Pirate Party Coming To Canada 394
Posted
by
timothy
from the but-the-vikings-hit-canada-hundreds-of-years-ago dept.
from the but-the-vikings-hit-canada-hundreds-of-years-ago dept.
An anonymous reader writes "After scoring a surprise electoral win in Sweden and getting high-profile support in Germany, The Pirate Party is coming to Canada. The party's goals are fairly simple. People should have the right to share and copy music, movies and virtually any material, as long as it is for personal use, not for profit. It opposes government and corporate monitoring of Internet activities, unless as part of a criminal investigation. It also wants to phase out patents."
Australia Too (Score:5, Informative)
Pirate Party Australia [pirateparty.org.au], join as a preliminary member today!
Re:The neoconservatives are laughing (Score:5, Informative)
To elaborate, we have at least 4 (serious) political contenders who are in (or near) the center of the political spectrum here in Canada:
- The Marijuana Party
- The New Democratic Party
- The Green Party
- The Pirate Party (the new kid on the block)
These parties compete primarily with the Liberal Party (Canada's unofficial right-wing party); and the Liberal party is the only party that can offer any serious opposition to the Conservative party (Canada's unofficial neoconservative party), who tends to remain strong unless there is consistent and persistent and extreme scandals and incompetency during their terms in office (sorta like how the Republicans remain quite strong in the US despite their scandals and in-competencies).
Re:Australia Too (Score:1, Informative)
And the UK [pirateparty.org.uk].
Official website here (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Multinational Political Party (Score:2, Informative)
As unfashionable as they may be today, there was the Ba'ath party [wikipedia.org] of Saddam Hussein fame.
Also, the various Socialist/Communist Internationals could be considered too: First International, Second International [wikipedia.org], Comintern [wikipedia.org] and some other not-so-internationals too...
While not parties, the European revolutions (1848, etc) were international in character to some extent...
Re:Official website here (Score:3, Informative)
Re:First Vote (Score:5, Informative)
You mean, since they are the first on the north american continent? Oh wait...! [wikipedia.org]
-- Proud voter of the Pirate Party in the EU election 2009!
Re:One Wallet (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Australia Too (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Everyone (Score:3, Informative)
They sure are honest. The problem with copyright here is that it's a "don't know, don't care, don't understand" law. Most don't know it's illegal to engage in filesharing, despite all the propagan... I mean information. They've been copying since 8track was in style, why is it suddenly no longer ok? They don't care because they see it as a victimless crime. There's nothing "stolen". Nobody lost anything. I've had people ask me for a copy of programs or for unlocks for their consoles who would never break the law intentionally (I work for a company that houses also the local version of the RIAA/MPAA and people working there asked for copies... go figure), and likewise they were kinda pissed and thought I was just lazy or trying to find excuses when I refused. For most, copying is a bit like speeding on the freeway, everyone does it and nobody gets hurt. And the "don't understand" part is easy to see when you look at the confusing way most copyright laws are written. Hell, I practically exist on copyright, a good deal of my job hangs on it, and I don't understand half of it without a lenghty chat with our legal department. If whatever you want to do with the content you paid for is most likely not legal anyway (unless you do this, but not if you do that, though if you do this before...), why bother trying?
And yes, 9 out of 10 movies that make it to the cinema ain't what I'd call good entertainment. Fortunately I'm blessed with people who do go to the movies and tell me whether it's worth it or not. 9 out of 10 times, I didn't miss much.
As for your HIV comparison: I hope you can see the difference between missing a good movie and getting infected. If you can't, please inform me beforehand in case we ever end up in the same bed.
Re:Proportional Representation (Score:4, Informative)
Re:First Vote (Score:1, Informative)
I partially agree, however I think saying the industry cannot survive modern day file sharing is untrue. There are alternative sources of revenue, the same sources that existed before being able to record the content was available and these would continue to make money. Live shows for music and theatrical releases for movies still turn a huge profit. There would be some change of course in that RIAA musicians who are created by the industry for the sole purpose of making money would probably die out, and actors that make twenty million a movie may make less money (which fits more reasonably with what they are doing for their job). File sharing takes the power that used to belong to the public (which was the initial intention of copyright) and gives it back to the public. The MPAA/RIAA are afraid because it is a loss of power for them, so they are doing the same thing they've done for every previous change which has been wrong every time as well. The are hailing it as the death of the industry. The original point of copyright was to protect authors from commercial infringement during the initial release period (five years or so) before joining the public domain. This model allows for the spread of information and is designed in the interest of the public. It was never to give meant to give organizations hundreds of years of control over information to exploit mass profit. So in short, yes certain revenue streams would get smaller or disappear. However, other streams will get stronger or new streams will develop and it is likely the industry will make less money, but since they're making absurdly inflated millions and millions of dollars now it will go back to a reasonable level. The profit now can only exist when the control every aspect and they can no longer do that.
Re:English Pirate Party? (Score:1, Informative)
Sitting back and waiting for someone else to do all that stuff won't help much, so if you're interested, go get involved and things will start to move much quicker.
As a member of the Pirate Party of Canada... (Score:5, Informative)
We are not saying that people should have the right to copy whatever they like, despite what public opinion might be. Copyright is an important tool for innovation, we just think that it has gone too far (death + 50 years? Come on!). That does not mean that everyone should be allowed to download as much music/movies/etc. as they want. On top of that, we are not saying "phase out patents." There are some members of our forums that are saying that, but it does not reflect the entire Pirate Party's desires.
Other than that, the summary is right.
Re:The neoconservatives are laughing (Score:3, Informative)
Nineteenth century capitalism collapses when everything you make can be copied and shared at will. Government funding all research isn't such a bad idea, comparing to the pharma monopolies we have now.
In a lot of cases it isn't pharma monopolies doing the research. Taxpayers fund a lot then a patent gets applied for and the pharma company monetises all that government research.
Yes, that patent will be the use of drug foo in the treatment of condition bar.
Re:The neoconservatives are laughing (Score:1, Informative)
Don't confuse the world. The Liberal Party is most certainly *not* a right-wing party. They are mildly centrist, leaning to the left. NDP, Green, et al. are left-wing parties and the Conservatives are right-wing.
Re:First Vote (Score:5, Informative)
The industry is used to having it their own way for too long, and they have to realise that their days of bleeding the customer dry are numbered.
To talk of bleeding the customer dry is lunatic.
The federal minimum wage in 1939 was 30 cents an hour. That would buy you one adult ticket to the movies or a single 78 RPM phonograph record.
Two tracks.
The roadshow production of Gone With The Wind would have been priced at $2 to $5 bucks.
The 78 was disposable. The light-weight tonearm with a diamond stylus doesn't come into general use until the mid or late fifties.
The federal minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour on July 24. The average U.S. ticket price [natoonline.org] for a movie in 2008 was $7.18.
The Video-on-Demand rental is $5.
You can do much better than that with a subscription to Netflix.
Amazon's Best Sellers in Music CDs [amazon.com] will only rarely set you back more than $9.99. The mp3 single 89 cents.
The customer isn't paying more for entertainment in real terms than his great-grandfather did.
Re:The neoconservatives are laughing (Score:4, Informative)
This is so wrong I don't know where to start. First, I'm guessing you're pretty young if you think the Tories have been traditionally strong. Secondly, the Liberals are not, not have ever been right wing. They're a pragmatic centrist party. Before Chretien's election Canadian politics were dominated by the Tories and the Liberals. They were both centrists and back in the day the most common complaint heard was that there was no difference between the two. Then the Tories were decimated and the reform party which is definitely right-wing took over as the major opposition. Eventually they merged with the more moderate eastern tories to form what we know as the CPC today, though Reform appears to dominate the leadership. Though as an easterner I have no love for them, I would never say the party as a whole is neo-conservative.
The NDP has always been left wing, they've always been tied to the Unions (not withstanding the split with Buzz recently). To call them (or the Marijuana party) centrist is just plain crazy. Your characterization of Canadian politics betrays a fairly extreme leftist bent.
Re:Bumper stickers? (Score:3, Informative)
There is a US Pirate Party!
http://www.pirate-party.us/ [pirate-party.us]
Re:First Vote (Score:2, Informative)
However, the piracy party seem to be saying that all content should be available to everyone for free, entirely legally.
"Legally" is the key. They don't want to legalize ways to infringe copyrights, they want movies to move from copyright to Creative Common or similar.
Who is going to go make a big-budget film when they can't make any money out of it?
The fact that you don't pay for each movie doesn't mean that those movies aren't paid for.
:p], paying for the channels you watch, etc).
You don't pay for each movie you watch on TV, but they are paid by other, less agressive, means (commercials[even though this one IS agressive
I'm not saying this is the way to go, but this is an example that could actually be modified and adapted to the internet.
I don't know exactly how, it's their job to figure it out.
Re:The neoconservatives are laughing (Score:2, Informative)
This is so wrong I don't know where to start. First, I'm guessing you're pretty young if you think the Tories have been traditionally strong.
I'll be turning 41 this year; I don't know if you consider this to be "young". I'm not talking about traditions. Though my experiences and time frame reference the period of when Mulroney got into office (the Reagan years for you Americans).
Secondly, the Liberals are not, not have ever been right wing. Secondly, the Liberals are not, not have ever been right wing. They're a pragmatic centrist party.
WRONG! You obviously don't follow politics in Canada. The liberals are the ones who have always supported warrentless wiretaps, American DMCA type legislation, they supported the war on drugs (to be noted, the senate and some people in the legislature are more liberal about marijuana laws). "Traditionally" the Conservatives (and their original name, the Progressive Conservatives) have been more liberal than the Liberal party of Canada in their politics.
Though as an easterner I have no love for them, I would never say the party as a whole is neo-conservative.
They have supported the abolition of universal health care, an expanded War on Drugs, more rampant and fanatical censorship, etc and so on. They have always been Bush and Reagen supporters and have been followers of the American neocon leadership "scene". In my own province of Ontario the neocons raised taxes on the poor and lowered taxes on the rich, and increased the debt substantially while officially claiming that they were reducing it. The Minister of Welfare told poor people to haggle with grocery stores if they can't get enough to eat. The natianal Conservative party wanted our disgraced leader of this disgraced party to follow them into national politics. This is neoconservatism, not centrism.
Though as an easterner I have no love for them, I would never say the party as a whole is neo-conservative.
Your analysis portrays a fairly right wing bent. The NDP has always been left of center, but they have never (not recently, to my knowledge) supported price controls, the government take over of private businesses, etc. Saying the NDP is not near the centre is pretty extremist.
From Political Compass
The Conservative Party's move further towards the Bush-Reagan mix of free market economics with social conservatism makes the somewhat mercurial Liberals look more moderate, despite their own rightward drift.
- Ref., http://www.politicalcompass.org/canada2008 [politicalcompass.org] There is an overall historical movement to the neocon Right (as is taking place worldwide). The fascism of democracy is on a constant creep into reality.
Re:One Wallet (Score:3, Informative)
You're going to have to explain that logic a little better.
Suppose the US exports $10 billion (totally made up number) more IP to Sweden than it imports, and that the OP point about money being spent either on IP or on other things, mainly locally, is true. Then:
Swedes buying music and movies: $10B to the US.
Swedes not buying music and movies: $0 to the US.
From the Swedish point of view it breaks down like this:
Swedes buying music and movies: $0 to the Swedish economy.
Swedes not buying music and movies: $10B to the Swedish economy.
So the Swedes (in this example a non-IP exporting nation) benefit from weak IP laws. However, the US, an IP exporting nation, definitely benefit from the strongest IP laws they can get Sweden to pass.
looks like things have turned the corner (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.riaaradar.com/ [riaaradar.com]
Why would anyone knowingly pay the RIAA that actively suppresses music and does not take care of the very artists they say they are protecting. The RIAA demise is not coming soon enough, but nice to see the cracks in the dam.
Re:First Vote (Score:3, Informative)
If they wish to undermine copyright, if they are foolish enough to believe that, as the summary suggested, that sharing is somehow less damaging just because money isn't changing hands, then I suggest they give their party points some long hard thought.
I don't know about the canadian pirate party, but the swedish pirate party yes. You can find a brief summary in english but their swedish statement is better:
"All non-commercial acquirement, use, improvement and distribution of culture shall explicitly be encouraged. The law shall be changed so that it is perfectly clear that it only regulates use and copying of works in a commercial setting. To share copies, or in other ways spread or use someone else's work shall never be prohibited as long as it happens on an ideal basis without intention of commercial gain.
"Allt icke-kommersiellt inhämtande, nyttjande, förädlande och spridning av kultur skall uttryckligen uppmuntras. Lagstiftningen skall ändras så att det görs helt klart att den endast reglerar användning och kopiering av verk i kommersiella sammanhang. Att dela med sig av kopior, eller på annat sätt sprida eller använda annans verk, skall aldrig vara förbjudet så länge det sker på ideell basis utan vinstmotiv."
Re:Bumper stickers? (Score:3, Informative)
... which appears to have done diddly squat over several years (the USPP was "founded" in 2006) in terms of fundraising and base building, despite Americans being more politically engaged during that time than they have been in generations.
Of the six offices [pirate-party.us] that comprise the USPP's "leadership", three are vacant and two more will become so this month. To the best of my knowledge, they've fielded no candidates for office at any level and have not organized enough people to win ballot access [pirate-party.us] in any state.
In short, my question is: have these guys done anything over the last three years beyond buying a domain and dumping Drupal on it?
I'd recommend getting an answer to that question before you give them any money.