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Pirate Party Invited To, Then Banned From Gaming Exhibition

Posted by Soulskill on from the make-up-your-minds dept.

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."'"

9 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Refund? by ohnocitizen · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Refund? by Rone · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:Refund? by a_n_d_e_r_s · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Just saying it like it are.
  2. Re:Obviously. by esocid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
  3. famous last words from the marketing manager: by nimbius · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  4. Re:Translation: "The developers when apeshit" by miffo.swe · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

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    HTTP/1.1 400
  5. Re:Obviously. by nepka · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

  6. Re:Obviously. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

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

  7. seriously obvious and expected, from the beginning by holophrastic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.