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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."'"
Just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19th.
...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.
Weren't pirates often 'reliefing' the government of it's 'hard earned' tax dollars? By 'hard earned' I meant: 'stolen from the poor'?:D
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
If you had actually read the statements of the german Pirate Party, you'd know their position is not one of "screw the creators, everything free for everyone", but quite a bit more thought-out. Go read it.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
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)... )
Tell that to the music labels.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
Can you justify a retroactive copyright extension like the one that got just passed in Europe one month ago? How the hell a retroactive extension is going to encourage creation in the past? Or is the copyright extension including a time machine?
With these things one wonders how they are not getting even more votes....
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
(And, no, I'm not defending the long-copyright terms or the large fines imposed on pirates.)
And their platform doesn't seek to end all copyright in all forms. Their first goals are to shorten the terms, do away with the excessive fines on individuals and restore due process to the proceedings. That seems pretty reasonable.
They call themselves "Pirate" because they have already been branded with the name by the MAFIAA (which seems to consider anything short of signing our paychecks over to them and electing them dictator for life to be piracy).
The purpose of a patent is to prevent others from profiting off of your invention, or method of doing something for a finite period of time.
In the US, that is absolutely NOT the purpose of a patent. Is that not the case elsewhere? The US constitution specifically states that it's to "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." The method of promoting science and useful arts is to allow the creator to profit, thus encouraging them to do their thing by allowing them to be compensated for it. The point is absolutely not to maximize profits for the creator. Do you really think extending copyright term (retroactively!) is going to affect whether or not somebody decides to write a novel or a song? Do you really think structuring patent laws such that only lawyers and companies with enough money to sink into lots of lawyers benefit is going to promote the progress of science and the useful arts?
/. is us-centric blah blah blah. But seriously, is the actual (not necessarily practical) purpose of patent and copyright not the same in the EU?
Yeah yeah,
Q: How can you tell when a politician is lying?
A: His lips move.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
A: His lips move.
Or his parrot's do.
That's a stretch. There is defiantly a mistrust of government and established corporations there but as to making any attempt to force libertarian values onto the citizens or change the role of the government I don’t really see it.
Increased privacy and government accountability and the destruction of IP monopolies are not really core political policies. I guess they might develop into libertarians but they could just as easily be a centrist (status quo) party with these views. I think the party core values is minimise the influence of corporations on the state and keeping a free internet and a part from that they would be fairly moderate.
Unfortunately, the Canadians are the victims of the so-called "first past the post" riding system, which is very anti-democratic. This means you will have to pick your riding very carefully.
The german pirate party supports a basic income guarantee (social security with less stigma and pressure to get a viable job). That puts them way out of anything an American for instance would recognize as "libertarian".
They say a lot of things, but under Politics -> Copyright you find statements like:
Daher fordern wir, das nichtkommerzielle Kopieren, ZugÃnglichmachen, Speichern und Nutzen von Werken nicht nur zu legalisieren, sondern explizit zu fÃrdern, um die allgemeine Verfügbarkeit von Information, Wissen und Kultur zu verbessern, denn dies stellt eine essentielle Grundvoraussetzung für die soziale, technische und wirtschaftliche Weiterentwicklung unserer Gesellschaft dar.
Or in English (unofficial translation):
Therefore we demand that non-commercial copying, sharing, storing and use of works not only be legalized, but explicitly promoted to improve the overall availability of information, knowledge and culture, because this is a crucial prerequisite for the social, technical and economic development of our society.
I think there's a few copyright holders who would choke on that one. Also they want to built open, anonymous wifi networks and absolve the ISPs of all liability = free file sharing in practice. They have a very broad political program compared to the Swedish party, but they are no less radical when it comes to copyright. I do hope hey pass the 5% barrier in the national election in 2013, then it could get real fun (they had 2% in 2009 - more than 3x what the Swedish PP managed in their national election...)
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
No, that was robin hood.
Pirates became famous for relieving people of their jewelry, warez, wifes, etc... Like politicians.
Isn't it weird?
Historically pirates wanted to relive you of your warez and now they distribute them for no apparent profit...
-- no sig today
Guy Fawkes the only person in history to enter Parliament (or indeed any political establishment) with honest intentions
Links?
Nein, rechts.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
You are on the right track, you are almost there.
The entire point of having a government is so that your liberties and freedoms are protected, but government was usurped by private interests and now it truly does exist only to protect special corporate interests. That's why the inflation exists, that's why monopolies are protected, that's why the government is of the size that it is, that's why you can be ordered to be assassinated by your president.
You can't handle the truth.