Externally, the United States puts significant unilateral pressure on any country that doesn’t submit to these agreements, up to and including trade sanctions. (You will not have a hard time finding a case where the United States has threatened a country with trade sanctions or visa problems for having a too lax copyright monopoly regime, for example – the U.S. even does this on a regular basis in something named the “Special 301 Report”.) That’s why Europe is key to change.

Europe has the world’s largest economy, slightly larger than that of the United States. (China is in third place.) For trade sanctions to be effective, they have to be directed against a smaller player. This is why the United States can have effective trade sanctions against Cuba, but not the other way around. Therefore, the United States cannot execute trade sanctions against Europe without getting hurt more itself.

However, the laws and enforcement of the copyright monopolies, patent monopolies and other protectionism schemes are at the national level in the European Union. That means that a state in Europe can change its laws significantly, and still enjoy the shield against trade sanctions that comes with being a member of the European Union. (The country may get some heat within the EU, but that’s not going to have any consequences if there is political momentum in the direction of the change. EU rules are routinely ignored when politically inconvenient.)

So Sweden could change its copyright monopoly laws and be free to ignore the rattling of American sabers, knowing safely that the threats cannot be put into effect. So could Poland or Germany, if there was political will. But Sweden is not a very interesting country in terms of political clout. It was just meant to be the proof of concept; the important first stage.

Remember: Sweden, Europe, and the world. In that order.

(As a side note, countries in Latin America also have a politically expedient climate for this change and the gradual dismantling of Industrial Protectionism schemes, but lack the necessary shield from an economic union, and even so, their combined economy is roughly half of that of the US or the EU – not enough on its own.)

On June 7, 2009, the proof of concept materialized as the Swedish Pirate Party took two out of Sweden’s twenty seats in the European Parliament. That sent shockwaves through the political establishment. I thought that this would be the signal for Pirate Parties to form in more countries, seeing that success was achievable; that was actually wrong. There were already Pirate Parties in some fifty different countries by that date. Things had moved much faster than I had anticipated.

To see why Europe is the next step, we need to understand the political dynamics of the Industrial Protectionism supporters (copyright monopoly and patent monopoly rooters). These schemes have essentially been forced onto Eastern Europe by the countries in the west of Europe – notably the UK, France, and Germany. But tides are changing. In the European Parliament, there is now an estimated one-half still in favor of monopolistic protectionism, one-third sceptical or against it, and one-sixth undecided. Shift that balance by more than a sixth, and the protectionist dismantlers will get political majority.

But there’s more than just the European Parliament. Europe is run in many different ways in parallel, and I mentioned the UK, France, and Germany. It is enough to win one of those three countries to tip the political majority in Europe toward the line of the countries in Eastern Europe: the political line exposing copyright monopolies and patent monopolies of today for lopsided rent-seeking schemes that are generally bad for everybody with the possible exception of the United States.

Let’s take a closer look at Germany. The Pirate Party there has enjoyed quite a bit of success, but has come tumbling back down to a more baseline level of support after failing to live up to extreme amounts of hype around the party. If it manages to get a kingmaker position in the German Parliament, it has the power to shift Germany’s stance completely on these matters (and the other parties would gladly give up such a peripheral issue – peripheral to them, anyway – in exchange for the Office of Chancellor).

To do this, the German Piratenpartei needs 5% in the elections on September 22 of this year. If that happens, and the kingmaker move succeeds, then there will be a majority in Europe against copyright monopolies and patent monopolies.

The German Piratenpartei is currently polling at 3%-4%.

Just another small nudge forward for the German Piratenpartei, and Germany is won. The instant Germany is won, Europe is won.

And the day that Europe decides that it is not going to honor protectionistic monopolies, then that’s just the way it is. The day the world’s largest economy (Europe) decides that copyright monopolies are bullshit, they will practically cease to exist overnight elsewhere, too. The same goes for any gradual dismantling.

In other words, we are ridiculously close to a tipping point which will end this destructive war on information, knowledge, and culture. We are ridiculously close to a tipping point which will start dismantling the atrocious copyright and patent monopolies, worldwide. Specifically, we are about 1.5% of political support in Germany away from that tipping point.

The plan was to win Sweden, Europe, and the world. In that order. And it’s executing brilliantly.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

In common with many other Pirates the 26-year old detests the “content mafia” and she previously described the term “intellectual property” as “disgusting“.

At least… she used to.

Yesterday, when Schramm’s book “Click Me: Confessions of an Internet exhibitionist” was released both on paper and as an e-book, the tide started to turn.

To help her publish the book Schramm signed a major deal with the Random House owned publisher Albrecht Knaus Verlag. In addition to earning a 100,000 euro advance, this deal with the “content mafia” required her to sign away her copyrights.

This means that Schramm, nor any other person, is able to share a copy of the book. This is quite obviously an awkward position for a board member of the German Pirate Party.

To make matters even worse it turns out that Schramm and her publisher are policing the Internet heavily for unauthorized copies of the book. While it is still available on many torrent sites, a pirated version posted to Dropbox disappeared this morning, to be replaced by the following message:

“This file is no longer available due to a takedown request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by Julia Schramm Autorin der Verlagsgruppe Random House.”

A copy hosted on the Pirate Party’s wiki disappeared as well.

Responding to the controversy, the Pirate Party politician defends her move with the argument that people can still read her work elsewhere.

“There will always be free texts from me on my blog, and there are also book excerpts,” she told Welt, adding that she will make her book available for free in 10 years when she gets her copyrights back.

While we’re not condemning people’s right to sign copyrights away to publishers, it is certainly not something you would expect from a Pirate Party politician.

At the very minimum, it’s not in line with the party program which states:

“We propose to legalize noncommercial copying, publishing, storage and use of works to improve the overall availability of information, knowledge and culture, as this represents an essential prerequisite for the social, technical and economic development of our society.”

After the issue was widely reported in the German media, Schramm eventually came to the realization that it wasn’t her best decision ever. “In retrospect, of course, I could have negotiated more aggressively with the publisher on some aspects.”

“I was just very glad to be able to fulfill my dream to write a book,” she adds.

While writing a book is free and doesn’t require the exploitation of copyright (see other Pirates), being in the spotlight and making good money often requires sacrifices.

When that’s the case, it appears that certain ideals and aspirations are easier to throw overboard than others.

ARRR(GH)

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The Party currently has dozens of members in elected offices across Germany, which is more than in all other countries combined. Most notable is the unprecedented win in the elections for the Berlin state parliament last summer, where the Pirates got 9 percent of the vote.

Continuing this success the Party is now conquering the rest of Germany. For the first time in its history the Pirate Party is now virtually the third largest party in Germany, achieving 13% of the total vote in a recent poll.

The Pirate Party surpassed the Green Party, which peaked at 11%.

In common with all other Pirate Parties across the world, the German Pirate Party’s policy focuses around three pillars; shared culture, free knowledge, and fundamental privacy. Based on recent poll results, these key points appeal to a wide audience.

While the results of the polls are promising, there is still a long way to go. The next federal elections are held late 2013, more than a year away.

The success of the German Pirates is mimicked by their neighbors in Austria, where the local Pirate Party got 7% of all votes in a recent poll.

Illustrating that the Pirates are not a fringe group, 22% of the respondents said they could see themselves voting for the Party in the coming elections.

The coming months will be crucial for both parties, as they have to keep the momentum going towards the new elections. Being in the spotlight is great for as long as there’s good news to sell.

Times can change quickly as we’ve seen in Sweden, where support for the local Pirate Party plunged a year after the European elections, resulting in a failed election bid in 2010.

Time will tell whether Europe is ready for the Pirates now.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Recent polls for the federal elections show that the Pirate Party is now polling double digits across the country. With 10 percent of the total vote, the Pirates would become the third largest party in the country if federal elections were being held this week.

This means that the good run in Berlin, where nearly 9 percent of the people voted for The Pirate Party, hasn’t gone unnoticed by the rest of the country. On the contrary, support for the Pirates only increased.

Perhaps even more impressively, it also shows that the party nearly quintupled their voter base since the last federal elections two years ago. With 845,904 votes at the 2009 federal elections, the Pirate Party got stuck at 2 percent of the vote, where 5 percent was needed to enter the Bundestag.

“This is a landmark event,” godfather and founder of Pirate Party movement Rick Falkvinge told TorrentFreak commenting on the news. “Getting to mainstream awareness takes metric tons of work. Getting to 10% in a poll is an achievement that only some five parties achieve per country in an entire century.”

In common with all other Pirate Parties across the world, the German Pirate Party’s policy focuses around three pillars; shared culture, free knowledge, and fundamental privacy. Based on the recent election and poll results, these key points appeal to a wide audience.

Although the results of the polls are promising, there is still a long way to go before new federal elections are held in Germany. The difficult task for the Pirates is to keep the momentum going. However, Rick Falkvinge thinks that this week’s poll results are a clear sign that they are on course.

“This isn’t an election result, but it is still something that starts to shift policy making away from neomercantilistic monopolies and toward the free exchange of TICKS (tools, ideas, culture, knowledge, and sentiments) that build the next generation of industries. That’s good for every country and for the youth in particular.”

Despite being just five years young, the German Pirate Party has already booked several successes. The party currently has more than 150 members in elected offices across Germany and with their recent surge in popularity this appears to be just the beginning.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

With 8.9 percent of the total vote the Pirates gained 15 seats in the Berlin state parliament.

The news soon started to make headlines all over the world, and it didn’t get unnoticed to the Taiwanese either.

The animation below comes from Taiwan’s Next Media Animation.

“Awwl”

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Founded in September 2006, the German Pirate Party has already booked several successes in its relatively short existence. Before today, the party had over 50 members in elected offices across Germany, which is more than in all other countries combined. However, today’s election win trumps all previous ones.

Never before has a Pirate Party been elected into a state or federal parliament. And with the 5 percent floor that was required to enter, the achievement at the Berlin elections is all the more impressive.

The initial results show that the Pirates received the most support from younger voters. 15 percent of people under 30 voted for the Pirate Party, but even among voters aged 60 years and up, a few percent voted for the Pirates.

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg was the first region to finish counting, and the Pirate Party got 14.7 percent of all votes there. With all votes counted in the state the Pirates are at 8.9 percent.

TorrentFreak asked Sebastian Nerz, Chairman of the German Pirate Party, what this success means for the party. He told us that due to an increase in funds and influence the Pirate Party will have a greater chance to make its mark.

“At the moment the Pirate Party of Germany does not have any paid employees,” Nerz says. “Everyone working for the party – including myself – is working in an honorary capacity. In contrast, Members of Parliament are paid for their work. In addition they receive state money to pay for assistents and co-workers. This will enable those Pirates to work full-time for the party, thus giving us much more work force.”

“Another very important benefit is, that citizens and media are taking parties with access to the parliament much more seriously. A number of times i’ve heard, “Your party is not relevant because it does not have members of parliament.” Following this weekend’s successes, in this respect the party’s position will be greatly improved.

In addition the Pirate Party expects that their heightened profile will lead to an increase in members and more people working for the party. As for the party’s ideals, they want to be as transparent as possible, secure the privacy of citizens, abolish patents and limit the ever growing control of copyright exploiting organizations.

“We are going to demonstrate that it is possible to conduct a transparent approach to politics. Traditionally politics are a secret ‘no trespassing’ area. Meetings are held behind closed doors, agendas and protocols are closed, treaties are not being published,” Nerz told TorrentFreak.

“We will demonstrate that it is possible to openly and truthfully inform the citizens what is going on, what alternatives are possible and why a certain path has been chosen. We will demonstrate that citizens can be integrated into the fact-finding and path-choosing methods. Why not ask citizens about their opinion before you decide? Its well worth a try!”

One thing’s for certain. The German Pirate Party scored a sensational win today. As a result, the Berlin state parliament will undoubtedly notice the fresh wind coming from the most technology-friendly and privacy preserving party out there. All the Berlin candidates are ready and eager to start according to the chairman.

“In short: We are going to demonstrate that politics can be reformed,” Nerz says.

The election win is currently being celebrated by hundreds of Pirate Party enthusiasts in Berlin, including the founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party Rick Falkvinge. Rick already predicted the massive win yesterday and shared a picture of the festivities with TorrentFreak.

“Pirates of Berlin, thank you for your fantastic work in making tonight happen. We all stand shoulder to shoulder in fighting for the next generation — one of succeeding is all of us succeeding. Tomorrow, people will look to your success, and the movement will grow yet more. You are the source of inspiration for the next wave of civil liberties activists,” Falkvinge adds in a blog post.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

However, thus far the Pirate Party hasn’t managed to get a member elected in a state or federal parliament. With 845,904 votes during the 2009 federal elections, the party got stuck at 2 percent of the vote, where 5 was needed to enter the Bundestag.

But this year the local success of the Pirate Party may finally translate into a success at the state elections. With only four weeks to go until the Berlin state parliament election, the Pirate Party is predicted to gain 4.5 percent of the total vote.

If this upward trend continues and the 5 percent floor is met, the German Pirates will be the first Pirate Party worldwide to gain seats in a state or national parliament. The party’s leaders are cautiously optimistic about the promising outlook, but also warn that there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“We are delighted that our demands for more transparency, participation and democracy for the people of Berlin are shared by the public. The Berlin people want change, and they recognize that a vote for the Pirate Party is not wasted,” Pirate Party’s Gerhard Anger said.

“With this poll result we are not in the state parliament yet. However, it is an important step in the right direction. We have to work hard in the next four weeks. In order to see the results of this poll reflected in actual votes on election day, we still have to keep on going,” Anger adds.

Previously the German Pirate Party already held a seat in the national parliament when Jörg Tauss left the Social Democrats to join the pirates. However, having people voted into parliament through an election would be an even bigger accomplishment.

Rick Falkvinge, the Swedish founder of the Pirate Party movement compares the current standing of the German pirates to that of the Swedish Pirate Party in 2009. They were also labeled as a likely sensation by the press, and this eventually paid off as they got more than 7% of the total vote.

“Newspapers are now describing the Pirate Party as ‘the likely surprise of this election’. There are positive articles everywhere describing it as just short of a done deal, and I predict this will have an immense effect in the polls in the four remaining weeks,” Falkvinge says.

Whether the German pirates can copy this success will become clear on September 18, when the results of the Berlin state elections come in.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Despite all this, 2% was the best they could achieve in the Federal elections, although in itself, that is still not an easy figure to achieve. However, it is short of the 5% barrier required to enter the German Parliament. It also means that the seat they gained from the defection of Jörg Tauss has been lost.

Yet positives remain. Like their Swedish brethren, the Pirate Party is now the largest outside of government, eclipsing many established ‘broad spectrum’ parties. It also qualifies for federal funding, which at 0.85 Euros per vote nets the party somewhere in the region of €720,000 (or $1,050,000 US) from their 845,904 votes, plus additional money to match 38% of contributions and membership fees.

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment is that the party has gained more votes in this election than the entire movement has before. It got a very strong showing with first-time voters, with Business Week reporting up to 13% of that group went Pirate. The party has also grown its membership tenfold in just a few months, to around 10,000. Not as fast as seen in Sweden, but still impressive.

Jens Seipenbusch, national party chairman, was upbeat about the results. “Our new style of politics touches the nerve of the people in Germany. We will continue to bank on participatory politics and to fight for civil rights online as well as offline.”

While it’s easy to focus on the negative, the positive is there as well. The party doubled its vote percentage in just a few months. With the funding, the rapid growth of members and the high profile the party has received in the media, it can only be a matter of time before the party gains more seats.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

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.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The ambitions of the Pirates don’t stop there though, as they are currently preparing for a successful run in the upcoming elections. With Herbert Rusche, the Pirates add another experienced politician to their team.

Nicole Hornung of the Pirate Party says he is pleased with gaining such a prominent new pirate: “Herbert’s long political experience is invaluable for us. In addition, he has already helped to develop a group of dedicated young people in the direction of governing a party.”

Indeed, Rusche has plenty of experience. He is one of the co-founders of Germany’s Green party for which he served as a Member of Parliament for several years.

This fall, the Pirate Party hopes to do well in the German federal election so they can do something about the increased censorship of the Internet and abuses of copyright. The party is further committed to increase transparency and strengthen the fundamental rights and protection of privacy.

According to Rusche the Pirate Party can do a lot of good work for the German people by addressing these issues. “The established parties fail completely, for many people these issues are of paramount importance,” Rusche concludes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.