The Swiss Pirate Party Has Its First Mayor

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The Swiss Pirate Party Has Its First Mayor

Posted by timothy on Sunday September 23, 2012 @04:43AM from the mayor-mc-swiss-cheese dept.

bs0d3 writes "Alex Arnold from the Pirate Party Switzerland has been elected mayor of Eichberg. This is the first mayoral win for the pirates in Switzerland, and hopefully just the begining of things to come. Thomas Bruderer, president of the Pirate Party Switzerland, is delighted: 'This result is for our young party is an important milestone. To win a majority vote shows that our members are not just a marginal phenomenon; but are in the midst of society.'"

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Things to come... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-23 04:50 · Score: 2

"This is the first mayoral win for the pirates in Switzerland, and hopefully just the begining of things to come."
Could Slashdot at least *pretend* to be non-bias when reporting this kind of stuff?
1. Re:Things to come... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-23 04:53 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I fail to see how someone promoting a new player in politics is a bad thing...
2. Re:Things to come... by Mashiki · 2012-09-23 06:03 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  It's not. Well it is to people who hate ordered society, or dislike people being involved. A lot of people simply hate politics because they don't understand how it works, personally I blame that on the fact that they don't actually teach people about it. Rather, they simply "tell people" what they think they should know.
  
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  Om, nomnomnom...
3. Re:Things to come... by aurispector · 2012-09-23 13:20 · Score: 2
  
  Feel free to start your own country where there is no taxation. And good luck with that.
  Here in the real world, we recognize that there are essential services that must be paid for, that people are not always rational and ethical and that we must agree on a system to deal with these sad facts.
  The pirate party getting a mayor elected might be interesting, but it's not like they can simply impose their entire agenda.
  Additionally, if you admit that intellectual property issues are real owing to the fact that real people must do real work producing them, the entire "pirate" thing falls apart. Sure, it's good to have an opposing viewpoint to the draconian IP laws being pushed by big media, but don't expect IP ownership issues to go away. If they did, nobody could ever make a living creating, well, anything.
  
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  I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
4. Re:Things to come... by Zeroko · 2012-09-23 14:26 · Score: 2
  
  On the one hand, churches do not force their members to tithe at gunpoint (at least, none in America of which I know). On the other hand, many seem to be doing just fine with their funding being completely from voluntary sources, even when some people make use of their resources without paying tithes. Makes you wonder whether the IRS is needed at all.
Arrr! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-09-23 04:53 · Score: 4, Funny

For some reason, the mayor insists on the town hall employees calling him "cap'n".

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Ezekiel 23:20
1. Re:Arrr! by slartibartfastatp · 2012-09-23 06:57 · Score: 2
  
  How pirates ended up in a country with no sea? How did they commute?
  
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2. Re:Arrr! by Kjella · 2012-09-23 07:55 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  How pirates ended up in a country with no sea? How did they commute?
  They airlift them in with a swarm of talking parrots, you can often see the foreman sitting on the captain's shoulder negotiating for more crackers or threatening to blabber about the treasure. The colors are actually for navigation, red parrots on the left, green parrots on the right and white parrots on the tail. One crazy captain called the Flying Dutchman even airlifted his whole ship this way, but he got lost in the Swiss alps somewhere and the parrots froze to death in the winter. Who knows, maybe the descendants of the crew still live up there continuing their pirating ways...
  
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  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
FPV FTW :) by tibit · 2012-09-23 04:56 · Score: 3, Interesting

Switzerland: the country where doing this is legal, now gets a pirate party major. When kids go to college, I'm moving there ;)

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A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
1. Re:FPV FTW :) by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-09-23 05:58 · Score: 2
  
  That would be "idiotic countries", right? People do this here in Europe all the time. Why not? It's quite a logical extension of the idea of flying an RC model in the first place (i.e., better orientation and experience when flying it).
  
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  Ezekiel 23:20
2. Re:FPV FTW :) by JaredOfEuropa · 2012-09-23 07:07 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  It is not allowed in quite a few non-idiotic countries as well. Not because of fears of spies or terrorists, but for safety reasons. Here in the Netherlands, you can mount all the cameras you want to your RC plane, but you have to maintain line-of-sight when flying it. Mostly because in msot places here you can't fly 1km without ending up over residential areas or in controlled airspace.
  
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  If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Re:HOSTS file could have prevented this by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-23 05:02 · Score: 2, Insightful

What I'm about to say I say as a concerned human being:
Seek help.
Time for a navy by Teun · 2012-09-23 05:11 · Score: 4, Funny

Poor Swiss, now they have pirates but no navy...

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"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
1. Re:Time for a navy by TheP4st · 2012-09-23 05:26 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  They actually do have a navy which patrols 4-5 of their lakes.
  
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  "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
Re:remind me never to buy any music from the swiss by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-23 05:20 · Score: 2, Interesting

> remind me never to buy any music from the swiss... or respect any other intellectual property from Switzerland.
All of a sudden, all Swiss products became a lot more interesting to me.
Re:remind me never to buy any music from the swiss by Fast+Thick+Pants · 2012-09-23 05:43 · Score: 2

Is that you, Steve?
A bit premature. by DerekLyons · 2012-09-23 05:45 · Score: 4, Interesting

"To win a majority vote shows that our members are not just a marginal phenomenon; but are in the midst of society.'"
Without knowing the politics of the town, that's a bit of a premature boast. Dark horse and odd ball candidates routinely win against major candidates in local elections when the major candidates have pissed off the electorate or run a seriously lackluster campaigns. The real test of entering the mainstream is either the candidate or party getting re-elected or gaining additional offices or municipalities.
After all, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Another key question, what is the demographics of the town? If they skew young and lower income (not poor, but cube monkeys) or have a major geek influence (like say, Silicon Valley), that's another potential indicator that the boast is hollow and premature.
Re:Oh Great by cpghost · 2012-09-23 06:56 · Score: 2

Well, I could imagine that he'll support efforts to establish unrestricted municipal WLAN access points. But seriously, how about typical "piratic" topics like pushing for transparency in governance at the municipal level?

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cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Re:Oh Great by Opportunist · 2012-09-23 07:03 · Score: 2

Well, let's wait and watch? Considering how most other politicians seem to be primarily concerned with lining their own pockets at the expense of the country, a politician that gets actually nothing accomplished would be an improvement...

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We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Wait for it! Wait for it! by Greyfox · 2012-09-23 07:19 · Score: 2

Running a town? That sounds... Harrrrrrd!
Hee hee hee... Oh damn... I kill me...

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I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Re:Oh Great by fm6 · 2012-09-23 07:55 · Score: 2

So, if the city stops repairing potholes, that's actually an improvement?
The lame thing about libertarians and other government haters is that they take for granted all the things government actually does that needs doing. The city infrastructure seems to be OK, so what's the big deal about actually maintaining it?
Sure, government is corrupt. Most big institutions are corrupt. Not sure of a good way to fix it, but electing a single-issue bozo who no actual interest in running his city is not high on my list.