Slashdot Mirror
Pirate Party Gains Another Seat In EU
bs0d3 writes "Amelia Andersdotter is a member of the Swedish Pirate Party elected in 2009. Originally her votes were not enough to beat fellow pirate Christian Engstrom for a seat on the European Parliament. Today the EU has redrawn the lines and 12 countries are to gain one or more MEPs — including Sweden, where Andersdotter is set to be confirmed."
can easily and truly say that, 'they represent me'.
i have given no allowance or authority to any other party, or representative, up till this point.
Read radical news here
I cannot support this party.
I do not support ANY political party that tries to extract tears from mermaids.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Even at best, to try to take the name at face value, their naming suggests they are advocating something that is strongly associated with disobedience and anarchy.
They need to grow up, IMO.
(This post is probably going to get modded as a troll, but it's still my honest opinion.)
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Yeah.
OR, you could check the actual data from the election researchers where the Pirate Party has had successes, which shows a different picture.
Now, now. I respect the right of anonymous people to be misinformed, even loudly. There's no need to call them names.
I have voted for them every chance I've gotten and I download everything I possibly can from iTunes, to the point of getting a US account. I also don't have a Spotify account since I don't like the pittance that the artists are awarded in contrast to what the labels themselves get for zero work. At least with radio, they send people out to bribe radio stations (which I'm against, but they *do* something). I can afford to, and am willing to, pay for music, movies, games and so on, and if that's what it was all about I wouldn't be writing this. I don't think that I'm a complete anomaly in the Pirate Party voter base. The current party leader is a publisher.
What voting for them is about for me is to put an end to compromising civil rights and democratic tradition in order for some industries to supposedly stay afloat. It's also about stopping communication surveillance that's almost completely useless and at any rate remarkably disproportionate and ineffective. (Search for "FRA law".) And, yes, as part of the party program is a plea to make sure that non-commercial file sharing is decriminalized because every possible (and quite a few impossible) obstructions are either contra-productive and/or violates basic laws or rights more severely that warranted. The whole green party bloc in the European Parliament has adopted Christian Engström's positions on this issue.
I suppose it's easy to just short-circuit to "I WANT FREE MP3S PLZ", but there really is more to it than that.
Because using Slashdot's "piracy" logo seems a bit counter-productive. Wikipedia shows a logo for the international organization.
But not in the way most people would be thinking.
Remember, Piracy was adopted as the major branding slogan by content publishers because they thought it would have negative connotations. Accuracy and truth were not a part of it; they were going for psychological hits rather than any actual reasoning based off of logic and justice.
In calling it a "Pirate Party" they are mocking the originators of the term. It had already lost its meaning and reversed, becoming an average term, and now used by a political party as a straight-out rallying term of endearment against anachronistic corporations and the politicians they control.
Which is in and of itself quite petty, and thus childish. Still amusing, and still a group of politicians that I'd trust further for many issues (completely unrelated to piracy or media) than most others.
There were also, for a short time, parties known as the "Bull Moose Party" and "The Knownothings"(for this, think of William Cutting and the Association of American Natives in Gangs of New York) in US political history.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
What's wrong with caring about the moral and economic repercussions of allowing corporations to own ideas? Or caring about government-sanctioned (or even run) extortion against citizens and unaffiliated content producers? Copyright needs to end. If the pirate party is the only party backing that move, then I support it. It doesn't mean that is the only issue I care about, but that I can't support a party that supports copyright.
Great Intellect...
As far as I know, the Pirate Party does NOT support the end of copyright. They support reducing it substantially. So if you cannot support a party that supports copyright, this isn't the party for you.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
What makes me sad for being a member of human race is how many people confuse opposition against copyright monopoly with just wanting to download movies and music without paying. Pirate Parties around the world are built around the same values and ideals of sharing that have driven scientific progress for over 300 years. Isn't it peculiar that those parts of our economy most responsible for past progress and most important for future progress also have the least protection of "intellectual property"?