wired.com — Last Jan. 1, almost on a whim, 35-year-old IT manager Rickard Falkvinge got into politics. Concerned about the reach of copyright and patent law, Falkvinge erected a web page with a sign-up form for a radical new pro-piracy party to compete in Sweden's parliamentary system.
Aug 17, 2006 View in Crawl 4
alchemeronAug 18, 2006
But progress has to be accommodated anyway, says Kaarto. "You have to change the map, not the world."Excellent article.
kozkosAug 18, 2006
Digital Piracy is the consumer's equivalent to outsourcing:If companies are allowed to make more money by moving your job to a guy (earning $5 a day) at the other side of the globe, then (in my opnion) you are allowed to cut your cost by downloading/copying any movie/song.BTW I haven't heard of any shortage of future artists. For the moment it's still considered profitable to become a star.
liquidlithiumAug 18, 2006
@kozkosI never looked at it that way. Sounds like another defense to me :D
williamdyerAug 18, 2006
The Pirate Party is named that for a reason. To throw that word back in the faces of the industry lobbyists.
spyrochaeteAug 18, 2006
"Both games had serious piracy issues while in development and before release but both were a major hit once again."Same with Star Wars Episode 3. Pirated before release, huge profits in the box office. Unlike Half Life and Halo, Star Wars was utter garbage.
fzarektahAug 18, 2006
I read through most of the comments, I myself am pro pirate (arrrrg!) - and some of the points you guys make are amazing! Why isn't there something like this in the USA? I'll GLADLY be a paid member of that political party - and look at digg - and other sites similar - if someone could organize this - it would be easy to reach the demographic you want. I'm all for it sign me up!
slantpassAug 18, 2006
Yeah, unfortuntaely in the history of this debate there are a lot of "halfway" arguments that turn out to be contradictory, and the RIAA, MPAA, etc love this. I think statements like "I like downloading, but I understand artists need to be protected", and "Piracy isn't really illegal" and "The industry isn't really getting hurt" are well meant, but just confuse the issue.To be consistent and to clearly see the benefits to society, you have to face some "radical" facts, facts that people in Sweden seem to be getting enlightened about. I'm hoping that the US will eventually realize these too: (1) Copyrights do not protect Art, they protect the ability of Distribution corporations and a few artists to make obscene riches instead of small riches. True artists will make art no matter what, and there will always be a way to make a decent living-- just not the unfathomable wealth current laws allow them now. And on the programming side-- good, complex software that humans need will still get written whether Microsoft can make a billion or not, and it'll be more robust and cheaper.(2) Let's just admit it, pirating is illegal-- but not because it is the moral equivalent of stealing, rather because it breaks current, outmoded, arbitrary copyright laws. Copyright laws that have protected Distribution Monopolies for a century. Everyone intuitively knows that manipulating publicly available data in the privacy of your own home has nothing to do with stealing, no matter how much Metallica tries to word it that way.(3) Make no mistake, as with all industries facing change or obsolescence, the CURRENT Industry would be severely hurt by legalized file sharing. Guess what- that's life. A lot of little, hardworking people will suffer -- just like thousands of other industries where people have lost their jobs and society has moved on. One industry should not be regarded as special and allowed to barricade technological innovations that will benefit the rest of society. The innovation here is distribution-- we can now distribute information much more efficiently and cheaply. This benefits people. In place of the old industry a new, better industry will emerge- one in which the general public decides what gets distributed, not a few moguls in their penthouses.Unfortuntaely, the fight against the Industry is huge, because it encompasses all information corporations. But I'm hopeful in the power of internet enlightenment.
cyberdactylAug 19, 2006
"Efforts to sink the word's largest BitTorrent tracker have backfired into political scandal, and spurred even more downloading."Put that in your pipe and smoke you RIAA music industry mafia knucklebusters.
coolmojitoAug 19, 2006
I love the concept of a political party that promotes file sharing. Given the immense power of the MPAA and RIAA, we need balance.