German Youth Would Vote Pirate Party Into Parliament
Written by Ernesto on September 20, 2009Next week the German Pirate Party will compete in the elections for the German Parliament, but this week the country’s youth already cast their votes. In the youth polls nearly 9% of all votes went to the Pirate Party, a result that the party hopes to match in the upcoming election.
The youth organization U18 aims to promote political awareness among the German youth and traditionally they hold their own election prior to that of the adults. This year the Pirate Party was one of the surprising winners.
This Friday more than 120,000 youngsters cast their votes at one of the U18 voting booths. Of these, a massive 8.72% voted for the Pirate Party that currently holds one seat in the German Parliament.
The result of this election is encouraging for the Pirates, who already had a great run at the European election earlier this year where they surpassed some of the established local parties in some districts.
“The outcome of this election shows us that young people recognize the importance of ‘having a vote’,” Pirate Party Charmain Jens Seipenbusch said. “The fact that many of them have chosen us, shows that young people find it important to defend their civil rights and that the Pirates tackle the crucial issues of the 21st century.”
The ‘real’ German federal election is scheduled for 27 September, and the Pirate Party hopes to gain a few dozen seats in the German Parliament so they can do something about increased Internet censorship and abuses of copyright by multi-billion dollar companies.
Getting into the German Parliament will not be an easy task as it requires a minimum of 5% of the total votes. Let’s hope the German parents listen to their kids for once.
German’s youth votes Pirate
Previously: Updated: Anti-Piracy Outfit and Lawyers May Operate Illegally
Next: James Blunt: Disconnecting Music Pirates is “Critical”
69 Responses
Ah this is a under 18 vote count. So no chance that the German Pirate party will win then :/. Its unlikely that 70% of them will convince parents. Are they many adults who torrent?.
Third !!!
Also, #2 brings up a valid point.
THEY HAVE TO VOTE! its for the good of this decaying world! pirate party should also open itself in south american country’s and specially united states where the increasing abuses of power used for privacy violation and unjust judgment from the government is reaching ridiculous levels.
VOTE for freedom! vote for a better future ppl!
@ #2.
I bet about 40-60% of adults 30 or younger torrent or other p2p. if your bright enough as a kid you can show your father how is it reasonable to vote pirate…
I also know a bunch of 30+ year olds who download stuff…
If its not now in 10-20 years theirs going to be so much resentment against the people that oppress this form of sharing that i bet the pirate party or alike will have a 25%+ of the votes and a new era of sharing and information will come to life.
I forgot to say. United states is going to become the retarded country of the world because of his restrictions and PRO lobbyist groups, and since europe where the first to start the pro privacy/pirate movement they are going to become technically the rulers of the world with their advanced policies and happy people :P
@6
The United States is one of the few countries where it is NOT completely illegal to Pirate, or for the matter, not blocking websites. Although you’re right about the lobbyists and all, the pirates in the US are most likely very happy at the current moment about the stance of the US on piracy.
27th of september is http://www.votelikeapirateday.com/ – Of course, wherever your local Pirate Party is participating in official elections, it’s Vote Like A Pirate Day as well ;-)
@1 “Unknown”:
In Germany you usually don’t have to “wait in queues” to vote. The districts are rather small and since the places you cast your vote at are open “all day”.
I’m over 40 and since I was 14 I worked (and played) with computer. I honestly don’t think that I’m such a big exception. And I think that my generation is aware of the possibilities and dangers of the IT world.
I predict between 7% and 9% for the Pirate Party.
Yes I know, I’m a hopeless optimist.
As an USian, I can only contemplate that pie graph and wonder if there could ever be such political diversity (or the appearance of it, at least) in the US.
But it seems our two party system is “too big to fail”.
I think perhaps the point here is less that this is a youth vote, and more that the platform of the Pirate Party appeals to those who have not yet matured, regardless of chronological age.
The anarchy of piracy, indeed anarchy in general, has a certain ring of appeal to the younger, the disaffected, the unaccomplished.
As time and investment takes hold along with maturity, the simple common justice and fair sense of giving value to receive value is consistent with our human nature and will manifest in the over-18 vote in every country in the world.
There will always be pirates. They will always be a dysfunctional minority. Such is life.
Lol, they think painting all p2pers as being under 18 is enough to defy the surge from adult file-sharers joining in support for the pirate parties.
If the average age of a gamer is 35, I dare say the average age of a p2per is higher than most people think!!
I bet there a quite a few scared fat cats (bastards) in big content wondering how did it ever come to this… and who can they buy off to make it all go away.
Too late motherf*ckers, you may be living in the past with “Reasoned moron” under your employment, but you have to face the future.
What stance do they have for social issues? My understanding is that they’re not overtly concerned with anything beyond civil rights and freedom of speech issues or such. I hope I’m wrong, I mean, all that potential shouldn’t go to waste now that they’ve got an issue young people feel strongly about.
#13 Yep, I’m 53.
#12 Reasoned Blind, Seems your tunnel vision is showing.
It would be great if the pirate partys around the world began establishing themselves as freedom partys, fighting surveilliance and restriction of rights in the name of counter-terrorism or national safety.
The pirate partys are NOT for anarchy.
Ezee, “facing the future” doesn’t mean competing with free, it means dealing with online theft, and with 8% the best figure pirates can generate in their strongest (youth) demographic, that’s exactly where this is going: cleaning up the internet in every way the remaining 92% support. We’ll see who is not facing the future here.
No one pays me to follow this issue and post ideas here, Ezee, and I’d imagine the Pirate party doesn’t pay you either. At this point you just sound lame with the same old ad hom.
I hope they get al least one seat.
How many seats have the German PP now?
2 seats wasn’t? One of that man who went out his party (CDU/SPD?) because there were rumours he has porn on his pc and he went to the German PP. And as I can remember, another seat of one of the founding members of the Greens (die Grünen).
Correct me if I’m wrong.
Yeah, I’m gonna vote for the pirate party and I’m 30!
Also I hope my mother, who is 65 will also vote pirate!
We live in Dresden, East Germany. I think in my city the PP had around 3,5% in the elections last month, so it will be hard to achieve 5% nationally this month.
But let’s fight and keep our hope burning hot!
#19 The PP in Germany has only one sit.
The other leader of the greens you mentioned is only helping organize the party. That’s what I know.
And you actually think it’s not coming.
LOL
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6210255/EU-funding-Orwellian-artificial-intelligence-plan-to-monitor-public-for-abnormal-behaviour.html
I think we should blame ourselves for all this bs we get from the media companies. If we had kept peer2peer torrenting as a semi-secret and not told all our friends about it then it would live without anybody giving a dam!.
The only reason people care now is because the mass public use it. Hey we might have pirate parties now because the mass public use it but if we hadn’t of told the world about it then we would’t even have a problem from these media companies. Now its not possible to change our mistakes and the only option is to tell as many people who are able to vote about it or take this all underground into private websites. If we do neither then we will be killed by new ISP Monitoring laws which will check everything we do online. They will say its to stop Malware and Virus’s but the politicians will be paid for my the media companies to ensure torrenting dies.
to be fair the forerunners are the greens which hold pretty good anti copyright laws anyway.
quote: are there many adults who torrent?
i would say more than 50% globally ,, any bets? ;P
Reasoned Mind, I think it’s just too easy to dismiss other people’s opinions or actions as a simple lack of maturity. I think that the prevalence of piracy among youth might have something to do with the prevalence of computers and technology among them.
Can someone ban #1? I’m tired of seeing that adult facebook crap whenever I read an article here now.
I don’t think billions of people are torrenters, but not voting pirate also doesn’t automatically mean everyone else “supports” RIAA lawsuits!
I was almost arrested in the 80’s when I had an “accoustic koppler” a device used to pick up the ringing phone at an incomming message. Back then it was considered unlawful to have a telephone device automatically answer data calls. Ever since I have been using the internet for what it’s best: downloading cracks, bootlegs, emulators and roms of usenet, saw the raise and fall of DALnet & EFnet on IRC and now the age of torrents. Pirates will never die out and eventually there’ll be a significant political participation. It’s just a matter of time
Basement Dweller, that’s true. I don’t support RIAA lawsuits, either, I’ve just said repeatedly they are inevitable if the pirate approach to change remains based in illegality.
Fortunately,it’s beginning to dawn on most that “you can’t stop us” is a losing proposition, because as the link at #22 reveals, they certainly can and will if piracy in its present numbers doesn’t cease.
The internet, not the industries, will sustain the greatest losses. And all because the truly intelligent people fighting for change don’t post here (probably because they know this approach is futile), and the “you can’t stop us” crowd is so insanely selfish and truly, pointlessly stupid, they demand that online digital theft be equated with “freedom.” So of course, “freedom” is the first thing to go.
Pirates are misguided morons. I’ve been saying this for years and everyday the events make clearer that 8% changes nothing and all the rest will be hunted and punished badly, just as they should be.
I don’t give a damn about the RIAA. But no one should have to tolerate lawbreaking that takes product from industry and the creators with no payment, not IRL, not on the internet. Not anywhere that is fair. And government won’t allow it indefinitely either, because government has little choice. Think this through for God’s sake. And reread the link at #22.
@Reasoned,
“At this point you just sound lame with the same old ad hom.”
Ah, like how the word “Stealing/theft” which has been widely shown not to be the case but you still continue to use it?
Remember what they said about the Swedish pirate party?
What can anyone do with just one seat? (even if they get it)
Well, everything starts with one…. then it carries on snowballing… two… three…. see where i am going with this?
First Sweden, then Germany… next France? Britain? before you know it the EU parliament will be buzzing with pirates, as well as its member states.
Computers are not going away, and more than ever people are coming online… and at younger ages too. These people grow older and vote… politicians follow the vote even over big money because power trumps money, and a politician wants the power that he can only hold on to while in office.
The young pirate party (younger than 18) in Sweden is actually bigger than the PP, but we still got into parliament, what does that tell you?
Holding on to the hope that as they grow older they will just move on and not vote is wishful thinking… but i wouldnt want to be the one to take away hope from another person, especially a woman.
@15(testing),
the idea is to mesh with another party and spread knowledge, not try to take over all issues of the government.
For example the Swedish PP who are in the EU have meshed with the greens (if im not mistaken)
@23(unknown), that would be a very selfish attitude, its all about sharing not keep the knowledge hidden for a select few, thats what the people like the MAFIAA want. If torrenting does die, something else will rise up to fill the void.History repeating itself.
I am sick and tired of copyright infringement constantly compared with theft. “Copyright” is a right that has only existed for a few hundred years while the right to own property and objects has existed for thousands of years. Piracy is copying not theft. The Reasoned Mind can’t accept that the world is changing and so is its morals. Just because something is illegal doesn’t mean it’s wrong. A fairly large minority of most European countries infringe on copyright and are sick of being compared to murderers and rapists. P
@30 Sep 21, 2009 at 02:21 by Reasoned Mind:
Are you dumb or something?
There is no stopping the flow of information as for your link well it will never happen or echelon and carnivore would be ready by now LoL
And even if it comes it just make people use more secure channels. No amount of legislation will bring back the old times.
Besides I like to see you prove that sharing anything deprive anybody of income.
—Dowling v. United States, 473 U.S. 207, pp. 217–218
Even the forefathers of the U.S. knew that and that is why Thomas Jefferson wrote:
Copies don’t lessen the ability of anyone to sell anything, they don’t lessen the market and are only illegal because some self entitled people think they own the right to monopolize sounds, images and ideas depriving society of raw material to move forward and to say who have rights and who have not so if anyone is selfish and egoistical it is clear it is those people who would impede anyone from making money because they think they have a right to have all the pie and not shared with anyone.
Reasoned Mind, comment 30, it’s 1 thing to express your opinion, but insulting us by calling us stupid and morons is just wrong.
Invasion of privacy on the internet is step 1. If successful, the next step could be invasion of privacy in your own home.
What if the government passed a law that said they are to put surveillance in every single room in your house? Or what if they break down your door any time they want and destroy everything in your house while looking for anything they deem illegal even though you did nothing wrong and broke no laws?
And they don’t have to have a reason at all? Then what Reasoned Mind? would you still say “the law is the law, and I don’t mind my privacy being invaded cause a few people break the law”?
If they want to stop “piracy”, they should keep going at the individuals who “pirate”, and not punish law abiding citizens who don’t “pirate”.
By the way…..how far did you get the pole vault pole stuck up your ass at the special olympics Reasoned Mind?
i would put money into german pirate parties lobbying efforts
we only need 1 country to get our pirate haven :)
lets hope this happens before the lisbon treaty.
THE BASTARDS!!!
Whoever votes just vote them in, then the governments mite start evolving unlike retarded mind who is still posting here at TF…
Poor boy :0)
In my opinion, I don’t think 9% is enough to make a difference. It only shows that just a minority of youths believe in civil liberties, while a majority don’t seem to care. If it was over 50%, then it would make a big difference. A small percentage shows that most people don’t care and/or agree with what their government does. Or the youths voting just don’t fully understand the situation.
@#37
Even 5% would be enough to make a difference, since no party in germany is able to rule by itself. Lets say the green party gets 20% and the social party gets 27%. They could need the pirates to form a coalition, if they don’t want the christian democrats and the federal democrats to win.
just for the record, the pirates don’t have a seat in the german bundestag. One member of the pirates is part of the bundestag, because he switched parties to the pirates, but officially this is not a pirate seat but a partyless one.
I am 32, German, and use file sharing in different ways over 15 years…i will vote for the pirates but to be honest the chance that they make the 5% is slim to none. Germany is ruled by retired people…they are the biggest voter group and they almost all really go voting…and they care about their pension and not about civil rights and internet freedom…they vote CDU.
i was just thinkin again ;P
quote:
Are they many adults who torrent?
thinkin about all the folks who share that i know and i would say that it’s equalized through the age group ,, 8-82 as far as i know ,, a general avg ;)
Sounds like its time to move to Germany!
RT
http://www.real-privacy.net.tc
Bullshit…I hope noone takes this article seriously…of course young people are checking for Piratenpartei, but only to make fun of the survey and situation in this moment…They not gonne get one seat in the Bundestag, German Congress. LOL
I like this story so much im gonna post it on my software blog
http://microfreaks.sosblog.com/index.htm
What’s the big deal with freedom anyway? Voting is silly. The current gov’t knows best. Let’s blindly support unfair laws and do whatever we’re told like dumb sheep… <3
Well lets see most trackers I am a member of tend to house the 26-32 range. At least according to on-site polls :D
I’m 57 and have had computers for the last 25 years. Someone here in Canada has started the Pirate Party, and I’m joining. Someone has to help stop the corporations, because the other two main parties are owned and run by them. The NDP are so confused they don’t know if their left or right of center. They know they will never get elected so their in it for prestige and the golden pension, and free haircuts. It’s pretty sad when 48% voted and out of that a 25% elected the government, that is how sick our system is. It needs an overhaul.
Oh by the way #40, been torrenting for many years, Last OS I bought was Win 2000 upgrade, swore I would never buy another OS or program. Ive bought and supported smaller outfits when they first started such as Winzip with a life time upgrade guarantee. As soon as they were bought out at version 10, no more lifetime upgrades, and they weren’t the first to back peddle. That is why I refuse to buy anymore software period. Can’t trust the bastards to uphold the previous owners guarantees. This is the experience that happens when you have been around for awhile.
seriously, when i was 16/17 i thought i knew it all. one has a very idealistic view of politics and how it should work at that age. there’s no way i have the same views now as i did back then. people that age don’t have to (on the whole) think about mortgages, pensions, schooling, and various taxes don’t take a firm hold until they’re a bit older too.
“They will always be a dysfunctional minority. Such is life.”
You keep showing us, and as a part of that group, you keep defending greed.
Maybe time for a little psychanalysis ?
A local paper explains the success of the Piratenpartei amongst the youth; they got 10,4% of the votes in said district:
“The sucess achieved here just like in the rest of the country might be due to the name that ’sounds so cool’.”
Hand —> forehead
Making a new party to “solve” an issue has NEVER EVER led to any solution, to the contrary, it’s always getting worse, look at the “green” parties or the mislabeled “laborist/socialist” parties, this is another pitiful attempt for worse than nazi capitalists to have people behave the way they want
This is the best TROLLING ground on the internet for a guy like Reasoned Mind. He’s loving all the attention that he’s getting. I’m just surprised he’s taken the time to find this forum.
Germany is the most important country in the EU — a Pirate vote for there will start an unstoppable avalanche. Go German Pirates!!!
I’m 52 years old an joined the german PP after the european elections here in June. The party had 1200 members in the entire Germany at that time and 120 in the largest state Northrhine-Westphalia (NRW), where I am living.
Together with me, lots of other people joined. We still are having a New-Member-Tsunami. Right now we have 9000 members in Germany and 1500 in NRW. And still no signs that the run decreases. We are now the 7th-but-largest party in Germany.
A few weeks ago, there were local elections in NRW and the PP was elected into the local councils of both of the towns where they nominated candidates (Aachen and Münster).
And even if we should not make the 5 % in the federal elections next sunday, I’m sure we will get a better result than the 1.5 % the Green Party got back in the 80ies when they participated in federal elections for the first time.
Elections for the state NRW are scheduled for may, 2010. I bet the parliament in Düsseldorf will then get at least a dozen PP-members. Among our core-items there is education (schools, universities, open access). In Germany, education is not a federal competence, but maintained by the states.
Here in Germany we are witnessing the birth of a new political movement as a part of the new global movement combining the ideals of human rights from the 18th century with the needs and chances of the 21st century.
Klarmachen zum Ändern! (is the PP’s german slogan – get clear for a change!).
http://infol.antville.org/stories/1932438/
rofl, straight from germany.
@ReasonedMind: in Germany, (potential) voters of the pirate party are not necessarily file sharers who dislike copyrights. Many of them are actually pissed off by the attempts of the government to establish a nation-wide censorship infrastructure, that could be abused to stiffle online dissent. Cf. “Zensursula” law. There, the only credible party that opposes censorship are the PIRATEN.
Lol reasoned you seem to learn nothing from history..
Has piracy even gone down a little bit since its beginning?
Yes the ‘we cant be stopped’ crowd are nuts.. but they are absolutely right..
Seriously.. don’t kid yourself into thinking some fantasy that all this will end.. you really need to think about that.
Unless serious privacy laws are broken.. this will never end and yes they ‘will not be stopped’. You are INCREDIBLY foolish to believe otherwise..
From the days where the bible was reprinted in basements.. to the future where we come up with ‘mind sharing’..
You are destroying your credibility with wild predictions of the future.. with no thought of the past or present.
It is about time that the people react to the fascist and corrupted governments across the planet. The same guys have been in charge for centuries, and all that came out of it, was more wealth for the rich, wars every where, and criminalization of the poor.
Strangely it has to be the Pirates party to try bring some honesty into it all.
On another note
Got offered a Davenport Lyons pencil today. What should I do with it. Spell a cast? lol
@ROLF: lol, cool! Love Duesseldorf.
Little pirates in Germany:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/piratenpartei/3906360235/
So where the hell is our dutch pirate party? I’m starting to feel underrepresented over here!
It’s nice to see that at least the Germans are taking PP seriously, so guys/and Gals let’s get of our backsides and promote the party in our countries a lets see if we can match the Germans (or beat them on membership). BTW I’m in the UK, 61 years old and became a member of the Party as soon as mentioned on this forum.
I hope people wote for partyes that is solidaric and have a broader aspect than satisfing a selfish disare to download must stuffies free from the net.
If a was a muscian i would find it no point to create music if i did not got paid for my work. I would like to see that person who works without getting paid for it. Its a word for that : slavery
ReasonedMind said: “I don’t support RIAA lawsuits, either, I’ve just said repeatedly they are inevitable if the pirate approach to change remains based in illegality.”
The whole idea of pirate parties is to ultimately change the law, and re-legalize things that have been arbitrarily pronounced illegal since the invention of the so called “intellectual property”.
How could the political will to change the laws be based in illegality? Don’t you know that changing laws through the legislative is the very basic foundation of democracy itself?
You may disagree because your income depends on draconian enforcement of copyrights and ruining the life of 10 years olds and grandmas; but should those draconian laws ever be repelled politically (unlikely, but not impossible either), there would be nothing illegal about it.
What pirate parties are doing is not only legitimate, it’s totally legal too (at least in democracies worth their salt).
For those non-german speaking viewers of post #53 interested in play-on-words:
The german PP Motto “Klarmachen zum ändern!” (=Prepare/Get clear to change!) sounds similiar to “Klarmachen zum entern!” (=Prepare/Clear to board!)
Just a few thoughts about the question if most filesharer are really below 18?
I think not!
1.
1999, Star Wars Episode I got leaked and downloaded a few weeks before it hits the cinemas. It was the first time the media (in Germany atleast) covered the story of filesharing.
That was 10 years ago, so even if you where only 8 at that time, today you’re 18.
2. Someone I know works with children younger than 6 and sometimes tells me stories about it. One memorable one is a conversation with a kid about a new movie: “I’ve seen it at home, papa downloaded it!”
(a bit OT)
While you can argue about the pro and cons of a young child already getting familiar with the concept torrenting without really understanding the other part of it, watching a movie in cinema on the big screen, soft seats, good sound and Popcorn was always something special for me as a kid.
(back to Topic)
Conclusion:
People get older, filesharers do too.
And right now, somewhere, a new Pirate is being born. ;D
Its about time . All it will take is one member to be elected, or a large grass roots movement. All parties whether in majority or not in this country can have some influence in the decision making process. Believe me other parties take notice when a new political party comes around signing up members. New members just don’t materialize, they either come from established parties, or are new voters who can see a choice finally. That scares the establishment.
OPEN SOURCE MOVIES , TV AND MUSIC .
30 years ago, when I was a teenager, all my classmates were exchanging music tapes all the time.
Now I download movies, and I know a lot of people of my age (and olders!) that are also music and film downloaders.
I am German and i like the PP.
But i wont vote for them, because they only know about some digital problems and thats all.
I dont think they can handle all the other political topics so i wont vote for them.
Also i hope they will get some %.
But i am sorry, not from me.
“Pirates are misguided morons.”
I don’t think it’s quite that simple. This may be true to a large degree, and still would if you swapped ‘pirates’ in that sentence for e.g. truck drivers, baseball players or nurses.
I see many good arguments in response – not necessarily pro-piracy as such, but anti-copyright, a given or rather taken (or even stolen) right clearly separate from any natural rights!
I think this thread deserves an update. Yesterday we had the “Vote-Like-A-Pirate-Day” in Germany ( http://www.votelikeapirateday.com/ ) and 2 % followed up. That was 845,000 voters in the entire Germany with the exception of the Free State of Saxony (Bundesland Freistaat Sachsen). Which means we succeeded in convincing more than 600,000 people in the last three and a half months since the european elections. We scored 13 % among the male voters between 18 and 21 years, those who voted for the first time.
And we probably crossed the 10,000-members-line together with the election.
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