Never believe any copyright over five
November 25, 2011 3:47 PM Subscribe
Amelia Andersdotter of Sweden's Pirate Party (Piratpariet) will finally become the youngest ever member of the European Parliament this December.
Andersdotter won her seats in 2009, along with and Christian Engström, when the Pirate Party captured 7% of the vote, but her appointment was delayed by difficulties with the Treaty of Lisbon.
As an aside, there is a lovely Google Tech Talk from 2007 by the Pirate Party's founder, Rickard Falkvinge, which includes a interesting overview of the evolution of early copyright law and prescient insights into big content's current lobbying efforts, ala SOPA. An interesting figure himself, Falkvinge has grown renown for his unusual leadership style, which includes quickly taking responsibility for mistakes and minimizing his own authority in favor of evangelism for the party.
There have been a handful of local electoral successes by Pirate Parties in other European nations, with Piratenpartei Deutschland holding 161 municipal seats and 15 state seats in Berlin, but not yet any Bundestag seats (national parliament).
There are a number of young politicians in national parliaments in northern European countries. Anna Lührmann became a member of Germany's Bundestag in 2002 at age 19. Thor Möger Pedersen became Denmark's Minister of Taxes at age 26. Denmark has a 20 year old MP as well.
Andersdotter won her seats in 2009, along with and Christian Engström, when the Pirate Party captured 7% of the vote, but her appointment was delayed by difficulties with the Treaty of Lisbon.
As an aside, there is a lovely Google Tech Talk from 2007 by the Pirate Party's founder, Rickard Falkvinge, which includes a interesting overview of the evolution of early copyright law and prescient insights into big content's current lobbying efforts, ala SOPA. An interesting figure himself, Falkvinge has grown renown for his unusual leadership style, which includes quickly taking responsibility for mistakes and minimizing his own authority in favor of evangelism for the party.
There have been a handful of local electoral successes by Pirate Parties in other European nations, with Piratenpartei Deutschland holding 161 municipal seats and 15 state seats in Berlin, but not yet any Bundestag seats (national parliament).
There are a number of young politicians in national parliaments in northern European countries. Anna Lührmann became a member of Germany's Bundestag in 2002 at age 19. Thor Möger Pedersen became Denmark's Minister of Taxes at age 26. Denmark has a 20 year old MP as well.
Dispatch from Sweden: The Pirate Party have their EP seats. That's all. The Pirate Party is on par with the Donald Duck party in national elections and "evangelist" Rick Falkvinge travels around the world on tax payer money speaking to whoever haven't heard about Falkvinge killing his party by in the middle of campaign season demanding a decriminalization of child pornography.
posted by mr.marx at 4:16 PM on November 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by mr.marx at 4:16 PM on November 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
She's also, unsurprisingly, a bit of a geek - it might be just me, but I wish more politicians would make weak jokes about the Firefox version numbering controversy. Not sure I'd vote for an emacs user, mind you.
posted by jack_mo at 4:32 PM on November 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by jack_mo at 4:32 PM on November 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
Interesting, wikipedia says Falkvinge abandoned that stance after it stirred up controversy, even after the Swedish Union of Journalists openly and immediately proclaimed their support. Also, Falkvinge's writing elsewhere makes it clear his decriminalization "trial balloon" was more about preventing big content from using child pornography to censor the internet and enforce their monopoly. It appears the only particularly geek-controversial cause Falkvinge currently publicly supports is bitcoin, although again he apparently support other alternative currency systems like Ripple equally.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:35 PM on November 25, 2011
posted by jeffburdges at 4:35 PM on November 25, 2011
Not sure I'd vote for an emacs user, mind you.
If, in the future, the major party divisions are down the line of emacs vs vim... That would be Utopia.
But not if they were split on bash vs. ksh. That would be dystopia.
posted by clarknova at 4:38 PM on November 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
If, in the future, the major party divisions are down the line of emacs vs vim... That would be Utopia.
But not if they were split on bash vs. ksh. That would be dystopia.
posted by clarknova at 4:38 PM on November 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
So I assume when we see her name on the cable news crawl it will appear as:
Amelia Andersdotter (Arrrrrrr--Sweden)
posted by Rangeboy at 5:07 PM on November 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
Amelia Andersdotter (Arrrrrrr--Sweden)
posted by Rangeboy at 5:07 PM on November 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
youngest ever member of the European Parliament
actually, she is not the youngest ever, but the youngest this legislature.
posted by finite at 6:03 PM on November 25, 2011
actually, she is not the youngest ever, but the youngest this legislature.
posted by finite at 6:03 PM on November 25, 2011
Aww cute! Young Pirate (Ung Pirat) is apparently "by far" the largest political youth organization in Sweden with 22k members. Andersdotter was heavily involved before being elected and moving to Brussels. There was a computer camp I attended during middle school run by the guy who ran Atlanta's best pirate BBS.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:05 PM on November 25, 2011
posted by jeffburdges at 6:05 PM on November 25, 2011
Not sure I'd vote for an emacs user, mind you.
Not sure I'd vote for anyone else.
posted by DU at 6:44 PM on November 25, 2011
Not sure I'd vote for anyone else.
posted by DU at 6:44 PM on November 25, 2011
It's pretty sad really when the northern youth are coalescing around the idea of being pirates. This is how the Vikings got started, one generation rose up and decided to be pirates in a similar environment of a unified but structurally weak Europe (Charlemagne / European Union).
posted by stbalbach at 8:31 PM on November 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by stbalbach at 8:31 PM on November 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
Huh, I'd always just assumed that the Pirate Party grew out of the Pirate Bay. Wikipedia says they were unconnected until 2010.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 9:14 PM on November 25, 2011
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 9:14 PM on November 25, 2011
At her swearing in:
"The Government code of conduct is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome to Sweden, Miss Andersdotter!'
posted by greenhornet at 10:07 PM on November 25, 2011
"The Government code of conduct is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome to Sweden, Miss Andersdotter!'
posted by greenhornet at 10:07 PM on November 25, 2011
But not if they were split on bash vs. ksh. That would be dystopia.
No prob. A cultural scapegoat (tcsh) would be available to unite ksh and bash.
posted by telstar at 1:15 AM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
No prob. A cultural scapegoat (tcsh) would be available to unite ksh and bash.
posted by telstar at 1:15 AM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
Of related interest: How the US Justice Department legally hacked my Twitter account, by Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer Birgitta Jonsdottir.
posted by homunculus at 1:29 AM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by homunculus at 1:29 AM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
There were several other interesting articles I noticed on Torrent Freak over the last week :
European Court: ISPs Can’t Spy on Pirating Customers
IFPI Sues Pirate Bay Admins in Finland, Demands Further ISP Blocks
Feds Seize 130+ Domain Names in Mass Crackdown
Google Now Censors The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, 4Shared and More
“Pirate Blogger” Law Student Raided By Police For File-Sharing Articles
posted by jeffburdges at 12:47 PM on November 26, 2011 [2 favorites]
European Court: ISPs Can’t Spy on Pirating Customers
IFPI Sues Pirate Bay Admins in Finland, Demands Further ISP Blocks
Feds Seize 130+ Domain Names in Mass Crackdown
Google Now Censors The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, 4Shared and More
“Pirate Blogger” Law Student Raided By Police For File-Sharing Articles
posted by jeffburdges at 12:47 PM on November 26, 2011 [2 favorites]
I hadn't realized how recently the German Pirate party won all those Berlin seats, apparently while being harassed by the Darmstadt District Court. Can anyone comment on whether any electoral Streisand effect entered this picture?
posted by jeffburdges at 1:01 PM on November 27, 2011
posted by jeffburdges at 1:01 PM on November 27, 2011
Germany's Pirate Party apparently holds a broader more classical political platform, including basic income.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:16 AM on November 29, 2011
posted by jeffburdges at 6:16 AM on November 29, 2011
Global Internet Chokepoints is an online resource created to document and monitor global proposals to turn Internet intermediaries into copyright police.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:56 AM on December 2, 2011
posted by jeffburdges at 12:56 AM on December 2, 2011
It appears the Swiss Government has decided that downloading movies and music will stay legal. I donno if their Pirate Party influenced the decision, probably not much, they only hold one city council seat.
There is more information on why the E.U. condemned the U.S. domain seizures :
Feds Seize Domain Names of Korean Movie Portals
DNS ‘Seizure’ Takes Out MegaUpload
Also ‘The Pirate Bay Dancing’ Add-On Killls DNS and IP Blockades
posted by jeffburdges at 3:31 PM on December 4, 2011
There is more information on why the E.U. condemned the U.S. domain seizures :
Feds Seize Domain Names of Korean Movie Portals
DNS ‘Seizure’ Takes Out MegaUpload
Also ‘The Pirate Bay Dancing’ Add-On Killls DNS and IP Blockades
posted by jeffburdges at 3:31 PM on December 4, 2011
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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:07 PM on November 25, 2011