The Pirate Party
It should probably be noted that the German edition of the Pirate Party scored a pretty respectable two percent of the vote in their debut election. That would have been good enough for a Bundestag seat or two were it not for the rule that you need five percent of the vote to get counted in Germany’s proportional system. Many countries operate with a lower threshold. The Swedish version of the Pirate Party snagged a seat in the most recent European Parliament elections. The Pirates’ main issue—intellectual property—is probably best addressed at the European level and people are more inclined to vote for minor parties in European elections anyway, so you could imagine them building on this to elect some MEP’s from Germany in the future.
The Pirates strike me as more of an American-style “third party” than a European-style minor party. The difference, in my mind, is that rather than becoming stable junior partners in coalitions, what successful third parties do in the United States is get coopted by someone bigger who poaches their issue and their supporters.
At any rate, the case for substantial reform of intellectual property policy is quite strong on the merits, the issue is in fact crucially important as we move more and more into the digital economy, and yet no mainstream party anywhere in the world wants to touch it. So a little outside agitation seems to me to be exactly what the doctor ordered.
29 Responses to “The Pirate Party”
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September 28th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Matt,
You should have noted that the 5% threshold in Germany was enacted to prevent Die Republikaner, the neo-Nazi party, from taking seats in parliament.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
No one can touch it because corporations are too strong. But here’s an idea that I believe is constitutional.
A sliding scale of copyright.
That is, when first creating a work you get all the standard protections like it is now, but the more money you make off it, the less you make. That is, windfalls will REQUIRE you to keep on creating on not just live fat on 1 good idea, or have your family live fat on 1 good idea that their grand father had. This forces creativity but still protects low levels from exploitation and forces corporations to innovate.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Benny, the 5 threshold exists since the foundation of West Germany, the Republikaner were founded much later. So no Matt should not have mentioned something that is simply not true.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
That is, windfalls will REQUIRE you to keep on creating on not just live fat on 1 good idea
And for those who have only one good idea? Maybe The Vapors had it in them to make Turning Japanese and that was it.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Then they should have more good ideas, or work like the rest of us. I don’t think believing that the Vapors grandchildren shouldn’t be millionaires because of that song is a controversial idea.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Benny Lava,
the 5% threshold (in various forms) is used since 1949 in Bundestag elections to prevent a Weimar-like (12+ parties) fractured parliament.
“Die Republikaner” were founded 1983, 34 years after the introduction of the 5% threshold.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Also, #4, maybe we would have had many more Vapors hits if they werent encouraged to rest on their laurels like they were. sometimes copyrights can prevent great ideas/creations.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
IP laws aren’t a problem that needs to be fixed, any more than the law declaring that pi = 3 was a ‘problem.’
September 28th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
That is, when first creating a work you get all the standard protections like it is now, but the more money you make off it, the less you make. That is, windfalls will REQUIRE you to keep on creating on not just live fat on 1 good idea, or have your family live fat on 1 good idea that their grand father had. This forces creativity but still protects low levels from exploitation and forces corporations to innovate.
While this may be legitimate as a social justice issue, are “people who just live fat on 1 good idea” really even in the top ten challenges of copyright in the 21st century?
September 28th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I don’t think believing that the Vapors grandchildren shouldn’t be millionaires because of that song is a controversial idea.
That’s the American dream – you develop your “Jump to Conclusions” mat, it takes off, you sell your business and retire in comfort. That would be a very controversial idea I’d image.
I get your resentment – my parents were losers too. I just don’t think it makes sense to base my politics and policy prescriptions on my jealousy and resentment.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I think that the basic idea is generally right. You should be able to make whatever you possibly can on a bright idea for a period of time- past that people are allowed to copy you or build off of your idea. Then the issue is how long that period of time should be in order to balance the incentive to the person with the great idea and the good to society over having that idea freed up.
Clearly its ridiculous to extend the copyright protection on works created 75 years ago just to protect the interests of a corporation. Thats just selling a vote to the highest bidder. But I have zero problem at all that for a period of time you should be able to make whatever you can on something that would did not exist before you invented it.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
All that being said, I really don’t understand why the copyright on digital content (for personal use) should last so much longer than a patent. They should both last for ~20 years.
I could see the broadcast rights having a longer lifespan as you don’t want this change to be a huge windfall for the NBCs, HBOs and Comcasts of the world.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
What “main” issue? It’s their only issue.
“The Pirate Party does not have any policies on issues that traditionally concerns the left-right scale, or any other issues outside of our program of policies. We particularly does not concern ourselves with the division of wealth. We are not after dividing money between different groups in society. None of our propositions costs any money for the state, and several of them may potentially save money in the budget. Because of this, we can place ourselves outside of the struggle concerning the budget, with good faith, and leave it to the old parties.”
- from the Pirate Party of Sweden’s Platform
No better description of white, middle-class, techno-libertarianism has ever been written. To hell with everyone and anything else, only my torrents matter.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Steven: IIRC in addition to copyright/patent reform they have a similarly serious platform about privacy rights, especially related to the internet.
Regardless, as Matt said they are simply waiting to get swallowed up by some other party that supports their single issue (on which I believe their position is very strong), so if you care about social justice instead of cursing them you should just hope that social democrats (or more likely far-left parties or greens) incorporate privacy/patent reform into their platforms.
Not only that, although they claim to have no views on the distribution of wealth, it is I think pretty intuitively obvious that the main effect of this would be to reduce the wealth of a few very powerful and centralized content providers (RIAA, Disney, major publishers), some very rich artists, and some not-very-rich artists, but would benefit pretty much everyone else.
For that reason in the end I do think the left parties or greens are much more likely to adopt these positions than the libertarianish ones are – for libertarians corporate profits trump free markets every time.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
No better description of white, middle-class, techno-libertarianism has ever been written. To hell with everyone and anything else, only my torrents matter.
That’s the whole point of single-issue parties in Parliamentary systems – they get a few percent and raise awareness of their issue in hopes that they’ll be included in a coalition under the condition their issue will be addressed, or at least that a larger party will take their position in an effort to win over their voters. It seems to me to be the best way to enact their goals given a coalition-style system. If you feel that the state of one’s country is basically fine except for this issue (and Sweden certainly is), there’s not much point in fleshing out a whole platform.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Sam L:
I understand how this works, but I also note that the people who would benefit would not be everybody, they’d be people who have nice computers, good internet connections, and who are fairly tech-savvy.
Moreover, it still leaves open the question of how the hell elected Pirate Party politicians will vote on things that are really important like budgets and social/economic policy. You don’t get to sit out votes if you get elected.
Adam:
Yeah, that’s how the game gets played, but it’s weaselly. I would also note that the Greens, despite being essentially a successful single-party issue, have also developed a broader ideology that includes concepts of social justice and the like.
And I would note that “If you feel that the state of one’s country is basically fine except for this issue,” that is an ideological stance on critical issues of political economy, but one that self-denies and obscures. And at a time when economic questions are rather pressing for many, many people, even in Sweden (where unemployment is at 8%, and unemployment among the young runs as high as 21.6%), it’s an unspoken statement: I’m doing all right, Katy bar the door.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
So… they want to abolish the patent system?
I notice they only talk about pharmaceutical patents and not industrial patents.
To quote the great wiki “Sweden’s engineering sector accounts for 50% of output and exports.” I wonder how well Sweden would do if all that engineering work was no longer patent protected.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
So… they want to abolish the patent system?
I don’t know that that’s a part of their party platform. If it is, let me know, but I haven’t seen it so far. As I understand it the Swedish and other Pirate Parties are generally just in opposition to stuff like shutting down the Pirate Bay, tactics used by the RIAA, etc. Also, internet privacy issues are a big part of their platform – you could describe them as basically an anti-Patriot Act, anti-RIAA party.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:14 am
“At any rate, the case for substantial reform of intellectual property policy is quite strong on the merits, the issue is in fact crucially important as we move more and more into the digital economy, AND YET NO MAINSTREAM PARTY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WANTS TO TOUCH IT.”
Ah, what about Canada’s NDP?
See this–and the related videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUsdUyNjcPI&feature=related
September 29th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Adam,
To quote their English version web site:
Patents in other areas range from the morally repulsive (like patents on living organisms) through the seriously harmful (patents on software and business methods) to the merely pointless (patents in the mature manufacturing industries).
http://www.piratpartiet.se/international/english
September 29th, 2009 at 4:24 am
I think everyone should be aware that there are those who believe there is something very wrong with how things are nowadays in copyright law (like Professor Lawrence Lessig) and other more extreme views.
If I had the chance to vote for the pirate party in the European elections I would have done so, particularly after the French tried to impose the three strike rule.
People are usually more concerned with safety than privacy or freedom and when they hear about propriety, digital rights and the like, they just think they should be protected at all costs without really knowing the other possibilities.
September 29th, 2009 at 7:59 am
“Moreover, it still leaves open the question of how the hell elected Pirate Party politicians will vote on things that are really important like budgets and social/economic policy. You don’t get to sit out votes if you get elected.”
That’s really simple. In Sweden, the Pirate Party will on all other votes vote with the bloc that will support their three main agendas (Reform of copyright law, An abolished patent system and Respect for the right to privacy).
It’s about a lot more than just torrents.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:34 am
That’s not really true anymore. “Nice computers” implies over $1000 in outlay, but a $200 gaming console can download just as fast. The chokepoint is the internet connection. While a fast internet connection can be expensive, you can get low-speed connections free. That means it takes 2 minutes to download a song, instead of 5 seconds. There are also MP3 players with the capacity to share data at high speed.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Ultimatly the pirate party will get a program beyond that. I wunder what that will be. The line on education is already pretty clear in Germany. They are strongly against tutotion fees and high grade hurdles for graduate degrees. That is not a given as some might think for a party with support a lot by student. Many like the social exclusive elements. I really wunder if they will go left or right on the classical redistribution issues. The supporter base is rather full of high earning/high educated people, enterpreneurs and the like. At the same time it looks rather unlikely the attitudes of people that rally behind a Piarte flag about copyright reform can get to such a harsh dichotomy intelectual property fundamentalism bad/ other property right fundamentalism good.
Probably a bit like the greens.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Moreover, it still leaves open the question of how the hell elected Pirate Party politicians will vote on things that are really important like budgets and social/economic policy. You don’t get to sit out votes if you get elected.
Really? That’s bizarre. Politicians do it all the time here in America. It’s odd that there would be some requirement for legislators to vote in Sweden.
Even if what you said was true, I assume you mean something more like “we still want to know how a Pirate would vote on non-IP issues”, but it’s not my job to make your arguments coherent for you. If that’s what you wanted to say, that’s begging the question. Maybe some people don’t want to know.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:59 am
PJx – so in other words, the Swedish People’s Party would be willing to vote for cuts to social services if they got their I.P issues, or not, with no real thought to the moral importance of their actions.
Njorl – I’m talking about people who keep their computers running big torrents full-time versus people who download the occasional song. The benefits accrue more one to the other.
But in a larger sense I’m pointing out that the population for whom this is the biggest issue in relation to government is a rather privileged one.
Urgs – at that point, I would happily welcome the Pirate Party. That’s really what I’m asking for; important things happen in politics, please take a stand.
Cyrus – allow me to rephrase: sitting out votes means you’re not doing your job. Politicians who do so rightly get dinged as absenteeists. In a larger sense, even if they can get away with it, they shouldn’t.
And if people don’t want to know how a Pirate would vote on non-IP issues and vote for them anyway, they’re doing a bad job as citizens. You don’t get to self-govern just on your pet issues.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Anonymous, I’m an NDP man myself, but the NDP don’t really want to touch intellectual property – they just tend to rub against the subject to get a nice glow.
Despite Charlie Angus and Olivia Chow’s fliers, we haven’t really made a major point of including intellectual property in any platform.
Olivia Chow is certainly a high-profile member of the party, but the platform is ambiguous enough that Angus has to reaffirm that he thinks he is in line with it.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Steven, it’s not just about IP. That’s just one of the three. Personally, I’m more for the one dealing with repealing some laws concerning the government’s right to spy on their citizens. But perhaps you’re a big fan of the Patriot Act?
Also, while I would be voting for the Democrats in the US, in Sweden, I’ve always voted for the right. The middle in the US, is a lot further to the right than the middle in Sweden. But, I’d be more than happy to be ruled, yet again, by the Swedish left if they would be the bloc that promises to do what the Pirate Party wants. But I’d prefer if the current government gets reelected by supporting the Pirate Party.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I don’t understand why anyone even cares. DMCA and similar dumb laws are unenforceable; half the world is breaking them and laughing – or LOLing, I guess. All we need is some kind of insurance or co-op etc to pay the bills when some grandmother gets legally persecuted by Hollywood mafia.