Pirate Party UK Looks Forward To 2012 116
Ajehals writes "The UK Pirate Party New Years message suggests a new sense of direction for the party, with a focus on policy and politics beyond what was seen as the party's norm, single issue position of copyright reform. Hoping to learn from and emulate the German Pirate Party's success in Berlin, Partly Leader Loz Kay is looking back over 2011 and to the future." I'm a slow learner; the Pirate Party for years struck me as mostly whimsical. If you live in a country with an active Pirate Party, what do you think of its impact? (According to Wikipedia, there are now PP organizations in at least 40 countries.)
My question to the party is... (Score:3, Interesting)
Per their UK manifesto:
Copyright should give artists the first chance to make money from their work, however that needs to be balanced with the rights of society as a whole.
As someone not generally affected by copyright issues, can they explain to me what benefits there are to society of reforming copyright? Tangible, measurable benefits.
Society should be about more than pop music and blockbuster films. Frankly the Pirate Party has to convince me that laws which deter people from sharing such things are actually bad. Perhaps they are actually a positive influence because they nudge people into doing something productive instead of passively consuming. Maybe someone decided to go outside and play football with their kids because they couldn't find a copy of a film to download; in that instance, society benefits.
Do I care that Cliff Richard's recordings won't reach the public domain in my lifetime? Not at all. Society will continue with or without music.
Do I care that public forests and parks are being sold-off? Absolutely, as that directly affects our society.
Pirate party France (Score:5, Interesting)
European countries have different "details" in their election laws that make it easy or hard for small parties to be heard. For instance, in Germany, you receive public funds for your campaign when you reach 0.7% of votes. In France it is 5%.
I think the most important vote for the French PP will be the European elections : this one has a proportional part. There are already , thanks to Sweden, several pirate European MPs and this election has the same rules everywhere. I hope we focus on it.
Re:Whats in a name? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Whats in a name? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd be all in favour of the Pirate Party to let their representatives vote as they please on issues that do not touch the main topics of the party. But here in Germany, the lack of a "proper programme" and the uncertainty of how the party would vote on other aspects than copyright issues has been one of the big stumbling blocks for the party (that democracy itself might be an issue does not even occur to the people here). The "Pirates" are seen as the ones who "don't have the answers". It's not that other parties would *have* "the answers" (as you see from Merkels course in the past year), but, regrettably, it is important to claim to have them!
The Pirate Party in the UK is currently in the middle of a large policy consultation process where they have asked the wider UK population about issue that are important to them, in order to investigate an expanded base of policies (ones that are both suggested by people and voted on my members, as opposed to just made up to win favours)
In the last elections they were also emphasising the lack of a Party Whip [1], which meant their representatives would be free to actually represent their constituents, and vote how they feel they should.
[1] In UK politics, some parties have something called a Whip [wikipedia.org] which enforces members of a party to vote a certain way (according to the "party line"), even if they otherwise wouldn't.