Community | March 07, 2011 | 45 comments

Massachusetts voters can now register as ‘Pirates’

source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/07/massachusetts-voters-can-now-register-as-pirates/

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WakeUpPeople
The Massachusetts Election Division has approved the Massachusetts Pirate Party as a political designation, allowing voters in the state to register as a "Pirate."

The party strives to increase government transparency, promote personal privacy, reinforce the spread of knowledge through copyright reform, and abolish patents.

"We live in a country founded on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the Massachusetts Pirate Party said in a statement. "For many people, those ideals are not real. The Supreme Court and Congress have expanded the power of corporations and made them more powerful than people. Increasingly government officials ignore open meeting laws, make deals favorable to corporations behind closed doors and sell off our public information to private interests."

James O'Keefe, the party's organizer, told Raw Story that the party is now in the process of training activists and building local chapters. (Not to be confused with conservative activist James O'Keefe, otherwise known as the "ACORN pimp.")

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  1. groups:
    Community,   Politics,   Progressive America,   Progressives United,   8 more
  2. tags:
    Corporations,  Pirates,  Patents,  Copyright Laws,  1 more
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45 comments // Massachusetts voters can now register as ‘Pirates’

  • floydyboy
    • 0
      floydyboy  
    • Image

    • Speaking of liberty, truth & happiness. blog.norml.org/2011/03/04/is-new-england-the-new-hotbed-for-marijuana-law-reform/

    • 1 year ago
  • samthesixth
  • Fishinflick
    • +1
      Fishinflick  

    • After fighting for years to get intellectual property rights to our own art and to be fairly compensated for the use of it, I am unclear as an artist what part of copyright deregulation would be of benefit to me. Whenever we license images to corporations we fight tooth and nail to get specific usages locked down, time period usage limits and proper treatment of the images as art with a copyright notice. As it is the licensee still holds all the cards at the bargaining table – the budget, the payment terms and royalty structures are all pretty much dictated by the corporations, take it or leave it.

      I like everything else I read on their website but this is a huge gray area for me that affects my livelihood as it would anyone in creative or innovative industries. It’s a peculiar add-on to an otherwise noble platform.

    • 1 year ago
  • Jeremy_Benson
    • +2
      Jeremy_Benson  
    • Fishinflick:

      I agree. While there are certain ways the copyright and patent system could be improved, I would be very wary of any attempt to change it. It could be either very good or very bad depending on how it was executed and it's certainly something that should be elaborated on in depth. I don't know how I feel about completely abolishing the patent system...

    • 1 year ago
  • Fishinflick
    • +1
      Fishinflick  
    • Jeremy_Benson:

      I just spoke to my art rep who handles my licensing deals and knows the legal stuff. He looked the site over and said forget it - it's a license for corporations to steal, it's not about "sharing" when they leave out compensation. I'm with you, I don't think creative types and innovators are the problem, if anything we have minimal protection as it is.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • lazloman
    • +1
      lazloman  

    • I wonder where this comes from. Is this a legitimate movement, or an attempt to redirect some potential opposing votes from a particular party? Could be either one if that's the case, but more of a Republican tactic, since they benefit most from a depressed turnout.

    • 1 year ago
  • BenjaminDover
    • +1
      BenjaminDover  
    • Image

    • Their proposal of abolishing patents and copyrights plays to the very corpirate interests they purport to be opposing. Without patent protections small upstart companies would be blown out of the water by the corps. I smell koch.

    • 1 year ago
  • WakeUpPeople
    • +2
      WakeUpPeople  
    • BenjaminDover:

      It would work both ways I think. The big corporations might be able to employ the patent quicker with their resources, but in the end, they both would be able to use the technology/idea to compete in the marketplace. That would also drive costs down for the consumer AND limit the possible profit margin from some of the larger corporations. Just thinking out loud... what do you think?

    • 1 year ago
  • BenjaminDover
    • 0
      BenjaminDover  
    • WakeUpPeople:

      Patents are to protect the individual against corps.
      Imagine you invent a 4-D TV. You spend years in your garage building this on your own dime, you bring it to an electronic show and it's a big hit. Next thing GE says "hey we could build these in China prettier and cheaper than WakeUp TV" and they flood the market before you sell a handful. With a patent you take them to court and make them cease and desist, without patents they piss on you and laugh all the way to the bank.
      As far as consumer pricing I wouldn't mind paying an extra $50 for a TV if I know the workers who built it and sell it are being paid fairly.

    • 1 year ago
  • WakeUpPeople
    • 0
      WakeUpPeople  
    • BenjaminDover:

      I found this on wikipedia. It is a little more specific than the article.

      "The Pirate Party's platform centers around issues of intellectual property. "Like its international counterparts, the USPP’s main practical concerns are digital intellectual property and privacy laws—specifically, the abolition of a 1998 digital U.S. copyright law, the reduction of copyrights to 14 years (from 95 years after publication, or 70 years after the author’s death), and the expiration of patents that don’t result in significant progress within four years (as opposed to 20 years)."

      So I guess it isn't entirely a free-for-all, but more of a reform approach.

    • 1 year ago
  • ReMarker
    • +3
      ReMarker  

    • Regardless of the Pirate Party's dedication to progressive ideals, having a spokesman named James O'Keefe is a dumb PR move.

    • 1 year ago
  • WakeUpPeople
  • mitekillem
  • samthesixth
  • extracrazykiwi2008
  • floydyboy
    • +3
      floydyboy  

    • "The Supreme Court and Congress have expanded the power of corporations for over a hundred years and made them more powerful than people. Whether it is the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that allows corporations to buy elections, or Congress’ cuts in corporate tax rates while raising payroll taxes, real people end up with the short end of the stick.  The Pirate Party will make sure our laws put people before corporations." That's awesome!

    • 1 year ago
  • MDBard
  • artemis6
  • Emucratic
  • extracrazykiwi2008
  • remanns
  • Weasel_Boy64
    • +5
      Weasel_Boy64  

    • "...reinforce the spread of knowledge through copyright reform, and abolish patents."

      This looks to be taking Article 1, Sec. 8, Paragraph 8 of the Constitution and just doing away with it. At least they aren't outright declaring to be the party upholding the entire Constititution, ... only those parts they wish to see which would benefit them more.

      In other words, no trade secrets, no holds barred on taking whatever one wants from whoever or where ever, and doing whatever they wish with such easily obtainable information.

      Sounds a great deal like China wanting more open access to everything created and designed in America so it can be replicated in some cheap "knock-off" plant for sell to Americans with one hell of a mark up stamped on it.

      Shit ... we have already shipped most of the production jobs out of country, why not do the same with our creative ideas and designs as well?

    • 1 year ago
  • iowawashington
    • +2
      iowawashington  
    • Weasel_Boy64:

      Yeah, t sounded like a good idea until the abolish patents part. That's throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is probably a fair statement to say that current enforcement of patent laws strongly favors corporations. But fixing unequal enforcement sounds a lot more reasonable than destroying patent protection altogether.

    • 1 year ago
  • Milieu
    • +7
      Milieu  

    • Add this to the video of Scott Brown sucking up to Koch and.............well, first thing that jumps in my mind is "Astroturfed, Again?"

    • 1 year ago
  • Nephwrack
  • figgdimension
  • Leen61
  • ReMarker
  • rustyred
  • aaron1972
  • Milieu
    • +5
      Milieu  

    • I want to know who's behind this. Been to their site and can't find list of who's who.

      Sorry, after Citizens United, I'm Very paranoid.

    • 1 year ago
  • ze
  • ReMarker
  • andreii
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • WakeUpPeople
  • UtopianSky
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • Nephwrack
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • UtopianSky
  • remanns
  • remanns
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
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