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Thursday, August 03, 2006

Anti-IP "Pirate Party" Spreading Across Europe.

The

Pirate Party known from its

Swedish branch has also started with activities in

Austria and

Germany. Initiatives in further countries have also been reported.

Mr. John Dvorak recently wrote on

PC Magazine:

"[...] Overlooked by the major media is the weird situation in Sweden, where a political party and lobbying organization has cropped up with the sole purpose of overturning the current crop of copyright and patent laws and creating something more modern and realistic: the Pirate Party and the Pro Piracy Lobby. This movement, while unlikely to have any effect in the U.S., could change things so dramatically in parliamentary democracies that we'd feel the aftershock anyway. [...]"

Wikipedia knows:

"[...] The party strives to reform laws regarding intellectual property, including copyright, patent and the protection of design. The agenda also includes support for a strengthening of the right to privacy (such as private property and private information), both on the Internet and in everyday life. The party does not have an agenda for any other subjects and therefore it is not possible to place the party anywhere on the left-right scale. [...]"

The activities of these groups should be carefully monitored by patent people before it is too late to act on the political stage.

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Intellectual Property

[UPDATE 2006-08-17] See also

this report on Wired News.

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