Pirate Party Wins Seat In Berlin 241
An anonymous reader writes "The Pirate Party won its first seat in the Berlin state elections with almost 9% of the vote. From the article: '"We will get right to work," top Pirate candidate, Andreas Baum, told ZDF television. "This is all new for us."'"
Maybe... (Score:5, Funny)
...others can copy their strategy?
Re: (Score:2)
...others can copy their strategy?
as long as they don't patent it as a business method.
But where (Score:4, Funny)
is the Ninja Party?
Re:But where (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
That kind of sucks when trying to campaign.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I heard they even changed their name - they're referred to as 'lobbyists' these days as to not to reveal their real identity.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:But where (Score:4, Funny)
is the Ninja Party?
They've been there all along. They're so sneaky, they've changed their name to "Congress".
Just watch C-SPAN or find a live feed of the Congressional floor. They're all very hard at work, you just can't see any of them.
Yeah, I know. They're REALLY good Ninjas.
Re: (Score:2)
You know why Pirates are better than Ninjas?
They just Arrrrrrrrrr!
No surprises here... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I blame the MPAA.
Re: (Score:3)
Uhm, no? The name "Pirate Party" works much better in Sweden, which has Pirates in their history and a population that knows enough English to know the term "software piracy".
In Germany, pirates are usually associated with Somalia and the German equivalent for "pirated software" translates as "robbery copy". There was a lot of debate about weather or not it's a good idea to even call it "Pirate Party", in the end it was decided that a consistent name across all countries has more value than having names tha
Re:No surprises here... (Score:4, Interesting)
Uhm, no? The name "Pirate Party" works much better in Sweden, which has Pirates in their history and a population that knows enough English to know the term "software piracy". In Germany, pirates are usually associated with Somalia and the German equivalent for "pirated software" translates as "robbery copy". There was a lot of debate about weather or not it's a good idea to even call it "Pirate Party", in the end it was decided that a consistent name across all countries has more value than having names that better match the local culture.
tl;dr In Germany, "Pirate" is a meaningless, valueless (or bad) word when used in politics.
Not exactly true; "Softwarepiraterie" (literally "software piracy") is a well-known german term that's used in public discussions about the subject quite frequently [microsoft.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Not exactly true; "Softwarepiraterie" (literally "software piracy") is a well-known german term
Glad to see that. Even the abbreviated version of the previously used term,
unbefugte-oder-illegale-kopieren-und-weitergeben-urheberrechtlich-geschützten-materials
was really slowing things down.
Re: (Score:2)
You might want to explain that to the edelweiss-piraten movement, who resisted the Hitler Youth.
Really trying not to godwin this, it's just an example of the use of the term pirate in German, and pre-dating software piracy by a long way.
Re: (Score:2)
tl;dr In Germany, "Pirate" is a meaningless, valueless (or bad) word when used in politics.
It's not the best word, but then again most of the other party names are just as meaningless. Whether or not you can give them meaning is what counts, and the Pirates have done a pretty good job at that, sticking with the pirate theme but adding word-plays to it that makes it political.
For example, one of their slogans is "klarmachen zum Ãndern" (get ready for change), which is a word-play on "klarmachen zum entern" (ready to board enemy ship), but also clearly states that the Pirate Party wants to mak
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Let me clarify what I meant: Sweden has a much better insight into US American culture. The reason for this might be that because Sweden is such a small country, it isn't profitable to dub all the American TV shows: instead swedes have to read subtitles or just learn enough English to watch TV (which most of them do).
Germany is the exact opposite, with German being the most spoken language in Europe and Germany being the richest country (and other German speaking countries being quite rich as well), it beco
Re: (Score:2)
That so is? All this time I have, been use an Auto-Translator from das Google, ja. ;-)
[But seriously, even in German, "Piraterie" has been used in a copyright context for many years. Even those who don't speak English associate it with filesharing at least as much as with Johnny Depp or Somalia.]
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention the popular real pirate Klaus StÃrtebeker [wikipedia.org] who - despite being an outlaw - is conceived as a "good guy". A german Robin Hood, if you want.
Re: (Score:2)
Not only that, most people who would vote for the Pirate Party in Germany already knew full well what "software piracy" is.
Not just one (Score:5, Informative)
They haven't just won one seat but about 14-15. Interestingly, more seats would have been mostly useless to them as they have only nominated 15 candidates -- if they gain more seats than that or if they have to replace a member mid-term, they will have to leave that seat empty.
Re:Not just one (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
As with a lot of details of today's German political system, the roots for this stem from lessons learned form the 3rd Reich or the Weimar Republic [wikipedia.org], to be more precised. Long story short: it is believed that the heavy fragmentation of the parlament at that time finally lead to the rise of Hitler and the NSDAP.
To prevent that from happening again, the 5% hurdle was introduced when founding the Federal German Republic.
Re: (Score:2)
5% barrier for parties is also a 'sanity barrier' (it can be lowered to about 3%, probably).
There are quite a lot of fringe parties out there which can be only characterized as 'insane'. But they can easily get a seat or two in a parliamentary election. And that can give them a power completely out of proportion with their popularity.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. With a large parliament and proportional representation, *very* small parties get represented. For example, the German "Bundestag" has 621 members, which means with purely proportional representation you would get your first member with around 0.16% of the votes.
In practice you'd be -over- represented at that, because the voice of a single person, will be more often and more clearly heard than the voice of a single member of a 100-person strong political group. In essence, you're able to make a lot
Re: (Score:2)
I thought they focused primarily on teabagging.
Not just one (Score:5, Informative)
won by default (Score:2)
Reactions of other parties (Score:5, Interesting)
A representative of the Left party pointed out that having to few members nominated than the seats they won indicated that they must have overestimated themselves (sic!). Green Representative Renate Künast claimed that her party got the most gains of all parties - the Green Party gained 4.5% more votes than during the last election in 2006
Aloofness abounds among established parties, caring about their claim to power first, other parties in the government next and the people
Re: (Score:2)
Now, I must confess I haven't watched all the reactions of other parties, but after the election both SPD and CDU were dismissive to the point of insulting those who voted for the Pirate Party.
So, in my homeland, the Pirate Party is kind of the equivalent of Dr Ron Paul?
Re:Reactions of other parties (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure. Minus the creationism, gold standard and crazy stuff, of course.
Re: (Score:3)
Perhaps DR RON PAUL could achieve more success if he reinvents himself in the guise of a Pirate Party. He could still stick to the gold stuff pretty easily, with a nice gold-doubloons theme.
Re: (Score:2)
On ARD in the election show Claudia Roth congratulated the Pirate Party and said she's looking forward to a tough but good collaboration, and that the PP result shows that the Greens will have to strengthen their position on citizen rights.
Re: (Score:3)
[...] - the Green Party gained 4.5% more votes than during the last election in 2006 ... but the Pirate Party gained about 6% over that result - reaching 9%. [...]
Actually the pirates gained 9% WRT the latest election, because they hadn't participated back then.
The funny thing is of course how the other parties reacted. When it became clear that the Pirate Party would likely get into the parliament (predicted to get 6.5% at most), they were already scandalized, how anybody could vote such loonies.
Actually, the representative of the pirate party just admitted on TV that they don't have a stance on many points yet, so it doesn't take much not to take them too seriously. But that's not a big issue IMHO. They'll be able to focus on their core issues first, then mature over time. OTOH, from my POV they don't seem to differ much from the green party (grassroots democracy, individual freedom, intellectual-ish
Re:Reactions of other parties (Score:4, Interesting)
Given that, I prefer a party that limits its opinions to things it (and me) truly believes in. And tries to use its own best judgment and explicitly that of its voters on those points where it doesn't - instead of stubbornly staying with a party line it is keeping only because it has adopted some opinion to some point for some reason in the past and now can't change it, because of they've already backed those random opinions up with heaps and heaps of lies and propaganda that would fly in its face if it were to change even some of those opinions.
Re: (Score:3)
I'd extend that to 'and admits to know nothing (or haven't formed and official opinion yet) about topics they really have no clue about (right now).
To paraphrase Lt. Commander Data: "Sometimes the scientifically most accurate answer one can give is: I don't know."
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Reactions of other parties (Score:5, Interesting)
Sorry, but this is simply not true.
Except for "When it became clear that the Pirate Party would likely get into the parliament (predicted to get 6.5% at most), they were already scandalized, how anybody could vote such loonies."
I'm not sure what you've watched, but it certainly wasn't the coverage by ARD or later the local RBB. Or not a lot of it.
Other parties had no problem naming them and dis so frequently as the success of the Pirates and the catastrophic result of the FDP were the main topics of most discussions.
Yeah, of course they also called the Pirates "new", but so did the Pirates themselves.
During a talk with representatives of all parties (that matter), they even did a little "special" analyzing where the pirates' 9% came from and asked everybody's opinion about that and why their parties didn't manage to get those votes.
Some politicians from the "established" parties even congratulated the Pirates. I remember people from the Greens and the Lefts doing so.
And they certainly didn't say "Congratulations to those others".
And I don't remember a Left party guy talking about "they overestimated themselves".
But I do remember one pointing out how the Pirates _under_estimated their own chances and that the Pirates obviously were surprised by their success as much as anybody else, citing (almost) not having enough candidates listed to fill the seats they won as a proof.
And he wasn't alone, several Pirate candidates repeatedly stated how they were "baff" (perplexed) or "still a bit in shock" in view of their success.
I also have no problem with Künast claiming they gained the most as those gains and losses are calculated in comparison to the last state election in 2006 and the Pirates weren't yet on the ballot back then.
If you say the Pirates gained 6% to reach their 9%, you're comparing their result today to the 3% they got in Berlin during the last national election in 2009, i.e. you're comparing apples and oranges because
a) people vote differently in state and national elections and
b) the gains and losses of the other parties were based on the results of a different election.
Yeah, technically the Pirates gained the most since they went from nothing to 9%, but I don't blame her for ignoring the n00bs when the main intent is to show how they are more awesome than the sucktitide that's their traditional enemies or their (realistic) competitors when it comes to building the government.
Re: (Score:3)
To be fair, she said "most gains of all parties already presented in the Berliner Abgeordnetenhaus". Which is the truth.
Just because we (yeah "we" - proud member of German's Pirate Party here) made it into the parlament, doesn't mean we have to immediatly
Re: (Score:3)
"but after the election both SPD and CDU were dismissive to the point of insulting those who voted for the Pirate Party. (Whose voters are more educated than the average of the electorate.) "
Political anti-intellectualism in Germany? What could possibly go wrong!
The 1930s called, they want their politics back.
"Pirate Party" is *not* about 'piracy' ! (Score:2, Informative)
It's much more a technically aware party that does lots of things right where other 'conservative' parties just still behave like 40 years ago ..
For me the name 'Pirate' ist the worst part of the party, as this is probably why lots of people won't ever take them serious .. even if they have good ideas. (Just like the Chaos Computer Club (CCC)... )
Re: (Score:2)
You're somewhat right, but "Bündnis 90/Die Grünen" (= official name of the German Green Party) isn't that much more appealing either. And I bet that unfortunately a good amount of people don't even now what "Bndins 90" stands for and what's the story of that part of the name.
Or ÖkoLinX-Antirassistische Liste [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
In Denmark, we have The Left, which is a right wing party, the Radical Left, a center/left party and the Danish Peoples Party, a socialist/conservative party. When I think about the names, they are hilarious, but nobody thinks about what they mean in normal conversation. If the pirate party survives 10 years in the main stream, it will be the same thin
big win (Score:5, Informative)
This is a huge win for the german Pirate Party, as it puts it on the radar of all the mainstream press, even those that tried to ignore it so far.
By this time tomorrow, everyone in Germany will have heard about the Pirate Party. That one of the old, established parties has been decisively kicked from parliament (~2% of the votes, with 5% being required to enter parliament) only strengthens this perception, as the Pirate Party is called a "replacement" in some circles - the party kicked out is the Liberal party, which aside from being strictly capitalistic also used to ride on the tickets of things like freedom, liberty, individualism - stuff that is close to the Pirates as well.
Also, the PP has gotten through other important barriers straight away: They're officially a faction, with all the rights (an office in the parliament building, etc.) of the old parties. It will be receiving campaign money (Germany has a system where the parties receive tax money to cover their expenses during the campaigns, based on the number of votes they got, but you need a certain amount to receive any at all. The purpose of the system is to make sure not only the rich can afford campaigns, and parties don't need to rely on contributions from lobbyists/companies/etc. to campaign).
Re: (Score:3)
I'm hoping that stuff like this means saner candidates and third-party candidates will have a better shot in the 2012 elections in the States.
Re: (Score:2)
Unlikely. For comparison, the threshold for getting a party into congress is 50% compared to Germany's 5%. Second, we have no such enlightened system of using tax money to fund campaigns, we prefer our congressmen to be bought. Investing in the underdog is not a good business strategy. These two things, which generally go under the headings "electoral reform" and "campaign finance reform" require constitutional amendments. It's unlikely in the extreme that 2/3 of the sitting congresspeople will vote fo
Re: (Score:2)
When has the US ever cared about European political systems? Here in Europe parties come and go, merge and split all the time while the US has ignored it for well over 100 years. If I was a bookmaker I'd give lower odds on a muslim ladyboy becoming President than a third party getting any power. The whole system is rigged that way and both parties love it because they can never "lose", the voters will pass the ball between them but they always return in a few years.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not likely. The US has a two-party system and a majority or first-past-the-post voting system. Germany has 4-7 major parties (depending on how you count) and a proportional voting system.
Arrr, matey (Score:2)
This be happenin' on a most auspicious day, me hearties! Haul anchor!
[2011-09-19 00:17 local time]
Libertarian (Score:2)
Pirate Party is basically libertarian.
Here is from wiki:
The party supports the preservation of current civil rights in telephony and on the Internet; in particular, it opposes the European data retention policies and Germany's new Internet censorship law called Zugangserschwerungsgesetz. It also opposes artificial monopolies and various measures of surveillance of citizens.
The party favors the civil right to information privacy and reforms of copyright, education, computer science and genetic patents.
It promotes in particular an enhanced transparency of government by implementing open source governance and providing for APIs to allow for electronic inspection and monitoring of government operations by the citizen.
It is aimed at minimizing government involvement into some specific areas, but anything that is aimed at minimizing government involvement is anti-establishment and may just be a special case of libertarian movement.
Re: (Score:3)
That's a stretch. There is defiantly a mistrust of government and established corporations there but as to making any attempt to force libertarian values onto the citizens or change the role of the government I don’t really see it.
Increased privacy and government accountability and the destruction of IP monopolies are not really core political policies. I guess they might develop into libertarians but they could just as easily be a centrist (status quo) party with these views. I think the party core v
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
The german pirate party supports a basic income guarantee (social security with less stigma and pressure to get a viable job). That puts them way out of anything an American for instance would recognize as "libertarian".
Re: (Score:2)
I would just like to add that when i though more about it; I think they are (making up the term) "youth conservatives".
They want the internet to the 90s where no one policed it, IP laws working for the benefit of the creators as it was intended and as far as I know originally worked and they want business being subservient to government as previously has been.
They are wanting to reverse some the 'negative' changes of the past few decades rather than moving towards some abstract idealism of "piracy".
Re: (Score:2)
The copyright and education reforms are aimed at creating and nurturing a public good (ie. knowledge), and privacy laws are directed at corporations at least as much as government institutions. Also, I have heard no Pirate argue for tax reductions on business.
While conservatives might label them as anarchist for their civil rights views, many self-styled libertarians in the US would therefore call them socialist. In other words, most of them are in the south-west quadrant on the Political Compass (which, ke
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see how preventing government from massively expanding its powers into realms it has never had it before is "minimising government". Also, preventing abuse of copyright is just as much of a job as helping its abuse, it's just too many governments are misdirecting their resources into the long term destruction of society.
Phillip.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It is aimed at minimizing government involvement into some specific areas, but anything that is aimed at minimizing government involvement is anti-establishment and may just be a special case of libertarian movement.
"Libertarian", in modern English (and excluding groups such as libertarian socialisms, which are fringe even within the fringe libertarian movement), is a person who is against state/society intervention into and regulation of both social and economical activity.
All points that you've listed point towards them being "social libertarians". However, their economic policy - outside of curtailment of copyright and patents - is not a libertarian one by any measure, and, to the extent that it is fleshed out, in f
Re: (Score:3)
You are on the right track, you are almost there. [slashdot.org]
The entire point of having a government is so that your liberties and freedoms are protected, but government was usurped by private interests and now it truly does exist only to protect special corporate interests. That's why the inflation exists, that's why monopolies are protected, that's why the government is of the size that it is, that's why you can be ordered to be assassinated by your president.
I cannot wait for the next Canadian election! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Unfortunately, the Canadians are the victims of the so-called "first past the post" riding system, which is very anti-democratic. This means you will have to pick your riding very carefully.
OMG (Score:2)
As much as I'm for keeping the established parties on their toes, the pirate party certainly will not be able to do so. Has anyone bothered following their top candidate in television? Be my guest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-cDewZk7wo [youtube.com]
Berlin has bigger problems than anybody in the pirate party could possibly handle or let alone help solve.
Unlikely to translate nationally (Score:2)
In case anyone is wondering I think this success is unlikely to translate to such a success nationally. Remember that Berlin is not only a city state but also a fairly hip one !! The PP are not likely to get this level of support in, for example, more rural areas !!
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not so sure. I think it's a sign that more and more of those who grew up on MP3s, basically the Napster Generation and beyond are now old enough to vote.
It might be slightly lower in rural areas, but in general youth culture is quite connected especially since the Internet came along. This victory will give the PP credibility that voting for them can get them past the 5% rule in Germany. 9% in Berlin could well translate to 5+% in at least some of Germany's states.
Of course it also could be a blip, but
Re:First... (Score:5, Informative)
Just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day [talklikeapirate.com], September 19th.
Re:First... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
No, that was robin hood.
Pirates became famous for relieving people of their jewelry, warez, wifes, etc... Like politicians.
Isn't it weird?
Historically pirates wanted to relive you of your warez and now they distribute them for no apparent profit...
Re: (Score:3)
Q: How can you tell when a politician is lying?
A: His lips move.
Re:First... (Score:4, Funny)
A: His lips move.
Or his parrot's do.
Re: (Score:3)
Guy Fawkes [wikipedia.org] the only person in history to enter Parliament (or indeed any political establishment) with honest intentions
Re:Dear Pirate Party: (Score:5, Insightful)
If you had actually read the statements of the german Pirate Party, you'd know their position is not one of "screw the creators, everything free for everyone", but quite a bit more thought-out. Go read it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Links?
Nein, rechts.
Re:Dear Pirate Party: (Score:4, Informative)
They say a lot of things, but under Politics -> Copyright [piratenpartei.de] you find statements like:
Daher fordern wir, das nichtkommerzielle Kopieren, ZugÃnglichmachen, Speichern und Nutzen von Werken nicht nur zu legalisieren, sondern explizit zu fÃrdern, um die allgemeine Verfügbarkeit von Information, Wissen und Kultur zu verbessern, denn dies stellt eine essentielle Grundvoraussetzung für die soziale, technische und wirtschaftliche Weiterentwicklung unserer Gesellschaft dar.
Or in English (unofficial translation):
Therefore we demand that non-commercial copying, sharing, storing and use of works not only be legalized, but explicitly promoted to improve the overall availability of information, knowledge and culture, because this is a crucial prerequisite for the social, technical and economic development of our society.
I think there's a few copyright holders who would choke on that one. Also they want to built open, anonymous wifi networks and absolve the ISPs of all liability = free file sharing in practice. They have a very broad political program compared to the Swedish party, but they are no less radical when it comes to copyright. I do hope hey pass the 5% barrier in the national election in 2013, then it could get real fun (they had 2% in 2009 - more than 3x what the Swedish PP managed in their national election...)
Re: (Score:2)
Compared to the industry-bought-and-paid-for other parties, yes they are extremists.
Then you remember that our current copyright laws would have been deemed insane by the inventors of the original system, in terms of length and controls and punishments.
Non-commercial copying of music was quite common when I was young. It was called bootlegging and many of those were on sale in record stores. Some bands like the Grateful Dead even supported the fans making them.
In Germany, until very recently, it was perfect
Re: (Score:2)
forcing doctors and teachers to work for no pay
Hilariously, if docs and teachers were treated like "content creators" then we'd have to pay huge amounts of money to their managers in perpetuity to basically do nothing, while the docs and teachers got practically no pay after they pay their bills. Oh wait...
Re:Dear Pirate Party: (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell that to the music labels.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Can you justify a retroactive copyright extension like the one that got just passed in Europe one month ago? How the hell a retroactive extension is going to encourage creation in the past? Or is the copyright extension including a time machine?
With these things one wonders how they are not getting even more votes....
Encourages dead+decomposing composers to write new (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
(And, no, I'm not defending the long-copyright terms or the large fines imposed on pirates.)
And their platform doesn't seek to end all copyright in all forms. Their first goals are to shorten the terms, do away with the excessive fines on individuals and restore due process to the proceedings. That seems pretty reasonable.
They call themselves "Pirate" because they have already been branded with the name by the MAFIAA (which seems to consider anything short of signing our paychecks over to them and electing them dictator for life to be piracy).
Re: (Score:2)
How many times do artists deserve to get paid for the same 1 item of their artistic work? And for how many years will they and their heirs and the heirs of their heirs deserve to get paid for the lead character in "Steamboat Willie"?
Which other job on Earth rewards 1 piece of work perpetually, for all eternity?
Re: (Score:2)
Which other job on Earth rewards 1 piece of work perpetually, for all eternity?
First, no 'job' does that, including jobs protected by copyright. Furthermore you are clouding the issue by adding 'job' in there. If you would ask the question correctly (what other producer of goods on Earth rewards 1 piece of work as long as people think it has value) the answer is much clearer. EXCEPT for works protected by copyright, which have an artificial expiration date (no matter how long it is), ALL of them.
If you make any product, no matter what it is or how long ago you 'made' it, you can se
Re: (Score:2)
Oh yeah? So once Coca-Cola sold the first bottle of Coke they lost the ability to sell more? Once Apple sold the first iPod they lost the ability to sell more? No, in every case you only lose the ability to sell that particular copy of the item. You can continue to sell (and more importantly, profit from) additional copies of the thing, as long as people want them. There is a difference between 'selling AN iPad' (which costs a few hundred dollars), and 'selling iPad' (which would cost a few billion doll
Re: (Score:2)
Coca-Cola lost the ability to sell the first bottle of coke, and in order to sell more bottles of Coke they had to manufacture more. They have to continue manufacturing Coke for as long as they want to sell it, therefore they are continually working and continually purchasing new raw materials in order to make Coke.
They cannot, having manufactured the first bottle of Coke, produce infinite more bottles for free and with no effort.
And copyright doesn't give you the ability to sell something, it simply makes
Re: (Score:2)
Nice troll. Now face it, copyright is doomed and dying. No amount of whining and name calling will stop the world from advancing. You speak of fairness? It is unfair of you to want to hold us all back for the sake of a broken business model that never was much good, or necessary.
Why do you worship at the altar of copyright? You aren't capable of seeing any other way, anything at all, for encouraging the arts and sciences? You're afraid of change? It will be a much, much better world when copyright
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not fond of their "free copying for everyone so long as it's non-commercial" stance either, but so long as they are a minority party, there's no chance this is getting on the law books. On the other hand, they might be able to block some of the more atrocious pro-copyright stuff, such as further extensions to the term, or extending the scope of copyright/patents, or making penalties harsher than many crimes where people are physically hurt, or circumventing due process ("three strike laws" etc).
Even if
Re: (Score:2)
Dear creators,
> We deserve to get paid for our work
But finding out actually _how_ to get paid is your problem. If you cant, nobody owes you a working business model. You dont somehow _have_ to work as a creator. If nobody wants to voluntarily pay you for doing creative stuff, go flip burgers.
> your desire to get other people's valuable hard work for free
This is not about "getting free stuff", no matter how often you creators repeat it.
The unpleasent fact about life is that people like to exchange info
Re: (Score:2)
The purpose of a patent is to prevent others from profiting off of your invention, or method of doing something for a finite period of time.
In the US, that is absolutely NOT the purpose of a patent. Is that not the case elsewhere? The US constitution specifically states that it's to "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." The method of promoting science and useful arts is to allow the creator to profit, thus encouraging them to do their thing by allowing them to be compensated for it. The point is absolutely
Re: (Score:2)
Do you really think extending copyright term (retroactively!) is going to affect whether or not somebody decides to write a novel or a song?
Of course it is. How else would we encourage John Lennon or Elvis Presley to do new work?
Re: (Score:2)
If it has no value, why do people want it?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps this is the people's way of saying they don't approve of that?
Re: (Score:2)
"Polish hackers were attacking our telecommunications infrastructure at Gliwice! We have been pinging back since 5:45 AM!"