Pirate Party On The Rise In Sweden (VIDEO)

In Sweden, the party for internet piracy is on the rise. Christian Engstrom, 49, is the world's first democratically elected Internet pirate and a new member of the European parliament. The group's stated goal is to "ensure that Europe chooses a better road into the information society."

Comments

[JudeMason]

02:40 PM on 07/24/2009

To me this is heartbreaking. I'm an author who depends totally on what I earn to pay my bills, buy food and pay the mortgage. My books have been pirated time after time. Yes, I realize some of the people who do this will never buy me. But, how can that make the theft right?

Authors like King and Rowling make millions. Those are the rare ones, the lucky ones. Many of us have to have a day job to help support our love of writing. The pittance we make is then stolen by pirates. Some lose heart. Many have to quit because they can't make enough to live off and have to find jobs to support themselves.

If I asked any one of you if you'd go to work for nothing, I wonder how many would say yes. That's what you're doing to us.

Jude Mason

[beyondliberal]

06:31 PM on 07/23/2009

Sweden has had problems with Big Brother for decades and it has escalated exponentially with the information age.
The point of this story is not actually piracy; it's about warrantless wiretapping and the government's monitoring of e-communication.
Let this be a lesson to all of us. Sweden has often been a world leader in technology, but their elected officials have turned and bitten them in the ass. It certainly could happen (and is, as you will all recall) to all of us.
Read, "The New Totalitarians". It's even more applicable today than it was when published in the 1970s.

[lazercat2008]

06:05 PM on 07/23/2009

I'm running for President. Third party anyone?

[RobinSeattle]

06:04 PM on 07/23/2009

The Monster Raving Loony Party in Britain has to be jealous.
http://www.omrlp.com/index.php?page=manifestoproposals-1

[AirViceMarshalPark]

01:22 AM on 07/24/2009

Watch yer mouf, Guv'ner.

I have been in the US Monster Raving Loony Party for many years.

Where is your birth certificate?

[AngryCitizen]

04:07 PM on 07/23/2009

These idiots steal from me as well as I am an author. My books are regularly pirated and niether I nor my publisher receive a dime for works they steal.

[Koen Dirckx]

05:54 PM on 07/23/2009

Copying is not stealing ... You just dont get it . Copying spreads culture people still support authors.
People who are downloading your stuff are people who would not have bought your stuff in the first place. This way they get into contact with your culture and I am sure if you make good stuff it will increase the likelyhood of a purchase because your work spreads faster and people can sample your stuff!

[emily00011]

06:25 PM on 07/23/2009

bummer

a. create work that people feel is worth paying for

b. deliver it format they want to buy it in

c. those people were never your customers, there is reasonable high chance they won't even read it anyways. focus on the ones that are.

the copyright and patent laws are getting out of hand. I hope the pp gains enough influence to turn things back a bit. No way anyone should get a hundred years after death. And the patent system is strangling new companies in the US. You can't really even start a new IT company without putting out a huge amount of money. Companies like microsoft are sitting on tons of trivial patents just waiting for the right time to lay into someone.

[breakingpoint]

02:38 PM on 07/23/2009

Stephen Fry Compares RIAA to “Big Tobacco”
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86650/stephen-fry-compares-riaa-to-big-tobacco

Copyright laws threaten our online freedom
http://jischinger.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/copyright-laws-threaten-our-online-freedom

[Niqueth]

02:28 PM on 07/23/2009

Well, it's about time! This will be an important step in the fight against global warming. May you be touched by his noodly appendage. Ramen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

[egaeus]

02:00 PM on 07/23/2009

Well, it also helps to live in a country that doesn't constantly interfere in the political affairs of other nations and that doesn't have a political party whose goals are so pro-business and pro-wealthy that they are antithetical to the welfare of the people.

[ReichWingKaput]

02:11 PM on 07/23/2009

You mean two parties that are anti-labor and anti-working class.

[madtom]

01:59 PM on 07/23/2009

BOD MADS !!!

[legalclubs]

01:55 PM on 07/23/2009

This is only possible in a proportional democratic government voting system. We're pretty much stuck with two parties.

[ReichWingKaput]

01:54 PM on 07/23/2009

Coming soon:
The Bank Robber's Party
Our position is that all bank deposits are actually just binary digits
on the bank's mainframe and thus, public property to be "shared".

[Frenbar]

01:58 PM on 07/23/2009

This is already the official policy of Bush/Obama, or did you miss the "bailouts"?

[ReichWingKaput]

02:09 PM on 07/23/2009

In the words of a famous former beauty pageant loser,
that would be The Opposite of Bank Robber Party.
They're platform includes adding binary digits to banks' ledgers
until there are enough to hand out massive bonuses to the guys
with the secret passwords.

[BlueOnBlue]

01:27 PM on 07/23/2009

How high do you have to be on the hierarchy of needs pyramid as a society to be this concerned about internet piracy? Life in Sweden must be good, indeed.

[notAMoron]

02:05 PM on 07/23/2009

The realm of their concern is not only internet piracy but all IP related matters which severely impact the lives of all people in the world. IP includes patents, part of the reason why certain drugs are so expensive as well as certain crops and stuff. It impacts digital rights management like whether or not it is legal for amazon to delete something you bought for your kindle, whether you own your cell phone and are allowed to use it on a different phone network, or whether you are able to rip a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray (did you buy the copyrighted material and are you breaking the law if you rip the CD to play on your iPod or make a copy to have one at home and one in your car if you cannot does shouldn't the copyright owner restore your media for a nominal fee if it is lost or destroyed and you have proof of purchase).

These issues are probably not important to you if you struggling with personal property issues like food to eat or paying your rent. But it is important to someone grappling with the question of whether to buy food to eat or the lipitor to control their cholesterol.

[TenThings]

01:01 PM on 07/23/2009

Shouldn't it be the VIKING PARTY?

[TenThings]

01:00 PM on 07/23/2009

The Pirate Party (Swedish: Piratpartiet) is a political party in Sweden. It strives to reform laws regarding copyright and patents.
- from Wikipedia....

[Big0725]

04:49 PM on 07/23/2009

Article I, Section 8, US Constitution

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

Reform that numbnuts!

[emily00011]

06:31 PM on 07/23/2009

and patents are strangling new companies in the US. It's a little shocking some of the useless non-innovative things people get patents for.

[justsaynosarahp]

01:00 PM on 07/23/2009

monitor a quarter of a million keywords?

sounds like keyword avoidance will spawn a new international language of irregular grammar and unconventional spelling.

[Yermammy]

01:45 PM on 07/23/2009

The sheer number of people engaging in this actually reduces your risk. Like Salmon coming home to spawn, the vast volumes overwhelm monitoring and like smelt in the ocean school together to confuse the predators, so does this...
I'm sure the world leaders will forbid bartering altogether when they perfect the combination shock/explode collars for us lower life forms. People really need to let me breath a little.

[justsaynosarahp]

09:22 AM on 07/24/2009

Very good point -- security by obscurity, which would probably protect most casual info trades.
I'm still kind of amusing myself thinking about what a monitoring program would do with language such as the old-school Cockney rhyming slang, especially if a modern version made use of most common keywords, like those used to search porn.