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Pirate Party UK Looks Forward To 2012
Ajehals writes "The UK Pirate Party New Years message suggests a new sense of direction for the party, with a focus on policy and politics beyond what was seen as the party's norm, single issue position of copyright reform. Hoping to learn from and emulate the German Pirate Party's success in Berlin, Partly Leader Loz Kay is looking back over 2011 and to the future." I'm a slow learner; the Pirate Party for years struck me as mostly whimsical. If you live in a country with an active Pirate Party, what do you think of its impact? (According to Wikipedia, there are now PP organizations in at least 40 countries.)
I was very impressed with the German Pirate Parties success last year, but if the UK PP wants to emulate it then it needs to be more vocal, and on a wider range of topics. If they don't they'll never get the attention of anyone who isn't already passionate about copyright abuses, or the attention of any part of the UK electorate that automatically dismiss the party because of the fact they have Pirate in thier name.
In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
You're totally right. They're still talking about freedom when they should be talking about terrorism.
You can be forgiven for your false accusation, because understanding a two sentence summary could be a lot to ask of an AC. Especially one who fancies himself a psychoanalyst of overseas strangers whilst being undecided on his own mental state.
FWIW, I'd say yes, you appear to be confused.
Per their UK manifesto:
Copyright should give artists the first chance to make money from their work, however that needs to be balanced with the rights of society as a whole.
As someone not generally affected by copyright issues, can they explain to me what benefits there are to society of reforming copyright? Tangible, measurable benefits.
Society should be about more than pop music and blockbuster films. Frankly the Pirate Party has to convince me that laws which deter people from sharing such things are actually bad. Perhaps they are actually a positive influence because they nudge people into doing something productive instead of passively consuming. Maybe someone decided to go outside and play football with their kids because they couldn't find a copy of a film to download; in that instance, society benefits.
Do I care that Cliff Richard's recordings won't reach the public domain in my lifetime? Not at all. Society will continue with or without music.
Do I care that public forests and parks are being sold-off? Absolutely, as that directly affects our society.
In France the pirate party underwent a ridiculous war between two "factions" for several years. It has been reunited since several years but has been unable so far to present candidates in any major elections.
European countries have different "details" in their election laws that make it easy or hard for small parties to be heard. For instance, in Germany, you receive public funds for your campaign when you reach 0.7% of votes. In France it is 5%.
I think the most important vote for the French PP will be the European elections : this one has a proportional part. There are already , thanks to Sweden, several pirate European MPs and this election has the same rules everywhere. I hope we focus on it.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Judging from the praise given to walled garden environments, like Apples app-store, I not so sure we can depend on technology to automatically free us from monitoring and control, by either government or big corp. However, such a fringe openion will never stand a chance in the 2 party systems of the US and UK. Even in the multiparty systems of continental Europe, the PP will struggle at elections, if it does not adopt some policy on mainstream subjects like employment and healthcare. Of course those passionate about the civic liberty agenda, will struggle to find agreement on the mainstream topics. (pardon my typos, I'm writing on an iPad. Can't wait to get back to my model M)
Run with the lemmings, and you'll get your feet wet.
Their core issues have been under constant assault with harsher laws, less privacy and deterioration of due process. There's very little ground that's been gained, the question is how much more would have been lost without them. They've been in public debates, organized demonstrations, written opinion pieces for the papers and tried to influence other parties. The main battle has been for the public opinion, saying this is not wrong. This should not be illegal. It means a lot to have public faces saying that, a million people go speeding too but nobody stands up and says speed limits should be abolished. That it's not something you do just because you can get away with it, but that sharing is right.
Lately here in Norway there's been a lot of articles saying in no unclear terms that the domestic book industry has purposely sabotaged the Norwegian eBooks. They've launched a service that's so poor, confusing and splintered that it's being called a planned failure. And of course, you won't find these books on international sites like Amazon, Apple etc. - it's their crappy "Book Cloud" or the paper edition. Did I mention that three companies own pretty much the whole domestic publishing industry and all the major bookshops? You wouldn't want to cut out the middle man when you are the middle man. What do I expect will fix it? Piracy. Lately piracy, not copyright has been the dominant source of innovation in the entertainment industry and they are dragged kicking and screaming along.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
is why so many researchers are working on 'luxury' diseases instead of the disease that decimate the third-world, even in universities that should do fundamental research.
While I agree to your general sentiment, I am not convinced about this.
Many, if not most, of the diseases that cause large amount of suffering and deaths in the thrid world, are cureable with known science. That's why we don't have them in the first world. And it is not exactly rocket science either. DDT, mosquito nets and good draining will go a long way against malaria. Good sanitation and clean water (proper toilets!) will reduce the number of deaths in a large number of infectious diseases.
AIDS is a big killer (but interestingly not the biggest), but it does get a lot of attention from first world medical research. There is a problem with how the third world is going to get the benefits of these advances, but it is not fundamentally different from how the third world gets the benefit of advances we do in other areas that could improve their lives (such as water treatment and sanitation). It is a problem being poor, you can't really afford it.
The great news is that the situation is improving big time. (Google Hans Rosling for the full story)
In a shocking turn of events, the leader of the Antartic upstart decides that the standard fare of oatmeal to be dull and uninspired, instead declaring that this year, eggs and bacon should grace the tables of their supporters. Guy Smiley agrees with this new direction whole-heartedly, and predicts a year where people will finally see a champion of change emerge for what are arguably the most important issues facing our planet.
I'm guessing you were aiming for the high moral ground but just wound up sounding like a dick.
If they would change their name to the Privacy Party then they may find they do a lot better...
The information wants to be free, I just give it somewhere to go.
... they are scaring the hell out of the "old" partys after scoring about 9% or so on the Berlin city parliament vote (which is important as Berlin is a county).
Especially the FDP, which traditionally has hold the position of "freedom rights", is below threshold now and in big trouble - and most voters either head for the green's or the pirates.
It's quite obvious that in the current situation, they will make it into the nations parliament on the next voting round; considering how hard it already is to find coalition partners in the parliament right now, that will be a very interesting situation.
I'd say it's simple: draftees should be honored, they didn't get a choice. Anybody who volunteers to go kill people deserve no respect at all in my book.
But I will still say the assholes who sent them deserve even less.
Granted I may be on the extreme side - but I grew up in a country mid-in a secret war that was fought with drafted soldiers - I know what it's like to live in a nation where 80% of the adult men I know are PTSD sufferers largely untreated (because the military taught them only faggots go to shrinks) who drink and beat their wives. Now of course, some would have been alcholohics and wife beaters anyway - but there's no discounting that the bush war (Angolan bush - nothing to do with the US presidents) made a lot more.
I also don't think it's an excuse for their actions - they are responsible for what they do with the shit they were given, but that doesn't mean I don't hate the politicians who gave them the shit.
The interesting thing is that in 1992 when an electorate made up entirely of people who had fought in that war (and their wives) was asked whether to negotiate with "enemy" they'd been chosen to kill (in a time when "negotiate" meant - let them rule the country, we'll just discuss the system of government they get to use) they overwhelmingly (69%) voted for the peaceful coexistence and majority rule by the same people they had been shooting a few years before.
To put it otherwise ... the vast majority of those drafted soldiers hated the war, didn't agree with it or what was being fought for. Even as they bought some of the propaganda, they still hated it, came back broken men whose consciences let them suffer to sleep for ever -and when they got the chance - voted to (basically) surrender.
I think you'll find the same pattern for every war- the vast majority of people who go will end up believing they never should have. A significant majority of the rest will be claiming how right their cause was - mostly to try and convince themselves that their actions wasn't as evil as they keep feeling it was... and a small minority will be convinced that they did a wonderful job. We can place the kind of value systems that allow ANY military action to ever be "a good deed" by the types of society they are associated with: honor, bravery, courage ... these are the values that sociologies ascribe to a society that is barbaric, and they are the values that proud soldier embrace because only barbarians can be proud soldiers.
Yes, I know I'll get flamed (and likely modded way down) for that... bring it on, it won't make me wrong.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *