In Sweden, 'Pirates' Make The Web A Political Cause
source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112767746
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- atomiclegion
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The standard bearer of this movement to protect Internet privacy and eliminate patents and copyrights is the Pirate Party, which was founded several years ago in Sweden, one of the most wired nations on the planet.
The party now has a seat in the European parliament. In Germany, the party has gained some city council seats. Branches exist or are being set up in dozens of other countries.
"I am in the party because I see a dangerous path that this country is following with its laws," says Jonathan Rieder, a 21-year-old party member in Stockholm. He believes that civil liberties are under attack in Sweden.
He objects to two laws in particular. One, passed last year, allows Swedish authorities to monitor phone, fax and e-mail traffic crossing the country's borders. The other, a European Union directive adopted in April, allows copyright holders to find out the Internet addresses of file sharers. The same month, a court sentenced owners of the Swedish file-sharing site Pirate Bay to a year in jail and millions of dollars in fines.
Rieder and other party members meet in the dark cellar of a medieval building in the Gamla Stan, Stockholm's old town. Their pale faces are illuminated by laptop screens as they surf the Internet during a meeting of the local chapter.
"The average citizen means less and less for the government, who listens mostly to the money that corporations are giving them," Rieder says.
The Pirate Party wants to reform copyright law, abolish all patents and protect privacy on the Internet. Combining these issues has been a very successful formula.
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atomiclegion
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Alright everyone, The Pirate Party is wants to change copyright and not make it so everything is free.
Get this: copyright use to have a time limit but now people or big companies just get their copyright renewed so it would never end. See when copyright does end it's time limit people find new ways or uses for said product or creation.
- 2 years ago
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atomiclegion
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existentialist
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atomiclegion:
I am all for a copyright time limit on movies. The problem is, is that is not what people are downloading. People aren't downloading stuff like 'Abbott and Costello" or "Steamboat Willie," you know, stuff that should be public domain, but rather brand new movies, sometimes before they hit theaters, and always before they reach video-store shelves.
- 2 years ago
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existentialist
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ThresholdBroken
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Fuck artist!
I download all shit free!
or I connect s line-in from my computer's audio output to my other computer (DAW) and record the song.
Artist will start earning money by touring or merchandise (Which I also do[ get blank shirts and get them embroidered with how I want])
- 2 years ago
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ThresholdBroken
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existentialist
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I have to agree with Hakan Josefsson, "[the Pirate Party's] motivation is not about lofty principles," but rather, "people want everything for free."
- 2 years ago
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existentialist
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atomiclegion
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existentialist:
Alright everyone, The Pirate Party is wants to change copyright and not make it so everything is free.
Get this: copyright use to have a time limit but now people or big companies just get their copyright renewed so it would never end. See when copyright does end it's time limit people find new ways or uses for said product or creation.
- 2 years ago
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atomiclegion
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tawnybabe
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I'm a fan. Let's start the American chapter!
- 2 years ago
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tawnybabe
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Darevalo
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*sniff* i wanna join the pirate party.
- 2 years ago
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Darevalo
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PressCore
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I knew those Svedes were sharp cookies ever since I bought my Saab 96. Best car I ever owned. They sure put the EU in European. Considering what they're up against, they're going to attach a new connotation to their cause.
- 2 years ago
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PressCore
