Swedish Filesharers Start 'The Piracy Party' 723
sp3tt writes "Tired of being called criminals, a group of Swedish filesharers have started a new political party, The Piracy Party (Piratpartiet in Swedish). The party wants to abolish all intellectual property laws, reverse the data retention directive passed by the EU last month, and protect privacy with new laws. The party expresses no opinion on other subjects. The Piracy Party's webpage is so far only available in Swedish, at piratpartiet.se The party's goal is to get into to the parliament, which requires 4% of the votes, or roughly 225000 votes. Elections are held in September."
Two questions: (Score:4, Funny)
And, what are the minimum residency requirements for voting in Sweden?
Re:Two questions: (Score:5, Funny)
Ge oss dina favoritargument!
You have to love languages where you can combinemultiplewords to expressasingleconcept. I doubt they have German beat, though.
Re:Two questions: (Score:5, Informative)
Your two english examples are wrong though, we'd never combine words that way. It would be more like "You have to love languages where you can multiwordcombine in order to singleconceptexpress." Note that those two are the verbal forms of the (literally translated) words multiwordcombination (flerordskombination) and singleconceptexpression (enkeltkonceptsudtryk), none of which are used at all, but are readily understandable. See also Agglutinative languages [wikipedia.org] for some more information on the topic of forming new words by combining others (which does happen in English as well).
Re:Two questions: (Score:2)
Re:Two questions: (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Two questions: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Two questions: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Two questions: (Score:5, Funny)
At least, I think that's what that would mean; I can't remember if "Unterführer" can be split, and it's been about six years since I used German conversationally for any length of time.
Finnish (Score:3, Interesting)
N Verb Meaning
0 tehdä - to do
1 teettää - to have someone do
2 teetättää - to have someone have someone do
3 teetätättää to have someone have someone have someone do
N tee(tä)Nttää to (have someone)N do
And then there's one of my all time favourite dialogues, though not heavy on compound words:
"Älä räkkää kääkkää"
"En mä rääkkää kääkkääkä
Re:Two questions: (Score:5, Insightful)
Think about the english noun "water tap". Notice that it's just that - a noun. If "water" was an adjective, then it would be an adjective and a noun; but it isn't, since if it was, it would make sense to say things like "the tap is water". The first word in "rusty tap", however, Is an adjective.
Though English puts spaces in nouns, it doesn't usually put spaces in adjectives (it's written "able-bodied man" instead of "able bodied man"). I guess that would just be too confusing..
To sum it up, English puts spaces in its nouns. Most other germanic languages don't. Who's being weird? =)
Re:Two questions: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Two questions: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Two questions: (Score:4, Interesting)
Funny....if we try to do that here in the US...we get branded a 'racist'.
I've been getting a little pissed lately that EVERYTHING is written in Spanish and English. Nowdays, when I have to go through an automated phone system, it starts with a spanish message. What is the deal with that? What happened to immigrants moving to the US, and becoming assimilated into the 'melting pot'...learning English, and fitting into American society?
Sorry...but reading this just hit a hot spot with me of late. I mean...when you travel to another country outside of the US, with the exception of tourist areas...they don't have every sign in 5 different languages, they expect you to pick up on the native language of the country.
I recently heard that Alabama voted to have English as the official state language. All driving tests were in English only....and the ACLU is now suing them...what the hell?
Re:Two questions: (Score:3, Insightful)
When I voiced this same opinion some time back I got modded into the ground, then spit on.
While I'm Anglo, and can get by en Francais, speak enough Viet and Thai to be able to order food and be pleasant, and am trying to learn Cantonese (my wife hates it when I try to speak Guangdong-wha, says I sound vietnamese :) ) , my wife was born in Canton, China. They then moved to Lima, Peru. The whole family learned spanish to survive. They then moved the kid
Re:Two questions: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Two questions: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Two questions: (Score:5, Funny)
Voting rules (Score:3, Informative)
Better yet.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:5, Interesting)
The big news here, to me, is that Sweden seems to allow minority opinions into their parliament (similar to Costa Rica and other countries). In the US it is near impossible to get a minority opinion into even a state legislature -- democracy and gerrymandering prevent the minority opinion from ever seeing the light of day.
225,000 votes is a LOT of votes. Does anyone know what the 18-30 male voting record is in terms of actually making it to the ballot box to vote? In recent local elections that I've witnessed (I like to watch), I haven't seen anything but blue haired ladies with walkers hitting the booths. I don't think I saw one person under the age of 40 at my booth (and I witnessed the voters for over 3 hours). I'm not sure how well this would work even if our voting system did allow for minority parties with minority positions to get elected.
Does bork bork bork mean "freedom to copy" now?
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:5, Informative)
Crash course in Swedish:
Ålder = Age
Röstande i % av röstberättigade = Voters as % of allowed voters
Män = Men
Kvinnor = Women
Alla = All
år = years
Förstagångsväljare = First-time voters
Samtliga = All
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:3, Interesting)
Which says, "In 2002, over 14 million Americans age 12 and older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed, and 12.2 percent of past year marijuana users used marijuana on 300 or more days in the past 12 months."
The US population at the time (including minors was 288 million) so:
14/288 = 0.04
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, that's the difference between a parliamentary system and the system here in the US.
Re: democracy: It's not democracy that's the problem -- it's the form of democracy in the US. Rules that favor a two-party system, etc. There's a reason that democracy has been called the tyranny of the majority.
Re: gerrymandering -- this doesn't kill third parties so much as it is used to prevent 2nd-party opposition from gaining ground. What really kills 3rd-parties is campaign finance -- few corporations will give tons of $$ to a party unlikely to have any pull when it comes time to pay the piper. Without having any pull, it's hard to get that critical mass of funding where a party can really get going.
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's funny how we preach democracy while working so hard to deny people choices and quash minority representation.
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:3, Insightful)
But, that 'tyranny of the minority' can often serve as a ameliator of bad policies that the majority wants to enact. It forces compromise, and cautious action, which is generally A Good Thing, IMO.
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:3, Informative)
Googling...
Googling...
Yup! American Voters aged 18-24 come up with numbers like 36%.
http://www.civicyouth.org/research/products/fact_
Re:Do Swede young males vote even? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, that is why they choose to call it a Parley-ment.
America's founding fathers were well aware of such a system. It was the one they were living under until independence was declared (with the caveat that they themselves were not allowed at the parley table); and so they were aware of its shortcomings and sought to obviate them. They were also well aware that they were trading one set of shortcomings for another. It's wise to remember that when the grass looks greener on the other side.
"Well, we solved that problem. Hey! Where'd that problem come from?"
All that said it's true that I have never had a representative in government, in the truest sense of the word, not one, in my entire life. Nor do I ever expect to have one. Under a parliamentary system I might well have someone who at least represents me in some focused issue or other.
KFG
No copyright == no GPL too! (Score:5, Insightful)
The downside of their proposal is that it is extremely profitable for big business, more so then for occasional filesharers. If there is no copyright, businesses will be able to rip of any Linux distro and sell it as their own (or any other piece of copyrighted work). This will rearrange the playingfield, but the ones with lots of money to invest have a big advantage here.
Copyright is a double edged sword: it protects the big evil business taking advantage of musicians and authors, but also protects independent musicians and authors from the big evil companies (if they are smart enough not to sign all their rights over for a cheap meal and a record deal).
Re:No copyright == no GPL too! (Score:5, Interesting)
I am a strong believer that copyright laws create monsters like the RIAA -- whenever you have a law that offers an individual or a group the ability to use force (a government monopoly) over another individual or group, you'll have VERY bad abuses. I'm an author (blogger, book writer and I perform some private speaking engagements) and all my works are public domain. I used to own a software company (now strictly IT consulting) that produced numerous public domain products for my customer base.
The great part of removing myself from copyright protections is that I can now sell to my customers what I am capable of doing: face-to-face productions of my works. As a newsletter writer, I made more money on speaking engagements than on actually selling the newsletter. With copyright, I would need to use the force of government to force my readers to control their thoughts regarding my writings.
Sure, some big company can go and "steal" content, but they still need money to distribute it, and in the long run, those who can create content aren't really protected either. Have you seen how many actors, musicians and painters actually profit from their work? They don't, but the distribution cartels sure do.
Copyright does not protect anyone but those who control the copying: the distributors.
Re:No copyright == no GPL too! (Score:5, Interesting)
I believe VERY strongly in private property rights -- the right to do on your land what you want to do with your property, body and time. I think the Constitution originally was prepared to protect property rights, but over time things have changed.
I do not see any right to items that are no longer in your control. Once you sell, give away or barter an item to someone else, that item is that person's. If it is a book, they own the book -- what they do with the book is their inherent right. They can copy it, modify it, burn it, it doesn't matter, you reliquished control.
There are hundreds of thousands of slashdot readers who refute me -- but none of them seem to have every written a book, played music for an album or created a movie. In my experience, freeing your information for copying is the best way to get public speaking engagements, get people to come to your concert and get people to visit your theatre production. I find it ridiculous to think that someone should have a right to have a monopoly over words or actions -- they're not really protectable in a free market.
Copyright laws are strongest for the content distribution companies: I call them the content cartels. The RIAA, MPAA, the two book author associations and the other cartels that distribute content. Popular musicians make no money on their content, they usually make money at their shows. At many shows you can buy a T-shirt for $20 from the band or for $5 from the guy outside: many people buy from the band. How many times have you seen "popular" actors end up on Broadway or smaller theatre groups?
In the end, I prefer to see people making money for performing an action: putting someone on paper or CD or DVD form and hoping to make money by forcing others to disregard their private property rights is wrong to me. I will never use force against another person offensively: copyright is force.
Re:No copyright == no GPL too! (Score:3, Insightful)
Not a smorgasbord (Score:3, Insightful)
It is probably just a publicity stunt, just in the past few months two much more likely contenders for parliament (a EU sceptic party and a feminist party) fizzled in record time on grounds of not having a political line in all areas of politics (well, you can argue that they fizzled because they were clowns, and that probably co
Re:Not all parlimentary systems are like that... (Score:3, Informative)
As the original poster said, in countries without proportional representation, such as Canada and the UK, you vote for a candidate in your riding. The leader of the party that elects the most members becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister decides who becomes ministers in his or her Cabinet (or Executive). And while the ranks of Ministers are typically taken from MPs from his or her party, any citizen may be appointed to Cabinet. (For example, the former Premier of British C
Non sequitur (Score:5, Funny)
From The Inquirer: Its massage is that corporations are engaging in racketeering in the developing world and a few power hungry individuals and greedy corporate entities are infringing on privacy and integrity.
Got to hand it to the Swedes, combining political advocacy with pirates and massages.
Re:Non sequitur (Score:2)
Re:Non sequitur (Score:2)
Got to hand it to the Swedes, combining political advocacy with pirates and massages.
Well, you know, nothing beats a swedish massage.
A *real* piracy party... (Score:4, Funny)
Immaterial? (Score:5, Insightful)
If their aim is to abolish immaterial law, then how do they reconcile that with protecting privacy? After all, that would be immaterial law, would it not?
I think this party would have much better support if they tried to reduce copyright terms to something more sensible like ~15 years, to see what affect competition with a more contemporary public domain would have on the market, before jumping headlong into abolishing copyright altogether.
Look where fighting them in their terms brought us (Score:2)
I think theirs is a perfect emergency platfor
Re:Immaterial? (Score:2)
Re:Lost you sense of humor over the Holidays? (Score:3, Insightful)
They could just be testing the water, this sort of thing might catch on with other small parties.
Excellent !!! (Score:5, Funny)
I think the best part about a Piracy Party (Score:5, Funny)
Going too far, most people just want a balance (Score:4, Insightful)
Would you like to live in an anarchy? No. It'd suck because there were no rules.
Likewise this would suck.
Instead they should just be holding back on patents, fighting for fair-term copyrights (e.g., 50 years maximum), and fair-use rights (purchased music is owned and can be copied by the owner as many times, but not redistributed unless all other copies are destroyed/included in the redistribution) and to not have spyware installed on the computer regardless of how they respond to the EULA. Basically, strong limitations on what the corporations can and cannot do, and some restrictions on the users to encourage responsible behaviour.
Re:Going too far, most people just want a balance (Score:5, Interesting)
Please explain your view of why this is "anarchy" (defined by dictionary.com as "Absense of any form of political authority").
I know it may be hard for you to accept, but there are those who believe that intellectual property rights are more destructive than beneficial, and that any theoretical reduction in intellectual property production/IP quality is well worth the benefits of having all IP in the public domain. You may disagree with this viewpoint, but that's no reason to demean them with overly dramatic language for holding that viewpoint.
In fact, I would argue that you look at China as an example of what happens in a country with poor IP control. Almost all CDs sold in China are produced by professional pirates (not kids downloading music on their computers). Is there no domestic Chinese music industry? Hardly. Chinese musicians make most of their money through concerts, doing ad spots, and all sorts of other means.
Re:Going too far, most people just want a balance (Score:3, Interesting)
However if the period of time for these things is too long, then the creator will sit back on their existing creations. Things become stale. This is what we have now for the most part.
So a balance seems to be what is required. Enough of something to encourage people to create (which takes time and money) whic
Why do you think none? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Going too far, most people just want a balance (Score:5, Insightful)
Only if they have never written a letter, posted on a message board, taken a photograph, made a sketch...
Re:Going too far, most people just want a balance (Score:3, Insightful)
If I copy your school paper, what sort of damages are you going to seek? Statutory? Nope, you can't get that unless you register your copyright before the infringement occurs. Legal fees? Sorry, can't get that either. All you can seek is loss of income - how much income would me copying that paper cost you?
Yes, i
Within the system? (Score:2)
Oops....is my cynicism showing?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
That Long, Long List of Great Swedish Musicians (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, wait...
Re:That Long, Long List of Great Swedish Musicians (Score:3, Funny)
imagine how horrible and sad the world would be without these wonderful swedish musicians..
Not good marketing, but some good ideas (Score:4, Insightful)
In particular, derivative works are often the sources of significant new ideas, but the current laws make that very dangerous. Punchline: Walt Disney's stuff was highly derivative, but if a new creator tried to do the same stuff to Disney, Inc., they'd slap him in jail sooooo fast.
However, the largest abuse is probably unlimited term extension for copyright. There is almost nothing left for "society" in that area.
What about the small guys..? (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, I think it would be better to abolish ones claim on intellectual property after a reason timespan, similar to how patents expire, with the exception that it's shorter. Like per se, 3 to 5 years.
This gives the creator some incentive to make a product, giving it an edge in the industry for a few years, and after that, when everyon
Slashdot Poll!! (Score:2, Interesting)
As for the results,Question is whether they will have 99% or 100 % of sladotters votes!
Wow. (Score:5, Insightful)
Err, wait a minute.
*thinks*
...
I mean, it must be absolutely awesome to live in a country where there's more than one political party.
Re:Wow. (Score:3, Informative)
In the US . . . (Score:3, Funny)
Or maybe it's, in Soviet Russia, state property pirates YOU!
Or something like that,... I digress!
The Bodström Shield (Score:5, Informative)
One of their goals is to fire the current minister of justice, Thomas Bodström, and I whole-heartedly support this. He has implemented the "Bodström filters" in Sweden, and the country has thus joined the club of filter regimes (Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Bahrain etc.). He is also the man behind increased surveillance of phones, e-mail and other means of communication in Sweden, and he has been labeled as dangerous to society by many leading newspaper columnists.
The sad reality is that this "Bodström Shield" probably will be implemented in most of Europe rather than be dismantled. This is the unfortunate political trend of today, initiated by the Bush administration.
The Pirate Party says it will allow Mr. Bodström selling hotdogs outside the parliament building, at least in the winter.
The party stands no chance of reaching the required 4% to reach parliamentary seats, although Sweden has many such fringe parties. They may, however, affect the attitude of other parties, which may take a ride on the popular train of file sharing.
Re:The Bodström Shield (Score:2)
This is the unfortunate political trend of today, initiated by the Bush administration.
You mention filtering internet connections and then bring up Bush. Not sure what you are talking about, we Americans still have unfiltered internet. Thanks. And if it was a shot at the recent spying on americans (which has nothing to do with filtering) well go e
Re:The Bodström Shield (Score:2, Insightful)
Stop it with the failed business model BS (Score:2)
Is 'They the Party' anything like 'We, the People'? I'm sure it was something lost in translation (or gained, in this instance).
"They will refuse to allow data retention nonsense based on terrorism claims or failed RIAA business models."
I am so sick and tired of hearing about 'failed RIAA business models.' This has nothing to do with the traditional record industry business model -- it has everything to do with whether IP is valid property or not. Busin
Re:Stop it with the failed business model BS (Score:3, Interesting)
Art, be it music or any other form, rarely pays a decent living. Does that suck? Yes. But it is reality.
"And also spare us the idealistic "Well, if you don't like it, you can go indie" crap. It's hard enough making a living as a musician (or any other sort of artist, Web designers and commercial artists possibly excepted); it's even harder when you're indie."
No one said life was easy. Not my problem if you're art doesn't have enough market appeal to make you a living... get a day job, just
Re:Stop it with the failed business model BS (Score:3, Interesting)
They have. It's called the American Federation of Musicians. Mostly protects working/session musicians, just like SAG, Equity, and IATSE are mainly for working theatrical/movie people, not so much for stars.
Do we bring Rum or Absolut? (Score:5, Funny)
Fantastic! (Score:2)
We make jokes... (Score:2)
...but at least these folks are trying. Will it catch on? Who knows. But those of us in the USA could take a page from this book. There are lots of complaints that you can't get a voice in the system thanks to the Republicans and Democrats, but last I checked people in this country were allowed to hold contrary opinions to the major parties. And their are literally hundreds of parties in this country, though most represent small minorities of people.
All it would take is a grass roots campaign, an issue th
Loose translation (Score:3, Informative)
from http://technocrat.net/article.pl?sid=06/01/03/0045 243&mode=thread [technocrat.net]
Here is a loose translation of the Pirate Party's start page:
Phase 1: Gather signatures for the Election Authority
We need 1500 signatures before the end of February in order to enter the parliamentary elections for 2006. In order to have a small safety margin we shall gather 2000 before February 4th, that gives us time to finish the administrivia for the Election Authority (which is nearly guaranteed to dislike us, or what)
Just right now we are validating all the signatures. We have received over 4000 signatures in less than 24 hours. Right now we are going through the whole lot to verify that we can provide them to the Election Authority.
What is this about?
The Pirate Party aims to take up the roll of maintaining a balance of power after the 2006 election. There are between 800 000 and 1 100 000 active file swappers in Sweden, and they are all tired of being called criminals. We need to have 225 000 of them with us to cross the four percent threshold and land in the roll of power balance.
To get one fourth of a criminalized and angry mob with us is far from unachievable. It is that which we shall achieve in the coming nine months.
Are youse serious?
"You had better believe it. This is the real thing."
What is the Pirate Party's platform?
The Pirate Party's platform is the abolishment of immaterial property (copyright, patents, trademarks and patterns) and the derivative effects (extra fees on blank tapes) and is furthermore very strongly interested in protecting personal integrity (among other things that the data retention law shall not be implemented, and an expansion on the privacy of written correspondence to cover all communications, and a constitutional right to personal privacy.) We do not take a position in any other questions, especially not other politically divisive issues. (the point with that is that you should be able to vote for the Pirate Party without changing your position in the left-right scale of Swedish politics)
Furthermore we stand for that Thomas Bodström shall not accomplish new general tasks, as per his escapades with the data retention law
Which is the Pirate Party, Left or Right?
It is quaintly amusing that the Left accuses us of being for the Right while the Right accuses us of being for the Left. The Left reasons that culture is a generality, the Right that immaterial property create market damaging monopolies. Others simply don't care about Left-Right ideology and simply want to put an end to further hinderance of the advancement of technology and society for the sake of a short term profit.
Abolish trademarks too? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, er, if trademarks and similar are abolished, how do you make sure you're voting for the real Piracy Party, and not something with the same name but vastly different policies set up as a stunt by the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau?
The situation is weird (Score:2)
privacy vs intellectual property (Score:2)
Good but regressive. (Score:2, Insightful)
--
United Bimmer - BMW Enthusiast Community [unitedbimmer.com]
Only in Swedish - of course! (Score:5, Informative)
Why is that surprising? The webpages of the democratic/republican parties in the USA weren't available in Swedish last time I checked, either, so why should the webpage of a Swedish party necessarily be available in English? I'd think they have lots of more important things to do before doing a translation for a bunch of people who can't even vote.
Right to privacy, but no Intellectual Property?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Umm, privacy is a form of Intellectual Property. If you're going to do away with IP, then you can't have Privacy. This stand doesn't make much sense to me.
Both sides are somewhat wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
I know, I'm the only person on Slashdot who feels that both sides in this issue are somewhat wrong, so please feel free to flame me.
Re:Both sides are somewhat wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Both sides are somewhat wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess I'm the only one on Slashdot who thinks it's reasonable for record labels to want to make some money.
Nope, I certainly don't think it is wrong for them to want money. I just don't see what valuable service they provide that they should have the right to be given money. Artists make art and should be paid for it. The RIAA has colluded to take over all the major distribution channels for music. As such they force artists to give up their copyrights in order to be heard. This is unethical and mos
They have my vote. (Score:3, Insightful)
I created a new party... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm even using the same name.... The Piracy Party.
And there's not a damn thing they can do about it.
Know what would be funny? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:5, Insightful)
Are there really that many people, even on Slashdot, that think stealing intellectual property is not wrong?
Hopefully, most people on Slashdot are educated enough to know that "stealing intellectual property" is not even possible, by definition. (Well, maybe it is possible with some sort of memory erasing device.)
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:5, Insightful)
Theft is any time that someone acquires property from someone without their permission.
From Webster: Steal v. t. "To take, and carry away, feloniously; to take without right or leave, and with intent to keep wrongfully; as, to steal the personal goods of another."
How exactly can I carry away so called intellectual property? Do do so (rather than to copy it and carry away a copy) requires that I deprive the original "owner" of that property. Making a copy of a dollar bill is not called stealing, it is called counterfeiting. Making a copy of a copyrighted book without permission is not called stealing. It is called copyright infringement. Knowingly violating a patent is not called stealing. It is called patent violation (or patent infringement). Passing off another's work as my own is not stealing. It is called plagiarism. Buy a dictionary already.
If a teenager stole my car every night and when joyriding but brought in back every morning before I left for work I would still consider it stealing.
...but you'd probably be wrong. They may have illegally borrowed your car, but if they intend to return it, it is not stealing, unless you count them keeping it for a time as "keeping it." In any case, copying something is not stealing it. That is why we have different words for different things. It makes these distinctions clear.
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:3, Informative)
"To take (the property of another) without right or permission."
"To commit theft"
Applicable definitions of "Take", from dictionary.com:
"To capture physically; sieze."
Applicable definitions of "Theft", from dictionary.com:
"The act or instance of stealing; larceny."
Applicable definitions of "Larceny", from dictionary.com:
"The unlawful taking and removing of another's personal property with the intent of permanently depriving the owner; theft."
I find it ha
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:3, Insightful)
"Your speculation is true - the founder is an extreme capitalist that views legal monopolies as unbalanced between the state and
the monopoly owner; the state is handing out monopolies like candy, getting nothing (or even negative value) in return. No
business would agree to exclusivity like that, ever.
Signed, the founder (and leader) of Piratpartiet"
i.e. - the reason a loss occurs is because of a state enforced ruling.
It is as if a law was passed requiring town cr
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about stealing trade secrets? (Score:3, Interesting)
Tell me, if a company appropriated the trade secrets of a rival company without permission (what is commonly known as "stealing" trade secrets) would you consider that "stealing" even though the wronged company still has possession of copies of said secrets?
No, I would not. I usually hear such activities referred to as "industrial espionage" or "appropriation" of trade secrets in any reputable publication with competent writers.
I assume you would admit that it falls under one of the basic categories
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:2)
I think you meant to say...
"Are there really that many people, even on Slashdot, that think committing copyright infringement in certain cases (note: copyright infringement is NOT stealing - and please DON'T mix copyright with patents by using this absurd term "intellectual property") is not wrong?"
Or maybe:
"Are there really that many people, even on Slashdot, that think sharing overpriced content (ow
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:2)
lesser of two evils (Score:2)
but what intellectual property holders are allowed to do to enforce that idea is worse
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:2)
Stealing intellectual property is when you claim you own a copyright, trademark, or patent that you do not own. Recording studios do it all the time [superswell.com], as do software companies [sco.com], and you're right that most people on Slashdot think it's wrong.
What you're talking about is infringement, but if you insist on using physical metaphors, it would be more accurate to call it 'trespassing'. Do many people on Slash
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:2)
I'd say quite the opposite of your point - It takes a herculean effort to convince people that "stealing" intangibles counts as a crime in any way at all. We learn from a young age that society considers "sharing" a good trait; The entirety of IP law goes against that, and with the best possible sharing-"goods", ones that we can share yet still use ourselves.
In my personal experience, most peopl
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:2)
I hope you were being sarcastic, but this idea is neither new nor strange... this is how US politics has worked since day 1.
This is also the main precept of democracy in governmental theory -- by the social contract you agree to abide by the law, even if you disagree with it. You are welcome to work to change the law, however -- which is the nice thing about participatory democracy.
Re:More Criminals should try this (Score:2)
It's actually not hypocrisy (Score:2)
If there were no copyright at all, that would be more or less identical to everything being GPL: do as you please, but you can't stop others doing likewise. GPL is a use of copyright to subvert the effects of copyright.
If you break GPL, you're
- taking code that's free (behaves as if there were no copyright)
- making it unfree (asserting your own, undeserved copyright)
That is why it's not hypocritical to simultaneou
Tricky! (Score:2)
How can a criminal be elected so he can depenalize the very same things he's illegally doing?
It would be like naming Al Capone for the US senate to ban the Dry Law.
The solution: Name a person who doesn't have a record of file sharing (or name a scapegoat for him) and propose him for the ellections.
Re:Tricky! (Score:4, Informative)
Al Capone did not want to repeal prohibition. It's what made him money. Professional racketeers usually like the laws they're breaking, it means they're performing a service for which others will pay them.
Re:Cute (Score:2)
A quick wiki [wikipedia.org] confirmed my initial assumption that Sweden (like a fair few European countries) has a government elected by proportional representation.
So if enough people vote for you over the country as a whole, you get a seat in the elected body which legislates. This means that while you have the extreme parties represented