Walk the polling plank, ye landlubbers! It be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Scuttlebutt from over the briny seas says that the German Pirate party has ransacked the mainland, taking a seat in the Berlin parliament.
OK, no more talking like a Pirate. It’s fun to say, but exhausting to type. Deutsche Welle reports that the German Pirate Party managed to gain an impressive nine percent of the vote in Berlin’s elections, well clear of the five percent needed for a seat. Andreas Baum, the party’s top candidate is quoted as saying that
This is all very new for us. We will need to prepare, get into the swing of things, but you will be hearing from us. You can be sure of that.”
Which is a statement that really doesn’t say anything at all when you examine it. Or, in other words, he seems well suited to be a politician.[Deutsche Welle via ITNews]
Eckythump
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10:33 AMAll well and good if they don’t actually have any real power, just a voice! But if for some strange reason they actually rose to some power, would you really want these guys running your country!
Cray
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10:38 AMI don’t know if they’re actually running the country, I think they just have more sway now they have an actual seat in parliment.
Personally, I support it. It’s only one seat, which gives them power enough to push their agenda, but not enough power to completely do whatever they like.
Eckythump
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10:57 AMYeah, I know they aren’t in power,they just have a seat. I’m talking about if they come to power! #]
29Dimensions
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 11:08 AMThey did not just win 1 seat, they won 15! Lucky for them, they nominated 15 candidates. had they won any more seats, those would have remained empty (such are the rules).
AnthonyP
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10:43 AMEcky, do you understand what they stand for?
Open and public policies, fair use, removal of DRM. Stop sucking upto the US corporate system…. etc.
Eckythump
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 11:01 AMYeas I understand, and I think it’s a good thing that they have a say now, I just don’t think it would be a good idea if they actually got the leadership! I don’t know, maybe they will attract the right people and become a powerful voice, but given how they started out, and I actually have used their services too, I’m just a bit paranoid is all! #]
Namarrgon
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 7:09 PMWhat services are those? They’re a political party.
I hope you’re not under the impression that the Pirate Party is somehow related to The Pirate Bay. Because that would be quite incorrect.
sparhawk0
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 11:19 AMGermany could do a lot worse.
Interesting that it seems the party’s platform reflected a depth of community sentiment that surprised even them.
I wouldn’t worry too much, though. I think we’d be more likely to see a Green majority government in Australia before the Pirate Party reached a similar status there.
Roachless
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 11:41 AMIt’s Germany. What could go wrong?
wsDK_II
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 4:05 PMYes, Yes i would Mr. Thump – i am sure they would do a dam sight better the anyone else.
Nads
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 12:07 PMIts amazing what bullshit “morals” and you can conjure up when you try to justify stealing.
I wonder how the Pirate bay clowns would feel if we created sites that took all their torrent info but we just replaced their ads with our own revenue generating ads on it?
I’m sure they would be thrilled.
If you don’t like DRM don’t put it on any work that YOU create.
If you don’t like waiting for a show to be released locally then make sure the TV show YOU made is released simultaneously internationally.
What gives you the right to decide how other artists should publish and get paid for their work.
Theft is theft, if they weren’t doing anything wrong they wouldn’t be calling themselves “pirates”.
EckyThump
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 12:24 PMRather an unusual rant. Not really sure what your point is here! They are the ones who help to keep DRM to a minimum, It’s not like they are going to advocate anarchy, they’re just making a point! #]
adan2
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 12:43 PMEcky why do you have to post stupid comments on every article
EckyThump
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 1:51 PMMoron!
wsDK_II
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 4:12 PMI support most of what he Ecky says, so if your going to go up against him you’ll go up aginst me, and you cant win that fight :P
Namarrgon
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 12:56 PMI’m curious; are you equally as critical of music and movie publishers, and their own history of theft, infringement and fraud?
Hollywood itself was founded by pirating Edison’s patents, and studios regularly defraud their own directors – look up “Hollywood accounting” and Peter Jackson vs New Line Cinema, for just one example of how wildly-successful movies somehow don’t make a dime when it come to sharing profits with the artists (the Tolkien Trust also sued New Line over that one).
Then there’s the time when the CRIA were sued by their own artists for selling 300 thousand songs without permission – how’s that for piracy on a grand scale?
Not making excuses for individual copyright infringement here, but if we want to improve the lot of artists, we could do a lot more good by getting rid of the ripoff companies that claim to be representing them.
Ted
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 1:21 PMI’ll stop downloading things when we stop getting shafted in Australia. It’s people like you that allow distro’s to justify ripping us off, and don’t for a second fool yourself into thinking the artist(s) behind the work are getting that money, or even have a say in DRM or release times.
PS- Stealing is where you take a physical, tangible item from somewhere that someone else paid for.
Ted
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 1:27 PMPPS- Art should be free. If someone has the talent to create something it should be shared. It is then up to individuals if they want to support that art or not.
My band are currently doing our EP, it will be free to download on our site but there will also be a donation box. Make a donation of $6 or over and you get a hard, pro-pressed and pro-printed copy that also has a bunch of bonus material on the disc. Donate $10 or more and you get that along with a poster, badges and signed thank you note from us. $15 or more and you get all that and (hopefully we can work this out, it’s not set yet) a laser etched zippo sytle lighter and a hand painted tin that it all arrives in. It’s all about giving people choice. Make it attractive to them to spend more money. Innovate or die.
wsDK_II
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 10:50 AM+ 10000000000000 :D
Blake
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 3:58 PMTheft is theft and piracy is piracy but no matter how many times the studios try to brainwash people into believing it, piracy is NOT theft.
Besides, the publishers have made far more money off piracy than they’ve ever lost.
Hell they stole the Amen break, sold stuff with it, then got their own copyright on it and now the original owners could potentially get sued over it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac
Max
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10:41 PM“I wonder how the Pirate bay clowns would feel if we created sites that took all their torrent info but we just replaced their ads with our own revenue generating ads on it?”
First of all, there are already hundreds of sites that do exactly this — torrent indexes like isohunt and torrentz don’t host their own torrents, they just index torrents from public trackers like The Pirate Bay. No one minds.
Secondly, this article is about the Pirate Party, not the Pirate Bay.
Chris
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 12:39 PMeeerrrrmmmm Nads, lots of sites host torrents that have pirate bay trackers… ie. user downloads it using pirate bay resources without seeing the pirate bay site, so i don’t think they would be worried if you setup a site that hosted their torrents and had your own ads…
“What gives you the right to decide how other artists should publish and get paid for their work.”
I think your missing a lot of the point to. The artists don’t decide how much you pay, or how it’s sold for legitimately purchased music. The publisher does, and the publisher takes home the largest slice of the pie most times.
Namarrgon
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 1:47 PMBy “artists” he actually means “copyright holders”, i.e. the labels. It’s the labels who set all the prices, and collect the vast majority of the revenue.
Most artists are lucky to get regularlyminimum wage, even when they sell millions:
* Royalties are a small fraction of the revenue (typically 5%, or maybe as high as 12% if they’re popular enough)
* Any advances are deducted from the royalties first
* All production, marketing and distribution expenses are deducted from the royalties
* The artists have to pay for all producers, managers, agents, lawyers etc as well
* There are deductions (up to 25% of the royalties) for packaging, breakage allowances, freebies etc – even for digital distribution like iTunes
And after the artists pay for every last expense in creating, promoting, selling, and distributing the music, including a few imaginary expenses, guess who keeps the copyrights to the songs? That’s right, the labels!
Danny Allen
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 1:49 PMWhat A Band Really Makes From Streaming Sales
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/09/what-a-band-really-makes-from-streaming-sales/
goodwin
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 7:01 PMPirate Party does not stand for piracy, but for eliminating the reasons why piracy exists.
Penmonicus
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:00 AMThank you for talking some on-topic sense here.