This week yet another court order was handed down in Europe with the aim of censoring The Pirate Bay. The ruling forbids the Dutch Pirate Party from not only running a direct proxy, but also telling people how to circumvent an earlier court ordered blockade. However, according to Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, the judge in the case has a history of corruption relating to another file-sharing case he presided over in the Netherlands.
I just attended the Pirate Party International’s (PPI) annual meeting, which was held in the beautiful city of Prague in the Czech Republic this year. I regard myself as a little crazy in terms of disrespect for opinions about things that can’t be done, but the growth of the Pirate Party movement outperforms my wildest dreams.
Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden, has been selected as one of the 200 finalists for TIME’s prestigious top 100 list of the worlds most influential people. Rick Falkvinge is known as the founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden back in 2006. The success of this party didn’t go [...]
Do you remember the start of large scale file-sharing? Just in the borderline between the dial-up BBSes and internet-connected systems, as Napster just was gaining critical mass? As people learned the skills of sharing culture, the copyright industries didn’t think people would keep doing so for long, that people in general would prefer to remain “honest”.
Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden, has earned a spot in Foreign Policy’s prestigious list of Top 100 Global Thinkers. Falkvinge is in good company, listed among many key figures in the Arab Spring and world leaders such as Barack Obama and Angela Merkel. Foreign Policy describes 2011 as the year where Falkvinge’s ideas about transparency, Internet privacy and copyright law are gaining in popularity.
The current fight between the old and the new — characterized by file sharing, the Arabian Spring, the Occupy swarm, the success of the Pirate Parties, etc — goes way beyond a few laws on the surface. It goes right down to the heart of our views on what kind of society we desire.
If we have learned anything from the wars over the copyright monopoly, it is that the high court and low court have returned. Being equal before the law is a key cornerstone of our society that people don’t even pretend is reality anymore.
