My church, to take one small example, was unable to make copies of the music from their own bought-and-paid-for hymnals, for use in outdoor services this summer, because of the ridiculous copyright laws. The system is simply broken, and at some point the idiot lawyers and their corrupt politician friends will have to be forced to deal with it.
As most are aware I am a member of the Pirate Party of Sweden (anti-IP, pro-privacy), the was formed on the first of January.
Since then has not only the swedish Pirate Party gained more members then the green party (we passed 9000 today, btw) but there has also started Pirate parties in other countries. The Pirate Party International now has ten member parties, and there is a bunch more starting up in the forum. Most of these are situated in european countries but other parts of the world are also represented.
Sure, you can look at most of these parties and say that they are small and weak, but you should account for the little time that has passed. Regardless of how Sundays elections in Sweden goes I believe we have started something big. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
For now, the Pirate Party organiser in France do not wish to go out of their anonymity, so it's a big no for me until the situation changes.
I hope it changes soon. One of the things we have had success with in Sweden is building a positive identity as pirates. We wear clothes with the print Pirat, pirate flags and similar items. And we use our own names when arguing for our politics. The simple point is that there is a million file-sharers (pirates) in Sweden alone and if we refuse to be scared, if we proclaim ourselves as pirates and proud, we become a political force. A lot of this work has been prepared by Piratbyrån that since 2003 has been propagating for the right of filesharers.
The french pirates needs to say "we are here, we are proud and we are Pirates".
We have shifted a lot of Swedish parties in the questions regarding filesharing. When it comes to surveilliance we have not been as succesfull, but we have shifted some minor parties to a more radical stance in defense of privacy. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
