Swedish Pirates Found Political Party

[Ventura_DK]

Swedish software pirates have formed a party and are preparing for September's elections for parliament. The Pirate Party's goal is to abolish copyrights, patents and trademarks and the founders seem to have gathered the necessary 1500 signatures needed to be registered as an official party.

Check out the details here (http://pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=10237).

Thanks to Boom Town (http://www.boomtown.net)

[Nameback]

Wow, thats some serious shit right there. Go Sweeden!

[XenonCJ]

You would think they would add "swashbuckling" or "rum drinking" to thier platform somewhere...

[Morrolan]

Wow... Copyright law is completely out of control, and needs to be overhauled in a huge way, but to abolish it altogether? No. Not only is that stupid, just in general, but it's also impossible for one country to just abolish it, and still expect to do any sort of trade with countries that have not made this switch. They won't get elected of course, they're a joke party, but their entire platform is stupid. Not to mention that there are far more important things to make your party's main issue.

[Kefkataran]

Fuck it. I'm voting for them.

[thecrazyd]

I'm moving to Sweden, just to vote for them.

[aversion2k]

I doubt it will go anywhere

[Acidpoptart]

Wow. Just wow. I really hope no one votes for them and everyone just laughs. Its just too unrealistic.

[kokyunage]

I personally love the legal threats that Pirate Bay has received (http://thepiratebay.org/legal.php). So entertaining.

[Heretic Machine]

1. I'm not against Copyright/Trademark/Patent law.
2. I think it needs a complete reboot.

[Kefkataran]

I'm moving to Sweden, just to vote for them.

You and me, both, man. Hardcore 4 lyf

[Voodoo]

I wonder if any of the advertisements, logos and website they make will be copyrighted material? ;)

[Savok]

This is what I love about Europe, it's an endless source of humor because I don't live there.

[Zarei]

I'm one of the pople involved in this movement.
1. The electronic signatures collected were deemed invalid. This means we will have to go out and collect signatures on paper. Hopefully this won't take too long.
2. There's an ongoing discussion wether we will want to abolish all forms of immaterial rights or just lessen their effect and making sure that infringing on immaterial rights will not be a criminal act if for non-profit use.
3. Meh too tired for a third thing, just ask if there's anything you want to know.

[Kyle Jones]

Minus the fact that it would completely destroy industry and could bring about a huge radical change for better or worse, it sounds like some interesting change.

Good luck pirates!

[Hieremias]

It's a joke party. Every democratic country has lots of them. Canada has the marijuana party, the communist party, the natural law party, the NDP. Get a bunch of social misfits united in a cause, no matter how trivial, and you can form a political party.

I don't know anything about Sweden's electoral system, but I suspect all the various fringe parties don't receive any political funding or official party recognition without holding a certain minimum number of seats in parliament. Holding even one seat would be an unattainable dream for these guys.

[thecrazyd]

I'm one of the pople involved in this movement.
1. The electronic signatures collected were deemed invalid. This means we will have to go out and collect signatures on paper. Hopefully this won't take too long.
2. There's an ongoing discussion wether we will want to abolish all forms of immaterial rights or just lessen their effect and making sure that infringing on immaterial rights will not be a criminal act if for non-profit use.
3. Meh too tired for a third thing, just ask if there's anything you want to know.
Hey, is your party logo a skull and crossbone? Oooh! You could use floppy disks for the eyes. I would fucking vote the crap out of that.

[gsmith]

I think we would benefit more from a Free Software party. Free as in, the developers made it free for everyone to use, not as in companies go out of business because they can't pay their software engineers any more ;)

[Dabombpizza]

So...why does copyright law need to be overhauled? Sorry, I don't understand any of it. But abolishing is just opening the door to boot legs.

[Kefkataran]

This is what I love about Europe, it's an endless source of humor because I don't live there.

Goddamit, Savok, get back in your hole! :P

Every democratic country has lots of them. Canada has the marijuana party, the communist party, the natural law party, the NDP.

Perhaps a better example that the Americans on EvAv would easier understand is the Republican party? (OH SNAP.)

I would fucking vote the crap out of that.

That's how I'm going to respond to anything I like from now.

[GrinR]

Free is often the price of the value of the item.

[Cyotik]

Hey, that's uncalled for Hieremias. All of Canada's political parties make a valuable contribution to the system, including the NDP.

BAHAHAHA. Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[Balthasar]

Wow, thats some serious shit right there. Go Sweeden!
Go Sweeden? Clearly you don't have enough creative talent to believe it is of enough value that you should, at some point, be compensated when others enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Kids these days.

[Balthasar]

I think we would benefit more from a Free Software party. Free as in, the developers made it free for everyone to use, not as in companies go out of business because they can't pay their software engineers any more ;)

Impossible. One cannot make money without taking in money. Nothing is free, sir.

[Ludoc]

It's a joke party. Every democratic country has lots of them. Canada has the marijuana party, the communist party, the natural law party, the NDP.

Zing! It's funny watching Jack get miffed every time someone suggests it's a two horse race. Although, to be fair they seem to be doing a better job this time than last election.

Seriously though, if you are going to throw away your vote, which I may, why not vote Green? I think Jack's head would explode if the NDP slipped behind another party. If that isn't a compelling reason to support a party, especially this election, I don't know what is.

[Cyotik]

I dunno, its going to be a tough call throwing my vote away this year... To be fair I can't really go wrong with any party.

[Thenetcase]

1. I'm not against Copyright/Trademark/Patent law.
2. I think it needs a complete reboot.

Well said.

Most people who hate the copyright acts would scream bloody murder if they made something over the course of 3 or 4 years only to have some jackass distribute it in mass over the Internet with in 2 hours of being released. :)

But they need to revamp copyright laws for the Internet Age.

-TNC-

[Savok]

Goddamit, Savok, get back in your hole! :P
Damn young people! *waves cane about*

Also Sweden gave us ABBA.

Just saying.

[superherotaco]

Short version:
Products can easily cost more than a million dollars to simply develop, to take away their protection means they make money, means companies stop making good games and apps. This party’s idea is retarded.

Long version:
I don't know how people can support this, especially on here. It's a way of entirely destroying the medium we care so much. What's you're argument, "We don't want to spend money on it, we want it free!"

The reason these laws exist is to support the people that create new products, so future products will actually be made. The reason products are protected by copyrights is because a lot of people spend a lot of time and resources to create a product, simply to cover the overhead of these things they need a lot of money.

Imagine a programming team of 10 taking a year to make a solid game, and then the voice actors for about 10 days at union prices. Lets be generous and say only 200 days are paid for the programmers. Lets say they're only paid even minimum wage of 8 bucks an hour. 10 Programmers * 200 Days * 8 hours a day = 128,000 dollars in just wages. 5 voice actors * 10 Days * 8 Hours * 40 bucks an hour = 16,000 Dollars, then the equipment, office fees, testers, and advertisement is also added in. Studio recording time, and distribution on top of that. There's also the managers, the sales people, the PR people to pay. Even at this incredibly bear estimate of prices you're looking at easily 500,000 - 1,000,000 in designing a decent game or product. Then the retainer for the program patchers, the tech guy to keep the systems working, exc.

This is before any money is even made by the studio to have 1 dollar of capital to create a new program, game, OS.

So yea, if we got rid of copyrights then lets get comfortable with the programs and games we have now, because we're not going to see anything good hitting the industry for quite a while. I hate to say it, but anyone who truly supports this kind of thing really needs to get a grasp on reality. In other words, this is a very stupid idea.

[Banacek]

Copyright laws are good. That being said, someone has to stop the insanely rich (i.e. Disney) from taking the law and raping it to make them a fortune...

[Kefkataran]

Also Sweden gave us ABBA.

Just saying.

Shit. You got us there. And we would've gotten away with it if it weren't for that meddling old man.

(At least now you know why they don't care about having copyrights there, eh? ;))

[jeffool]

Any time something needs to be changed, you need someone to champion the cause. If these guys are willing to be the extreme, good. Then maybe the middle will swing slightly to their side, or at least realize that there needs to be some changes.

I think copyrights/etc. serve a purpose in a capitalist economy, but I see no reason for them to last forever. You'd think that as the ability to spread your content/product and make money from it became an instant endeavor, that rights would have weakened instead of their increase to a draconian degree.

Though, I have a question Zarei. How much attention is it getting in Sweden? And how do you plan to go about getting more?

[gojira]

It's a joke party. Every democratic country has lots of them. Canada has the marijuana party, the communist party, the natural law party, the NDP.

Here in the states we have Republicans and Democrats. Want funny? Just go to cnn.com.

[Drinking_Buddy]

Well I support copyright laws.

But I am compailed to support any type of political pirate party.

[GWhite]

Here on the interweb copyright and patent law is a big deal, but that is becuase we are a self selecting demographic. The vast majority of people just don't give two shits, until that changes you probably wont see all of that much movement on this issue. In fact it is goinng to get much worse before it gets better. It is much easier it tighten regulation than to relax them. The best IP rights folks can hope for is to maintain the status quo.

I really don't think I am being all that cynical.

[Kefkataran]

Here in the states we have Republicans and Democrats. Want funny? Just go to cnn.com.

Hahaha! That place is hil-lar-ious! I check it every day at work and always get funny looks because I'm laughing so hard.

[Cyotik]

In all honesty Canadian news is pretty much just five minutes of local news, five more on how the government is either robbing us, selling us out, lying to us or just plain trying to drive a train through our colon followed by a 20 minute recap of what CNN's reported today. Probably the main reason most Canadians just watch CNN anyway. All the hilarity of bad things happening to other people combined with blissful ignorance of our own ridiculous political situation.

[holycrapper]

In all honesty Canadian news is pretty much just five minutes of local news, five more on how the government is either robbing us, selling us out, lying to us or just plain trying to drive a train through our colon followed by a 20 minute recap of what CNN's reported today. Probably the main reason most Canadians just watch CNN anyway. All the hilarity of bad things happening to other people combined with blissful ignorance of our own ridiculous political situation.

Very well said, but i think it can be said for any country, right now, due to circumstances beyond my control, the only TV station we get is Fox news. I never thought i would say it, but republicans are by and large in-fucking-sane! Just my 2 cents...Man I wish i still had confidence that the democrats were the only idiots in power...

[Savok]

In all honesty Canadian news is pretty much just five minutes of local news, five more on how the government is either robbing us, selling us out, lying to us or just plain trying to drive a train through our colon followed by a 20 minute recap of what CNN's reported today. Probably the main reason most Canadians just watch CNN anyway. All the hilarity of bad things happening to other people combined with blissful ignorance of our own ridiculous political situation.
Been to Australia I see :p

And yeah, some of the more right wing Republicans should probably be locked up in padded cells, instead they have positions of power.

[Kefkataran]

And yeah, some of the more right wing Republicans should probably be locked up in padded cells, instead they have positions of power.

Savok, you moderate fiend, you! I never thought I'd hear you say something like that. Kudos!

[Dirty Harry]

Zing! It's funny watching Jack get miffed every time someone suggests it's a two horse race. Although, to be fair they seem to be doing a better job this time than last election.

Seriously though, if you are going to throw away your vote, which I may, why not vote Green? I think Jack's head would explode if the NDP slipped behind another party. If that isn't a compelling reason to support a party, especially this election, I don't know what is.
Thats a very good point, im going to vote now.

[bjornbarspingvinen]

I happen to live in sweden, and our political system is flawed in one way, it easy to use for cheap cheating bastards who don´t want to work, or be lazy in any way. 1/3 or our population supports the other 2/3s . Our socialist government thinks it´s better to be perceived as a caring,loving country than actually rewarding those who actually work. It doesn´t suprise me that these slackers try to abolish copywrites, since they have been ripping and downloading warez since school and they never had a job anyhow.

..it´s quite interesting to see that some people actually thinks it´s okay to just copy work that took me and others around 2 years or more to complete. Oh and make no misstake, the concept of try and buy don´t exist here, it´s try , complete, then "uh, it´s expensive, I rather use that money on new DVD-Rs and a new burner"

[Savok]

Savok, you moderate fiend, you! I never thought I'd hear you say something like that. Kudos!
I've always been moderate :p

Hell I'm about as right wing as Australians get, except good ole Phil (http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Couples-compelled-to-seek-counselling/2006/01/09/1136655105004.html) you god damn waste of flesh, that's right asshole, take another shit on people trying to get on with their lives. I've said it before, far right and far left are the same nanny state demon who want to dictate our lives, I say fuck them.

Why I constantly bitch about the left is, well, they're a lot dumber. The right just has total loonies (http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/13559082.htm).

[Savok]

I happen to live in sweden, and our political system is flawed in one way, it easy to use for cheap cheating bastards who don´t want to work, or be lazy in any way. 1/3 or our population supports the other 2/3s . Our socialist government thinks it´s better to be perceived as a caring,loving country than actually rewarding those who actually work.
We call that a welfare state, damn near destroyed Australia when it happened here, the day the single mother's pension came in... it was like a license to breed idiots, we're still suffering from it as our TV networks will show you with some of the worst written, worst acted, worst ideas and worst people on Earth.

[bapenguin]

The problem with Copyright laws in the US is that copyrights are being handed out like bubblegum. Then people turn around and sue for the most menial of things. There need to be a distinct line drawn on what is open and clear thinking and what is stealing someone's product or idea. The whole "1 click ordering" thing from Amazon comes to mind. That was a natural progression of the software, yet someone managed to copyright it and sue the hell out of Amazon for it.

[bjornbarspingvinen]

I hear you bapenguin, that kind of use of copyright laws are unwanted. But the fools here in sweden who started this initiative, are cheap leaches who want to legalize their free rides. Here in sweden they had a vote if music and movies should be free to download (in a huge swedish online magazine), 68 % voted yes. It´s just the way the mentality is over here. Numerous people I know haven´t bought a movie, cd or a game in years. Although almost all of them have the latest movies, games and cds. I don´t expect anyone to buy everything, but right now it feels like nobody buys anything. It´s not "have you bought their new cd?" anymore, it´s "have you downloaded their new CD?". And "why did you buy it?I can get it for free" ...

It´s also hilarious that a guy who writes columns for Metro SWE, started a debate over "overpriced" games, movies etc. The funny thing he´s convicted for duplicating and selling copied Playstation games. AND he got invited to sit on TV and telling the audience how the suing companies forced him to pay fines, which he in turn said almost forced him into "real" crime. To pay off debt. BOOO-HHoooo. He thought it should be legal to copy games so young people wouldn´t be convicted and the forced into "REAL" crimes. WTF!

[Kefkataran]

I've said it before, far right and far left are the same nanny state demon who want to dictate our lives, I say fuck them.

See? You and I can agree on political stuff!