Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 8th Jun 2009 16:50 UTC
The pro-internet file sharing Pirate Party yesterday scored a big win by securing a seat in the European parliament. It pulled in 7.1 per cent of votes in Sweden, which handed the party one of the country's 18 seats in the European parliament. "Privacy issues and civil liberties are important to people and they demonstrated that clearly when they voted today," Pirate Party candidate Anna Troberg told Swedish TV on Sunday.
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Member since:
2006-01-24
ssa2204 wrote:
-"So you won't ever whine and cry like a baby if your car is stolen, or your house is broken into? "
As other have pointed out you are (deliberately?) confusing copyright with theft. We are talking 'illegal copies' not stolen property, there's quite a big difference. Also, while the 'pirate party' makes it sound like it's all about illegal copying this issue is alot bigger here in Sweden. Alot of people (particularly the younger enlightened internet generation) here in sweden are pretty upset that laws like ipred are passed which allows any company to demand the name behind any ip-address without any proof whatsoever and then start sending demands to this person with threats to go to court.
Just the idea that the government passes laws directly tailored to commercial interests is plain scary, and the fact that they are given rights that not even the police has (they have to go to court in order to get the name behind an ip address) just shows how far our politicians are bending to the will of private interests. Add to that the fact that if you are falsely accused you will have to pay any court defence yourself since this will be a civil case, which means that very few will have the means to even defend themselves and thus will have to settle for whatever deals are given them. Alot of ISP's here in sweden are now refusing to log traffic in order to protect their customers and the goverment has started to talk about changing the law so that they have to (again bending to the will of the copyright lobbyists). So personally I applaud the results of this election since it shows that this is a big issue (again particularly with the younger generation) and that it will likely be a hot issue in the next election. I do not want to live in a society where everything I do online is monitored, and no I'm no terrorist nor am I a pedophile (the usual attacks against people wanting privacy online).