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Swedish Pirate Party Member To Be EU's Youngest MP
First time accepted submitter genjix writes "In a few weeks Amelia Andersdotter will be the second Pirate Party member to take a seat at the European Parliament in Brussels. The 24-year-old Swede was voted in more than two years ago, but due to bureaucratic quibbles her official appointment was delayed. TorrentFreak catches up with the soon-to-be youngest MEP to hear about her plans and expectations."
Not on the internet...
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
Not on slashdot apparently. We could look at what she's saying and why, and be objective, but that would involve RTFA... Which is actually an interesting read.
I have determined that my sig is indeterminate.
24 years old is very young to be in any parliament... That's how old I am!
I wish her luck. Hopefully the concept can spread around the world, the current copyright situation is quite crazy as it stands.
One thing I know, and that is that I am ignorant...
Applicable xkcd - 322.
Effectively, guys on the internet are arses.
After six or seven rounds of rubberstamping, the new Directive is put before the actual "Parliament", where MEPs can vote yea or nea, or just not show up in the hope that it will pass and they can plead ignorant neutrality. If they vote nea, it goes through the committee system a few more times so that some of the more deliberately egregious clauses can be elided. Honour satisfied, the Directive is duly passed in the form that the lobbyist really wanted, and Member States can begin the process of (mis)implementing it, or in the case of anyone South or East of Belgium, shrugging their shoulders and simply ignoring it.
And that's how democracy works.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I think this is the first time I've read an article on copyright/patent/trademark law, consisting mostly of the words of a particular politician, and thought to myself: Hey, this person knows more than I do about the subject. Like, a lot more.
Male geekiness is a sexual characteristic.
Male aggression is a sexual characteristic. /. exists because the male mind[tm] has certain characteristics which can be appealed to.
Another male sexual characteristic is to notice the physical features of women.
It's easy to take selective offence, especially when political correctness is so good at it. But while repressing antisocial acts may be good for society, repressing thoughts which make you uncomfortable will get you nowhere.
After all, it would be a liar who didn't notice the appearance of a politician, and a lying politician who said he did not consider his own appearance.
Aye!
Then, in case one needs to know about male geeks being rude (maybe without wanting to, actually), read this:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html
That's a pretty long read, though. Maybe just watch "How to not be a Dick", by Matthew Garreth at Lugradio live 2008:
http://blip.tv/flamekebab/lrluk-2008-the-gong-a-thong-lightbulb-talk-extravaganza-matthew-garrett-1109597
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Whether the "piracy" issue is irrelevant or not, just sitting by and letting your rights be taken away while you are distracted by a larger issue is NOT going to help us in the future. It's precisely at times like this that you need to be vigilant of things that are going on and not just the big issues.
While you were distracted, what is to stop a far-right corporate drone from passing some legislation that further restricts your rights as a citizen and gives more rights to corporations?
You might as well pretend to be an ostrich and bury your head in the sand...
Ok, two things:
One: When will be a good time? There's ALWAYS something "more important". If the euro crisis is resolved, then the issue will be immigration, if that's resolved it will be something else, etc. So IMO they should go ahead.
Two: From TFA, the Pirate Party has about 7% of the vote, which is hardly "grandstanding" the issue. Whether the issue is significant or not is another debate. I think it is. Perhaps not as urgent as the euro crisis, but important none the less.
The fact that she's young perhaps indicates that she shouldn't take charge, but if everything is done by the old people then once they retire / die / whatever, there'll be a big leadership gap, so it's essential that the younger generation is involved to maintain any sort of stability and continuity in the resolution of these issues.
My 2c.
I think it is much more important, that if she starts with 24 and is good and clever enough could be someone - if she grows up - who has a great impact on the european politic, just like the other young politicians, MEPs, MPs, PP members and so on - which I would really welcome
Though the name implies it, a large part of the pirate parties program is citizen rights, including non-censorship and anti-surveillance. What they think of other topics is mostly irreleveant - in germany the stance on surveillance of the politicians of the big parties already changed siginficantly when they noticed that there is indeed a large percentage of people who care about it. The fact that they just behave that way because they are afraid to lose votes isn't really relevant.
Wow , 40+, thats so old! If you're a teenager. For most people the 30s and 40s are when you finally mature into someone who can make sensible decisions and less bound over by knee jerk group think.
With an attitude like that, no wonder. Especially as you yourself are advocating this "group think" you are talking about.
It is fairly accepted that diversity in a group tends to increase the quality of decision making. I do not see the reason in keeping intelligent people away from parliament just because they are not old or "mature" enough.
Fine, using that logic lets vote pre-schoolers into parliament.
That argument is akin to saying "Fine, using that logic lets only drink water and not eat anything" to somebody who said water is good for you. I hope you can see that argument is fallacious, and well, quite silly.
And I'm sorry, while I may agree with some of what the pirate party stand for , the access or not of content on the internet is irrelevant compared to the ecomonic crisis affecting most of europe. This isn't the time or the place for grandstanding an insignificant issue such as this and while she may be very bright there is no way a 24 year old has enough life experience to deal with the issues that need resolving before europe collapses into an economic black hole.
Very few politicians acquire their positions based on their intelligence and ability to understand complex issues such as economic problems. The problem is that most voters cannot distinguish between an honest expert on economic issues and a politician who is a hand puppet for special interests that has learned how to recite a handful of easily digestable talking points on camera. And life experience does not do anything for you when it comes to understanding economics. It requires intelligence and education. I am not saying that she is well equipped to handle this issue, just that she may be no worse equipped in comparison to the most senior member of the most popular party.
I can only see one line of the above response and cannot open it to reply due to Slashdots ongoing UI bugs.
However- I would like to point out that saying:
"there is no intellectual property" IS an extreme position. That IS the extreme.
You may believe that to be true and that may be your stance-- but that is an extreme position- doesn't mean it is wrong- but it is extreme. You can't go any more unregulated than that in terms of IP.
Personally- I think taking a non-extreme approach is best to foster creativity and consumer happiness. Yes, people should be rewarded for their creativity and have it somewhat protected.
I shouldn't be allowed to profit off someone elses hardwork. However- I do recognise that the current laws need relaxing considerably.
As for intellectual property being an "artificial" law.
Yes, exactly- just as all laws and rules are. Just as child abuse is "artificially" illegal- or laws of consent, doesn't mean it should be made legal. Most people would argue they shouldn't- and I agree.
Physical property is equally "artificial" too. Caveman one crafts an arrowhead. Caveman two comes along- clubs caveman one on the head and steals arrowhead.
Without government artificially coming along and saying theft is wrong- it isn't. Our entire legal system is "artificial". Most people would not want to live in anarchy though. I want it to be wrong to club someone over the head to steal their property- I wouldn't want to live in a world where theft of physical property were legal.
I also wouldn't want to live in a world where anyone could profit from my intellectual hardwork and I not get paid anything.
There needs to be a balance. Currently it is too far in favour of the creator than the consumer- but we shouldn't abolish IP outright.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch