwerungsgesetz. It also opposes artificial monopolies and various measures of surveillance of citizens.
The party favors the civil right to information privacy and reforms of copyright, education, computer science and genetic patents.
It promotes in particular an enhanced transparency of government by implementing open source governance and providing for APIs to allow for electronic inspection and monitoring of government operations by the citizen.
It is aimed at minimizing government involvement into some specific areas, but anything that is aimed at minimizing government involvement is anti-establishment and may just be a special case of libertarian movement.
You can't handle the truth.
76 posts? Sad how /. has... well, anyway, I'd like to congratulate the Pirate Party on their big win. Good job guys. Maybe we can put something like this together for the American elections next year.
I will run as a candidate for sure, but it's in 3+ years :-/
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Our first action will be a swift DDoS blitz of Poland. Don't worry about the French or English, they won't do anything about it.
The name "Pirate Party" works much better in Sweden, which has Pirates in their history and a population that knows enough English to know the term "software piracy".
We know English even in Germany.
Tomorrow (September 19) is International Talk Like A Pirate Day (tm). Har maties! Ye auld pirates arr now running up ye auld skull and bones and taking the bootie (politician is a synonym for schwag bag).
Let me clarify what I meant: Sweden has a much better insight into US American culture. The reason for this might be that because Sweden is such a small country, it isn't profitable to dub all the American TV shows: instead swedes have to read subtitles or just learn enough English to watch TV (which most of them do).
Germany is the exact opposite, with German being the most spoken language in Europe and Germany being the richest country (and other German speaking countries being quite rich as well), it becomes viable to dub ALL foreign television in German (watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0X3nJ_TSy4 if you dare). So the average German does not know about terms like "software piracy", the pun in the name is lost to the majority of voters (German phrase is "robbery copy").
http://www.venganza.org/category/pirates/
That so is? All this time I have, been use an Auto-Translator from das Google, ja. ;-)
[But seriously, even in German, "Piraterie" has been used in a copyright context for many years. Even those who don't speak English associate it with filesharing at least as much as with Johnny Depp or Somalia.]
We just get tea fags.
Not only that, most people who would vote for the Pirate Party in Germany already knew full well what "software piracy" is.
wow this is a really cool website, I will spend more time here...what type of blog software is this? Love this article, would be cool to have a pirate party in America. I will post this article on my own blog, http://warlock666.com
The pendulum has been very much in one direction for at least 100 years (and needs to swing back). In the US, the signatories of the US constitution gave copyright holders 14 years with a single 14 year extension (under special circumstances). Lifetimes? Lifetimes beyond the lifetime of the originator? Ridiculous! 14 years with no extension is the pendulum swinging back to somewhere normal. Even 7 years is a long time.
As much as I'm for keeping the established parties on their toes, the pirate party certainly will not be able to do so. Has anyone bothered following their top candidate in television? Be my guest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-cDewZk7wo
Berlin has bigger problems than anybody in the pirate party could possibly handle or let alone help solve.
2 pirate vessels dubbed The Bob Barker and another (can't remember name or maybe Sea Shepherds), are not as fast as the ninja whaling fleet of 10 or so vessels but these 2 pirate vessels from Australia have pushed the ninjas away from preying on whales.
Not to mention the popular real pirate Klaus StÃrtebeker who - despite being an outlaw - is conceived as a "good guy". A german Robin Hood, if you want.
But now global warming will start to deacrease:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
Cheers
Fünfzehn Mann auf des Toten Kiste, hohoho... und ne buddel voll Rum!
Klaus Stoertebecker
Goedeke Michels
Hennig Wichmann
Klaus Scheld
Magister Wigbold
Arnd Stuke
Nikolaus Millies
(effectively) Paul Beneke
In case anyone is wondering I think this success is unlikely to translate to such a success nationally. Remember that Berlin is not only a city state but also a fairly hip one !! The PP are not likely to get this level of support in, for example, more rural areas !!
"Electronic voting machines aren't so bad after all"
What's cooler than Pirates or Ninja's?
Nazis.
... which hosts a tracker site open for anyone to link from and upload to. Then ordering it to be taken down is one political party attacking another and that is taboo as well as against several laws - need to get the EFF involved and go to the Supreme Court, and if they say it's okay - it'll be open season on every political web-site. I love when the legislators have written themselves into a corner. :)
Or at least with their explicit or implicit permission.
The pirates who had the sanction of no government seem to be the minority. Many of them had that status because the British stopped the practice of using privateers for government ends, and the privateers turned unsanctioned pirate.
Ernst RÃhm
Klaus Nomi
Roland Emmerich
Oh, snap!
If he had his way we'd have no copyright in the US because of the fear of its abuse, as he correctly predicted.
Jefferson even proposed this for the Bill of Rights, too bad he didn't succeed:
Given the current thinking, 14 would have probably been written in. In reading this next paragraph, it's obvious the Pirates are less radical than Thomas Jefferson:
Same is Germany: Either direct seats or 5% get you in.