Pirate Party Invited To, Then Banned From Gaming Exhibition

esocid writes with this excerpt from TorrentFreak: "Despite having booked and paid for their booth at Gamex, Sweden's largest gaming exhibition, the Pirate Party have been excluded from the action this week. The party, who say they were nagged for 2 to 3 months to book for the event, were this week informed they were too controversial and no longer welcome. ... [Pirate Party leader Anna Troberg] says that after the sales people from the exhibition pursued the party for months to participate, they decided to book and pay for a booth. ... 'I thought it was a bit strange, but in the afternoon, the pieces fell into place when the fair manager, Bear Wengse, phoned me and kindly, but firmly, announced that the Pirate Party was no longer welcome at the fair.' Wengse informed Troberg that the exhibition is a meeting place and not a venue for political conflict and the party's presence could cause problems, particularly since some of their work "could be perceived as criminal."'"

Comments

Obviously.

[dskzero]

The point is: why would they even try to invite them? It isn't like three months ago the public opinion of something named "PIRATE PARTY" would be any diferent.

Re:Obviously.

[Synerg1y]

To belittle them?

Re:Obviously.

[esocid]

They were popular enough to win 2 seats in Sweden's parliament. The SSU (Swedish Social Democratic Youth League) are still allowed to attend the event, and they support the decriminalization of non-commercial file sharing, so I don't buy the political exclusion claim. Most likely it was pressure from the big Corp. attendees.

Re:Obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

why would they even try to invite them?

Because sales people will do anything to get their sales stats up and take your money; honesty isn't part of their job description.

Re:Obviously.

[rwa2]

The point is: why would they even try to invite them? It isn't like three months ago the public opinion of something named "PIRATE PARTY" would be any diferent.

The point is, even if they were banned, why would they not show up and occupy a booth anyway? I see much opportunity for hilarity here :-D

Re:Obviously.

[nepka]

Because sales guy wanted his commission and when the higher ups figured out who the booth had been sold to, they cancelled it.

Re:Obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the Pirate Party did not win any seats in the Swedish parliament. They have two seats in the European parliament, however.

Re:Obviously.

[Aryden]

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/pirate_party_wins_seats_berlin_parliament.php

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/08/pirate_party_european_parliament/

Doesn't have to be Sweden, the movement is gaining a foothold.

Re:Obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

And we have a winner, I never met a salesman(or woman) that wouldn't give up their first born for a sale...

and that's being polite...

Re:Obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

What is wrong with you? He got like 2 small details wrong but he has a good point where as your post is stupid and pointless. You are an idiot and an asshole. Go die.

Re:Obviously.

[nepka]

If they lose even in Sweden, the Europe's geekiest and largest filesharing country (this goes all the way back to 90's and BBS's!), they really don't have a stand anywhere else either.

Re:Obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

They were popular enough to win 2 seats in Sweden's parliament.

Which two seats?

PP got 0.65 percent of the votes. The parties has to have at least 4 percent to get representation.

Re:Obviously.

[Aryden]

Other than winning 15 seats in Berlin? I could stand to lose $1 from my savings but gain $15 to my checking....

Re:Obviously.

[The Archon V2.0]

Obligatory XKC^H^H^H 1.00FTE: http://onefte.com/2010/05/25/

Re:Obviously.

[ackthpt]

The point is: why would they even try to invite them? It isn't like three months ago the public opinion of something named "PIRATE PARTY" would be any diferent.

The scuttlebutt is that they thought the Ninja Party would be there, too, but declined. All fell apart after that.

Re:Obviously.

[Nocturnal Deviant]

by Synerg1y (2,169,962)

why are you on slashdot again?

calling people faggot?

go back to reddit.

Re:Obviously.

[sjames]

That's a bit of a silly thing to reply to a post that shows them getting traction elsewhere by winning seats in other parliaments.

Re:Obviously.

[Ofloo]

Free advertising :p

Re:Obviously.

[mmcuh]

They have one seat in the European parliament. They would have one more in the expanded parliament under the Lisbon treaty, but even though the it has been ratified for years and all the bits of the treaty related to the commission and the council are in place, the bits that govern the only institution in the EU that is actually elected apparently aren't that important.

Re:Obviously.

[Isaac Remuant]

You haven't met that many salesmen then...

Re:Obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

The sad thing is that The Ninja Party were there, it's just that nobody saw them.

Re:Obviously.

[Kjella]

The SSU (Swedish Social Democratic Youth League) are still allowed to attend the event, and they support the decriminalization of non-commercial file sharing, so I don't buy the political exclusion claim.

This is the reason it's a story IMO. If they don't want political organizations there, that's fine. Allowing some political groups and not others is not so kosher. Of course it's a private event so they decide, but it makes it newsworthy.

Re:Obviously.

[Therad]

Because (believe it or not) they are a serious political party.

Re:Obviously.

[metacell]

Because sales guy wanted his commission and when the higher ups figured out who the booth had been sold to, they cancelled it.

The funny thing, though, is that the Pirate Party's name features prominently on Gamex' advertising in papers and in the subways. Did the advertising get approved without even a cursory examination by the bosses (or any other responsible person within the company)? And nobody discovered the mistake until a few days before the convention opened?

Re:Obviously.

[metacell]

The grandparent was probably thinking of the two seats the Swedish Pirate Party won in the EU Parliament.

Re:Obviously.

[metacell]

The Pirate Party did show up outside the convention and handed out t-shirts. They also paid the entry fee for the 20 first people who went in with their t-shirt on.

Re:Obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was given up for a sale you insensitive clod.

Re:Obviously.

[St.Creed]

So their name was used on advertising, but they still had to pay for a booth and now they can't even attend? Wow. Time for a lawsuit to have their name removed, and for attendees to complain about false advertising.

Okay, the Swedes aren't very litigious (being Vikings they tend to settle disputes with their axe :) ) but still.. this sucks.

Re:Obviously.

[metacell]

I assume the Pirate Party got their fee back - I'm sure they'd have pointed it out if they didn't. They just lost some work and planning.

Still, I think the attention they got in the press is more than worth it. This makes the Pirate Party look like a more serious contender, and the anti-pirates look like jerks.

Refund?

[ohnocitizen]

Will they get their money back? Because pursuing them so doggedly then banning them could probably also "be perceived as criminal".

Re:Refund?

[Rone]

Will they get their money back?

Even with a refund of the booth fee, the Pirate Party could still be out a significant chunk of change.

Exhibition-grade booth displays and paraphernalia cost thousands of dollars (even tens of thousands for large booths), and if the Pirate Party invested money on materials specifically for this show, they may have just flushed a significant portion of their yearly budget.

The paranoid might even think that this invite-then-ban manuever was done deliberately.

Re:Refund?

[a_n_d_e_r_s]

Yes, the Pirate party will not have to pay to attend since they got banned even though they was on the billboards in the subway on the events ads.

No, they had not had any big expenses from this.

Pirate Party youth section was there and gave away their t-shirts outside the doors, The ban meant alot of goodwill for the Pirate party and some good press.

So all in all this made the pirate party the talk of the event and got some good press.
Kinda strange that getting banned gave the pirate party more positive attention then attending the event would have.

Re:Refund?

[DerekLyons]

Exhibition-grade booth displays and paraphernalia cost thousands of dollars (even tens of thousands for large booths), and if the Pirate Party invested money on materials specifically for this show, they may have just flushed a significant portion of their yearly budget.

If this assumption is true (that they spent a significant portion of their annual budget), then one of both of two things is true: 1) they're idiots for overspending, and 2) they're idiots for not have a reasonable operating budget.
 

The paranoid might even think that this invite-then-ban manuever was done deliberately.

Paranoids, like garlic, need no reason.

Re:Refund?

[Raenex]

Exhibition-grade booth displays and paraphernalia cost thousands of dollars

Are booth babes really that expensive? :)

Re:Refund?

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends on the size, you get what you pay for even in the both babe field.

Re:Refund?

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if your exibit/booth is within your yearly operating budget or even outside of it... why should they be out of that money they invested when they were INVITED in the first place... seems like YOU would be the idiot not to invest in a marketing opportunity that you were invited to...

Re:Refund?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not that strange... look up Streisand effect. Although in this case, it is more like an anti-Streisand effect.

Re:Refund?

[St.Creed]

Depends on the size, you get what you pay for even in the both babe field.

Nice Freudian slip of the tongue there, mate :)

Re:Refund?

[Anonymous Coward]

The paranoid might even think that this invite-then-ban manuever was done deliberately.

I'd like to hear you develop on what you say in your last sentence.

Would I be paranoid to consider the possibility that this was just a PR stunt? Would this be a way too far fetched theory for your fancy? Why do you assign psychological maladies to certain trains of thought? And how are you qualified to do this? Does the malady in question perhaps run in the family, making you a paranoia expert? Just asking...

Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[elrous0]

Seriously, what trade show thought they would get away with a move that would piss off 90% of their exhibitors?

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[miffo.swe]

A tradeshow that wanted to appeal to 99% of the exhibitors customers? Or wait, make that 100%.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Hentes]

Publishers, not developers.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Anonymous Coward]

It must be nice to be delusional. I know I'd be much happier if I was certain the entire world agreed with me.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Anonymous Coward]

A tradeshow that wanted to appeal to 99% of the exhibitors customers? Or wait, make that 100%.

[[citation needed]]

[[citation really really needed]]

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Anonymous Coward]

Users aren't customers. If you're downloading someone's software without paying them for it, you are not their customer.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Nocturnal Deviant]

correct... you instead become free marketing. telling all of your less tech savvy friends how good the game is so they go out and buy it.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Anonymous Coward]

That assumes customer is PURELY about payment or lack thereof, and frames it as a matter of payment or lack thereof making it good or bad and not PERMISSION OR LACK THEREOF, which makes your stance logically ... dubious?

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[sjames]

How so? Very few are neutral to the Pirate Party, so if half are happy to go talk to them and half are happy to go heckle them, then 100% enjoyed their presence.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a remarkably stupid argument.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Nocturnal Deviant]

Actually it is not. i have done it multiple times, and made gaming companies around ~$10,000 from pirating games and telling friends about them. so they lose my copies...in total in the games i have touted that would have amounted to ~$500.....that's quite a large profit.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Moryath]

Strangely enough, I buy games. And then I wind up getting the "pirated" version anyways simply so I don't have to use a DVD-rom drive as a fucking 5 1/4" DONGLE to play the game on my laptop, and can instead use that bay for an extra battery.

Maybe one of these years the morons will realize that DRM doesn't help their sales one bit. If anything, there are games I have NOT bought because the "always-on DRM" bullcrap meant I can't reliably count on being able to play them while traveling.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what happens when people log on to Tech Dirt.

That guy knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about economics, it's like a geekish lefty version of talk radio spinning the same garbage day after day. And you can immediately tell who's in their audience because they parrot the same stupid arguments.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Nocturnal Deviant]

when they STOP using DRM, i will stop pirating...i am one of those lucky fellas that had my cd rom FUCKED by starforce drm.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Grumbleduke]

Users aren't customers. If you're downloading someone's software without paying them for it, you are not their customer.

The users are, however, consumers. If you have a significant number of consumers who aren't customers, surely a more sensible approach is to investigate why this is the case and try to convert them, rather than simply dismissing them as irrelevant?

Plus, at least as far as music goes (and by extrapolation to games and software), there is a reasonable amount of evidence to suggest that "pirates" actually spend more on average than non-pirates, so are these groups' best customers.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Ginger Unicorn]

"That's a remarkably stupid argument" is a remarkably stupid argument.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Robert Zenz]

I'd say that depends if the Marketing/Sales-Team or the Development-Team is running the booth.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[chainsaw1]

DRM does help sales, to a point. I would counter that overdoing the DRM is the major issue.

If the DRM stops casual piracy (ie. the selling of $2 DVD's on street corners) while not being completely bullet proof (such that a moderately technical user can circumvent) that is the golden area. From here, a significant number of people are able to bypass but not the majority due to hassle, virus fears, or lack of know how / fear of tinkering with a computer. It balances mass piracy against privacy intrusion and playability issues.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[elrous0]

Oh come on now. That's like a car thief telling the dealership they should be okay with him stealing the car because all his buddies will see how cool he looks in it and go out and buy their own.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't download a car.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[metacell]

I buy original games, then download the crack so I can play them under Linux or on my CD-less netbook (this is legal where I live).

I also download games illegally, but on average, I think I spend the same amount of money on games as I would have if illegal downloading wasn't an option. I almost only download games to try them out; almost all my gaming time is spent on the games I bought legally.

One of the few pirated games I played for an extended period was Fable: The Lost Chapters for the XBox. I ended up buying the PC version of Fable: The Lost Chapters (a slightly expanded version) to play it again. It's doubtful if I had bought Fable: The Lost Chapters if I hadn't tried the "light" version for free.

Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit"

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting. The MafiAA must have some troll playing the modpoint lottery. That's the only way you could have been modded "Flamebait."

famous last words from the marketing manager:

[nimbius]

"hey guys! EA has a new game about pirates coming out, lets invite some pirate enthusiasts!!"

Re:famous last words from the marketing manager:

[St.Creed]

Best comment of the thread. Everyone else can stop posting now :)

Politics

[Anonymous Coward]

They wanted the opportunity to publicly ban them. They're probably trying to curry favor with one of the digital rights lawyeropolies.

Hm...

[JustAnotherIdiot]

they decided to book and pay for a booth

I don't see the article mentioning a refund, I'm hoping this wasn't just a huge ploy from the start to take their money.
Booths at these kinds of things usually aren't cheap...

Re:Hm...

[wjousts]

Don't attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. I'd wager some lower down sales guy pitched the booth to Pirate Bay and then later on somebody higher up notice and shit a brick when they realized who they'd just sold a booth to. I expect the original sales guy is updating his resume now.

Re:Hm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Towards the end of the original article, the Pirate Party said something about getting more exposure at far less cost, so it sounds like there was a refund involved. Still, I'm most curious about the fact that they were invited at all. I don't think they should have been banned but I really do have difficulty grasping why someone from the convention could possibly think that this would go over well. Maybe some higher-up had some lofty notions of seeming "worldly" and was brought back to Earth by their other customers? Who knows?

Re:Hm...

[ArhcAngel]

Yes, he is planning to run for a congressional seat in Illinois and after a few terms run for POTUS.

FYI - I know this is in Europe

Re:Hm...

[lordmetroid]

Since when have such a small issue as nationality or heritage stopped politicians to yearn for office they can not get. *Looking at you Arnold*.

Re:Hm...

[next_ghost]

All it takes is one huge Pirate supporter in the sales team with enough freedom to sign the deal without anyone noticing until the ink has dried. And that guy probably figured that if higher-ups try to overrule him afterwards, it'll hit the news. Either way, it's a win for the Pirate Party.

Re:Hm...

[Anonymous Coward]

- California, do you remember I promised not to screw you?

- Yes, we do! You promised!

- I lied.

Re:Hm...

[wjousts]

Nice troll, troll.

Money quote

[Anonymous Coward]

“I find it absolutely hilarious that a gaming fair banned the Pirate Party on the official pretext that ‘our culture is harmful to gaming’,” Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party, told TorrentFreak

Refund?

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one asking about refund here?
They should pay some sort of apology fee as well.

Poorly edited summary

[sabt-pestnu]

> they decided to book and pay for a booth. ... 'I thought it was a bit strange, but in the afternoon, the pieces fell into place

This is an example of either poor clipping, or intentionally inflammatory clipping. From having RTFA, the pirate party had called to get answers on a couple of practical issues, and the person they talked to sounded vague and extremely stressed out. THAT is what Troberg, as quoted in the actual article, thought strange.

Seen this before?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not like a big company did it... say.... like Oracle... with another big company.... say.... Salesforce.com. haha

Simple explanation

[Leuf]

In general, marketing and sales people have a tenuous grasp on reality.

Yarr?

[Anonymous Coward]

Next time I vote, I'm gonna vote for a lesbian pirate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Troberg

Re:Who else read 'gamesex'?

[Anonymous Coward]

sorry, hands are otherwise occupied...

seriously obvious and expected, from the beginning

[holophrastic]

I'm sure the organizers never wanted the pirate party there at all. But inviting them was a brilliant business move. For a whole host of reasons, from inflaming other exhibitors, getting those other exhibitors to spend more, encouraging another segment to exhibit, and impressing sponsors in the first place. Then, finally, supporting those that wanted the pirate party gone.

I'll bet it was the best period of business activity for the organizers. Welcome to playing one side against the other, and getting news-level advertising fory our show in the process.

Why is any of this surprising to anyone? It's just a gossip-tree and a rumour-mill at the business level.

Ooh, guess who's coming to dinner. Oh, sorry, they cancelled at the last minute.

Wrong name

[mmcuh]

The manager's name is Björn Wengse, not Bear Wengse. Björn is a common name that also happens to be the Swedish word for "bear".

Re:Wrong name

[Anonymous Coward]

So... It was written in english?

Re:Wrong name

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks! I read that and was amazed someone had the name Bear!

Björn makes way more sense.

Re:Wrong name

[HopefulIntern]

As a Norwegian, I kind of assumed this. "Bear" does not sound very Nordic, but "Bjørn" is a common name both in Sweden and Norway :)
Another (less common) name in Norway is "Roar". Go figure.

Typical Marketing Bitching

[Anonymous Coward]

First: pleasepleaseplease, Pleazze!?
-No.
Then: pleasepleaseplease, pretty Pleazze!?
-Eh, ok.
Last: Got you, suckers! Your our bitches now! Here's your money back.
-...

#OccupyGamex

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really #OccupyGamex but in case you go, bring a bunch of PP flyers and pass them around.

Pirate Party represents Shareware indirectly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who would pay for a game they haven't even played yet?
Imagine if people payed half-price of a movie theater ticket and decided if they payed the other half after finishing watching the movie!

Pirate Party is the American Standard and should be embraced: this country was founded on Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that were made inexpensively by enterpreneurs trying to get an edge on returning to their former country that displaced them for lack of money or social privilege, but now The United States is making it too hard to even leave this goddamn country but have less than what you entered with.

Social Services and IRS are the ninjas stealing everyones money and children, while BATFE is the private army used to beat everyone into submission that not even Islam is as cruel.

48 States of America > States of the United States.

Re:Is Analingus the new Cunnilingus?

[morari]

Your thoughts?

I fully agree and endorse this practice for both sexes. I honestly doesn't get much better than having your ass ate out. :)

Re:Is Analingus the new Cunnilingus?

[Anonymous Coward]

You spelled 'favor' wrong.

arrrr

[Anonymous Coward]

man, that just makes me wanna go pirate a game.

Re:Is Analingus the new Cunnilingus?

[Pax681]

You spelled 'favor' wrong.

erm.. did he/she?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/favour
just shows what side of the pond he/she is from and also shows that you are a yank..lol

Gaming Fair?

[Cyberllama]

More like Gaming "Unfair", amirite folks?

Hey, won't you please come to our convention?

[Arancaytar]

SYKE! HAHA!

Brings a new meaning to "con".

Re:seriously obvious and expected, from the beginn

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a shame really... I bet a Pirate Party would have really nice Wenches.

Auto-transalated!

[joe545]

"Bear Wengse" should be "Björn Wengse". Poor journalism.

Re:Auto-transalated!

[St.Creed]

Google Translate strikes again! :)

Webservers were DDoSed by Anonymous

[BetterThanCaesar]

Has Anonymous gone out of fashion? I would have expected a mention of the fact that the web pages of the exhibition and the exhibition hall (Kistamässan) were DDoSed with a message from AnonOps Sweden stating (in Swenglish): Your decision to politically censor the pirate party, excluding them from gamex has not gone unnoticed by anonymous. That you would at the same time favor other parties does not improve the situation to your benefit.

Re:seriously obvious and expected, from the beginn

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

You can make just about anything obvious if you decide to cherry-pick out the inconvenient possibilities. Consider this similar line of reasoning:

"What a stupid move by the organisers! Inviting the pirate party was always going to piss the exhibitors off. It would just attract the file-sharing crowd and make the event hostile towards big game studios. Basically, by inviting the pirate party, they would have jeopardised the exhibitors' contributing to this and all subsequent events, and irreparably damaged any currency or legitimacy they had with game developers.

But, that could have all been salvaged a little if they actually went ahead with the invite. At least then they get the file sharing crowd, and other pirate party supporters, which is no small consolation prize! But, they've turned around and banned them instead, which is just a giant 'fuck you' to all supporters of the pirate party, not to mention anyone in favour of free political speech. Now, the whole debacle is in the news, and the organisers have turned away both the exhibitors and the general public. They'll be lucky if they see half the attendance they had last year."

I can't help it

[RivenAleem]

I can't stop reading her name as Trollberg, the iceberg who sank the Titanic.

Problem?

Re:seriously obvious and expected, from the beginn

[holophrastic]

considering someone else's intentional choices as undesirable or stupid on their part is almost always incorrect.

Political stunt

[Anonymous Coward]

It is very apparent that they wanted them to book so that they could remove them so that it looks as thought the expo has sided with the game companies that are there bread and butter. If they allowed them to join it would look "bad" to the game companies that are for the most part probably not fans of the party. This way the organizers can come off and say oh they booked a booth to try and start shit but we stopped them. It was just a publicity move nothing more. It makes them look good to the mindless sheep that want to pay for everything.

Re:seriously obvious and expected, from the beginn

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

For an individual making some kind of personal choice, maybe. For a group/committee/government, or anyone trying to organise an event, not even close. I have both organised events and been part of committees in the past (often at the same time), and making stupid decisions, or failing to correctly predict something important, is not just difficult to avoid, it's part and parcel to the job.

I think what most likely happened was that whatever committee is responsible decided to send out invitations to various groups and political parties, but one of which is the pirate party. They didn't think particularly about weeding out particular parties for any controversial views, or names. They contacted these political parties to tell them that they're invited, and the political parties naturally spread the word that they'd be making an appearance. The big game studios caught wind, and pressured the organisers to ban them. The organisers, realising that the big game studios are necessary to the success of the event, decided to kowtow and bear the controversy.

Re:seriously obvious and expected, from the beginn

[holophrastic]

That's a good point. I agree with you.

Re:seriously obvious and expected, from the beginn

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

Wow. I think you just made my day.

Exhibition web page

[Anonymous Coward]

The web page of the exhibition: http://gamex.se/ (in Swedish)

People who could probably give more information about why the Pirate Party was banned:
bjorn.wengse@kistamassan.com
gital.alebeyawi@kistamassan.com

Pirate Party too controversial?

[Anonymous Coward]

How many computer games are about war, military operations and death?

And the politics of copyright is too controversial for the gaming industry?

Re:seriously obvious and expected, from the beginn

[holophrastic]

(: hey, it's a good argument, that you made, with organizations having corrective elements as a part of the job. I was thinking of the show organizers as an individual -- being an entrepreneur, I do that sometimes.

Grammar!

[DaVince21]

*A* party, so the party *has*.

Good night.