I guess this is one way to change the laws!!
Digital TV - News - Pirate Party wins European seat - Digital Spy
Digital TV - News - Pirate Party wins European seat - Digital Spy
"pirates" take european parliment seat
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I think the problem with their concept rests on the fact that no leader of this party actually created any content worthy of copyright or patent, i.e. a type of content other people may be inclined to buy. As soon as they do something professional and try to make leaving of it, their consumer attitude - give me everything for free - may quickly change to a different one: how am I going to survive while creating this for others? Instead of denying everything a mankind managed to came up with so far, it would be more reasonable for law makers try adapting it to a digital age. 
I think the problem with their concept rests on the fact that no leader of this party actually created any content worthy of copyright or patent, i.e. a type of content other people may be inclined to buy. As soon as they do something professional and try to make leaving of it, their consumer attitude - give me everything for free - may quickly change to a different one: how am I going to survive while creating this for others? Instead of denying everything a mankind managed to came up with so far, it would be more reasonable for law makers try adapting it to a digital age.
Linux and Open Source communities give away software all the time for free. Ubuntu and Open Office are great examples.
Red Hat while giving away their source code makes a ton of money on support. Cent OS copies Red Hat's OS exactly minus the Red Hat trademarks and gives it away for free. (Yes you can legally get Red Hat in the form of Cent OS 5.4).
There are musicians actually giving away (some or all ) of their music for free, the musicians make their money on concerts. The group Coldplay has given away some of their music for free and sell the rest of it. It is a hit with fans and they still sell a ton of CDs.
Thanks for interesting examples. However, as I understand, the Pirate Party's goal is not to facilitate distribution of content offered by its creators for free, but to offer for public download pirated content protected by its authors via patents and copyright.
What the "Pirate Party" struggle stands for IMHO is a consumer/customer backlash.
For at least the last 10 years, Digital distribution has been feasible.
For 8 years the Hollywood content producers have been sold on a broken system usually refered to as DRM or Digital Rights Management. The Rights enforced are not yours-the purchasers rights-but what the studios want restricted.
I will refer to it from here on out as "Digital restrictions"
Add on top of that fight, the "broadcasting rights" sales delays that plague Europe.
Hollywood movies and shows are delayed or outright not released in Europe at a min. of 6 months for the UK and a year for non-English speaking countries.
If you read nothing else, at least read this paragraph:
The "underground" distribution methods (usually referred to as P2P or file-sharing)
are usually fans of shows or series making sure other fans can watch where there is simply NO Legal Distribution method available.
In the last 3 years there have been some shortening of the delay times.
On the other hand, the Consumer-level digital restrictions have been raised to ludicrous-levels.
The best analogy I can give tonight (HA!)
The Freebies are to the Pirate party as the make-pot-legal are to the Libertarian party. An embarrassment...
To me, it is not about gimme, gimme, gimme...
It is the fact that distribution costs have dropped for many things. Prices have not.
International issues that previously existed are no more.
Yet distribution agreements are still dealt with the same as the days of VHS but now a broken string of digital restrictions are tacked on.
The customer base is being persecuted for the failure of an industry to forecast and adapt.
The Pirate party is the customer base getting involved in politics since their normal representatives won't represent their interests over a MPAA/RIAA/(insert local variant here) lobbyist.
The Pirate name came from the MPAA and RIAA referring to the group as "Pirates" or thieves.
The end goal is for industries to offer their wares in a consumer-friendly, standard format. It took 5 years to get the RIAA to allow non-DRM audio to be sold on iTunes and Amazon. The MPAA has not done anything close to that yet.
Digital Copy (included in some Blu-ray movies) is a digitally-restricted iTunes and a digitally-restricted Windows Media files. They become "bound" to a device or account.
The device becomes unusable or an account becomes unaccessable? Tough, buy a whole new copy.
The digital restrictions are more about forcing scarcity where the is a lack of scarcity.
For at least the last 10 years, Digital distribution has been feasible.
For 8 years the Hollywood content producers have been sold on a broken system usually refered to as DRM or Digital Rights Management. The Rights enforced are not yours-the purchasers rights-but what the studios want restricted.
I will refer to it from here on out as "Digital restrictions"
Add on top of that fight, the "broadcasting rights" sales delays that plague Europe.
Hollywood movies and shows are delayed or outright not released in Europe at a min. of 6 months for the UK and a year for non-English speaking countries.
If you read nothing else, at least read this paragraph:
The "underground" distribution methods (usually referred to as P2P or file-sharing)
are usually fans of shows or series making sure other fans can watch where there is simply NO Legal Distribution method available.
In the last 3 years there have been some shortening of the delay times.
On the other hand, the Consumer-level digital restrictions have been raised to ludicrous-levels.
- Mandated Broadcast-Flag (struck down, Thank God!)
- No-Skip Flag on DVD's (Intended for FBI or equivalent warning, not for previews or the "You wouldn't steal..." video)
- High-Definition Copy Protection over DVI and HDMI (easily defeated via an insert HDCP insert)
- BD+ (wonder why your Blu-ray takes 2 mins. to even show a picture? This is why, Has been regularly broken on each update, considered ineffective)
- Image-Constraint Token (no HDCP? no HD for you, down-scaled to quarter resolution. All major studios agreed to not use until 2010)
- Selectable-Output (turn off analog output on flagged shows/movies, currently being considered by the FCC at MPAA request)
The best analogy I can give tonight (HA!)
The Freebies are to the Pirate party as the make-pot-legal are to the Libertarian party. An embarrassment...
To me, it is not about gimme, gimme, gimme...
It is the fact that distribution costs have dropped for many things. Prices have not.
International issues that previously existed are no more.
Yet distribution agreements are still dealt with the same as the days of VHS but now a broken string of digital restrictions are tacked on.
The customer base is being persecuted for the failure of an industry to forecast and adapt.
The Pirate party is the customer base getting involved in politics since their normal representatives won't represent their interests over a MPAA/RIAA/(insert local variant here) lobbyist.
The Pirate name came from the MPAA and RIAA referring to the group as "Pirates" or thieves.
The end goal is for industries to offer their wares in a consumer-friendly, standard format. It took 5 years to get the RIAA to allow non-DRM audio to be sold on iTunes and Amazon. The MPAA has not done anything close to that yet.
Digital Copy (included in some Blu-ray movies) is a digitally-restricted iTunes and a digitally-restricted Windows Media files. They become "bound" to a device or account.
The device becomes unusable or an account becomes unaccessable? Tough, buy a whole new copy.
The digital restrictions are more about forcing scarcity where the is a lack of scarcity.
Until someone can convince me I was born with a right to be entertained, let them lock-down their content in any way they see fit. If I don't like the terms, they keep their product, I keep my cash - no harm, no foul, liberty and justice for all.
Perhaps GrumpyGuy would feel different about the issue if things like gasoline where controlled the same way. You have the right to buy our fuel but you can only put it in one vehicle. Gas cans are not allowed, and hey if you don't like the terms go with out.
This same type of thinking is what allowed Ma Bell to ban things like phone book covers and owning your own telephone. People had enough and soon we had the carterphone decision. AT&T still didn't get the hint so the DOJ busted them up and we got the modified final judgement decision which broke up AT&T.
AT&T used the same logic in the 50 and 60's, if you don't like OUR terms don't buy our service.
This same type of thinking is what allowed Ma Bell to ban things like phone book covers and owning your own telephone. People had enough and soon we had the carterphone decision. AT&T still didn't get the hint so the DOJ busted them up and we got the modified final judgement decision which broke up AT&T.
AT&T used the same logic in the 50 and 60's, if you don't like OUR terms don't buy our service.
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