Swedish Pirate Party want their free stuff

If you’re one of those 20 or 30-year-olds who think the Internet – and stuff on it – should be free, you now have a political party to join over in Sweden. The Pirate Party now has one seat at the table of the European Union’s parliament.

The party thinks that file sharing should be legal, and they want a huge overhaul to the copyright system throughout the world. I guess paying 99 cents for three-minutes of musical bliss – that they are allowed to play over-and-over for life – is too high a price to pay.

Now, the pirates (I’m not really sure what they call themselves) may have some good points when it comes to Internet security, but the following statement – directly from their Web site – is the focus of concern.

All non-commercial copying and use should be completely free. File sharing and p2p networking should be encouraged rather than criminalized. Culture and knowledge are good things, that increase in value the more they are shared. The Internet could become the greatest public library ever created.

Sounds so perfect, but what if an artist assigns value to your own property and want to sell it to make a reasonable living? No soup for you!

This means one person can buy Kenny Chesney’s latest album, make it available through a file sharing service, and give it out for free to one million of his or her closest friends.

Their site has more…

Pharmaceutical patents kill people in third world countries every day. They hamper possibly life saving research by forcing scientists to lock up their findings pending patent application, instead of sharing them with the rest of the scientific community.

Very altruistic of them, but there must be an incentive for researchers to come up with life-saving drugs and for companies to invest in research and development. If you really want to see dead people, take away the incentive from the smart people, they can find something else to do.

Following the 9/11 event in the US, Europe has allowed itself to be swept along in a panic reaction to try to end all evil by increasing the level of surveillance and control over the entire population. We Europeans should know better. It is not twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and there are plenty of other horrific examples of surveillance-gone-wrong in Europe’s modern history.

Gee, I guess the Pirate Party thinks 9/11 was just an event in the US, though which they loose even more credibility, but I do share their concern over the surveillance society.

I understand the idealistic view of the world, but at what point will those under the age of 50 be snapped into reality?

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

6 Comments

  1. gillie28 on June 8, 2009 at 9:10 am

    "This means one person can buy Kenny Chesney’s latest album, make it available through a file sharing service, and give it out for free to one million of his or her closest friends." 

    We used to call this Napster (sighing with nostalgia).



  2. donh on June 8, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    Slap in the face to ABBA.  Bjorn Ulvaeus was on the cutting edge of protecting artist copyrights from free file sharing theft. Half of the revenues generated from Chiquitita benefit UNICEF….Since we are singing a new song today with Obama's new mideast policy , I would like to dedicate this song to him.. .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfzmR7Wrj5U



  3. skepticalcynic on June 10, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    For years the music companies have been told that cd's were too expensive.  They always ignored the complaints.  Don't want pirating?  Come up with the technology to stop it, otherwise too bad.



    • Steve McGough on June 10, 2009 at 1:46 pm

      Like they haven't tried technology? I'll remember your statement if you ever write a novel. I'll get the book copied, converted into PDF and offer it online for free.



    • skepticalcynic on June 11, 2009 at 5:55 am

      Steve

      And if I ever write one, I'll remember my words also.  These guys have been ignoring their customers for years, now, they cry.  They made this bed, now they sleep on it. 

      And I have a real problem with buying something and then them telling me I can't make a copy and give it to someone else.  They want to get after guys who are making copies and SELLING them, go right ahead. 

      And I admit Steve, its a bit personal for me.  I own restaurants.  Every single year, for the past twenty, I've had to PAY these VULTURES to play music in my dining room.  They want me to pay for playing RADIO music.  Or CD"S  (which I BOUGHT).  Sorry, I have a problem with that.  It like some people feel about insurance companies.  Right or wrong, I loathe these guys, and any hurtin they get is alright with me.

      Oh, and you can tell by the way I write, I'm not gonna be publishing any novels soon!

      But, I admit, this is personal.



  4. skepticalcynic on June 11, 2009 at 5:57 am

    Oh, Steve

    I also think its funny that many of the SAME artists crying and screaming over the evils of capitalism are now FIGHTING for what they think they have a right to THROUGH the capitalistic system.  Yeah, that paints my view also.



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