Comments on: Swedish Pirate Party: “Copyright Laws Threaten Our Online Freedom”

By: D.AN

D.AN — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:05:30 +0000

malgre: blah blah blah blah blah …

By: Euro Anti-Piracy Group Calls Pirate Party Message “Criminal”

Euro Anti-Piracy Group Calls Pirate Party Message “Criminal” — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:08:40 +0000

[...] was meant to encourage culture, not restrict it. This is reason enough for reform,” said Chris Engstrom, deputy leader of the Pirate party last month. “But the current regime has [...]

By: Stephen Fry Compares RIAA to “Big Tobacco”

Stephen Fry Compares RIAA to “Big Tobacco” — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:34:03 +0000

[...] also reminded people that rigid copyright laws stifle creativity and innovation, a point made last week by Christian Engström, newly elected member of the Swedish Pirate Party to the European [...]

By: Scary Devil Monastery

Scary Devil Monastery — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:14:26 +0000

Wait what?

The file-sharing public greed is destroying what again? File-sharers spend over four times as much cash on media consumption than non file-sharers do. Which I ought to say makes a potent point.

But no one is willing to pay 20$ for a piece of plastic when the artist gets 8 cents per copy sold, the record cost 2$ to make, distribution cost was 0, and the rest went into a completely unnecessary distribution industry.

Childish Greed? Yes, indeed. The associates of RIAA and MPAA will just have to grow up.

By: Undisclosed

Undisclosed — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:39:25 +0000

The printing press and the bible is an excellent historical precedent, in particular Martin Luther’s translation of the bible, which probably wouldn’t have had the impact it did, were it not for the printing press invented half a century earlier.

The technology cannot be undone, and reformation of copyright law is unavoidable, the question is just whether it will happen in time and without inhibiting on free communication first, or after a strive of proportions similar to the French Wars of Religion or thelike.

By: mal greenborg

mal greenborg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:30:15 +0000

He may well be right about the draconian nature of some of the new internet trends, but it’s not like nobody saw this coming a decade ago. None of this would be happening if it weren’t for the ‘pirate crusade’, content companies would have gone along selling shiny discs forever if it weren’t for the ‘pirates’.

We had this amazing gift and it’s being destroyed by the childish greed of the file-sharing public.

By: DrewWilson

DrewWilson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:50:29 +0000

There’s a whole lot of history behind that, but copyright laws weren’t the only things controlling the flow of information back in the Gutenberg days. When the word-press was created, literacy was also on the rise and what prevented people from accessing knowledge, at least through the church, was actually mainly language barriers. Bibles were written in Latin and higher-ups in the church were able to speak in Latin, but not necessarily the people who went to those churches.

The King James version (a very famous version to this day) helped to break that language barrier and the help of the word press made it possible for many copies to be (illegally at the time) made. I’ve seen paintings online and through textbooks where there were demons distributing “pirated” copies of the Bible – that was how the church effectively responded to the distribution of copies of the Bible.

Prior to all of this, the key thing that kept people from accessing knowledge was literacy.

Now we have copyright lobbyists and DRM trying to replace what language barriers and illiteracy did back in the day. Back then, they hired painters to tell you you were going to Hell for pirating the Bible – today, you have rappers telling you Tetris will fail because of internet piracy and, more recently, “dropping knowledge” on how you’ll do hard time if you get caught downloading an unauthorized songs. There’s a long line of history in all of this.

By: nobody

nobody — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:37:22 +0000

While I share your wish to abolish copyright laws in it’s current form or all together, you are wrong in why copyright laws exist in this world.
Not long after Gutenberg invented the press the first of these laws got into existence and was used solely to make out who had the right to open their mouth.
Copyright laws were and still are mechanisms that the powers to be used/use to decide who has the right to distribute knowledge and the critical word.
In the old days only the friends of the king, provided that they were not critical, had the right to transport the critical word, and the church had the right to transport knowledge.
The last few centuries it becomes harder and harder to keep the majority of people using these privileges, mainly due to science and humanism.
This does not say that the powers that be stop trying to keep you and I from using distribution of critical word and knowledge, or at least create such a lag of that towards us to be able to profit from their advantage.
I agree that current forms are a perverted, arrogant into our face systems of laws that need to be broken as soon as possible, but it also shows we are in the end game of this.
We must keep fighting these idiots that think that they can keep hostage our culture and have us pay for it while not letting it free.