Would you vote for an Irish 'Pirate Party'?

banquo

In Sweden, the party that wants to overhaul copyright law just won two European seats.

news wrote:

The Pirate Party has won a huge victory in the Swedish elections and is marching on to Brussels. After months of campaigning against well established parties, the Pirate Party has gathered enough votes to be guaranteed a seat in the European Parliament.

When the Swedish Pirate Party was founded in early 2006, the majority of the mainstream press were skeptical, with some simply laughing it away. But they were wrong to dismiss this political movement out of hand. Today, the Pirate Party accomplished what some believed to be the impossible, by securing a seat in the European Parliament.

With 99.9% of the districts counted the Pirates have 7.1 percent of the votes, beating several established parties. This means that the Pirate Party will get at least one, but most likely two of the 18 (+2) available seats Sweden has at the European Parliament.

When we asked Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge about the outcome, he told TorrentFreak: “We’ve felt the wind blow in our sails. We’ve seen the polls prior to the election. But to stand here, today, and see the figures coming up on that screen… What do you want me to say? I’ll say anything”

“Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it,” Falkvinge said. “This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities’ mass-surveillance,” he added.

So here's the 99c question: Would you vote for a Pirate Party TD in your area in the next general election?

4zn76tysfajdxp

Yo ho...no.

Red Hand

Oh, yarrrrrrrrrrr....X marks the spot on the ballot paper for my local candidate, Perfumed William.

MrStuffins

Love it

ccosgrave

Absolutely not.

Maybe I'd give a 5th or 6th preference, but not more than that.

yurmothrintites

Aye....if he addressed aaarrrrrrr swashbuckling political needs!


AAaarrrrr

KeyLimePie

Never.
Damn dirty liberals.

Daelus

No. Copyright laws are grand the way they are. People are just greedy.

KnifeWRENCH

Depends. What policies do they have other than anti-copyright law?

liah

That's actually really, really cool.

Now I want to move to Sweden.

delllat

id vote for a porn star politician quicker

someone like tera patrick would get my votes

Thomas_S_Hunterson

In elections, I vote purely to subvert the popular opinion on here.Negating someones vote is so much fun.

With that in mind, Fianna Fail will probably get my first preference for the foreseeable future but I give a Pirate Party a second preference.

dr.bollocko

Moses Brave Player wrote: »

Yo ho...no.

Now I get it. It's a tweet version of the crying game right?

stovelid

Not a patch on Labour tbh.

civis_liberalis

I would vote for a pirate party IF they had coherent policies in other areas, one that challenge the norm and aim to improve government for the better.

dsmythy

Knife-WREEENCH wrote: »

Depends. What policies do they have other than anti-copyright law?

The agenda also includes support for a strengthening of the right to privacy, both on the Internet and in everyday life, and the transparency of state administration.

Whipped straight from wikipedia. That's pretty much what there all about. Sure they don't even have to go to the parliament it seems anyway. They can pocket their salaries. Maybe buy some music or films.

Sabre0001

I would unless they were up against an Irish 'Ninja Party'

Ninjas > Pirates
Fact!

Riddle101

I thought Fianna Fail was a Pirate Party. Wasn't Berties Ahern one of the worlds worst Pirate at one time, stealing and currupting this nation with his Pirarteness as well as helping bankers other pirates to plunder our fine nation.

shenanigans1982

Sabre0001 wrote: »

I would unless they were up against an Irish 'Ninja Party'

Ninjas > Pirates
Fact!

True that....especially if they have been trained by Batman.

Riddle101 wrote: »

I thought Fianna Fail was a Pirate Party. Wasn't Berties Ahern one of the worlds worst Pirate at one time, stealing and currupting this nation with his Pirarteness as well as helping bankers other pirates to plunder our fine nation.

Technically he would have been a ninja because he managed to sneak away before any of the damage was realised.

mehfesto2

It's mad really, The Swedes vote the Pirates in and we Vote ours out.

AlmightyCushion

As long as they made pirate talk the first language of Ireland.

senordingdong

No way.
All pirates want to do with their wealth is bury it.

Not a good investment if you ask me.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

senordingdong wrote: »

No way.
All pirates want to do with their wealth is bury it.

Not a good investment if you ask me.

Oil and Diamond traders would disagree.

CianRyan

Bloody fúcking yes!!!!!!!:eek:

YAAAR!!!
My future plans in my yearbook were all about becoming a pirate, if i ever decided to get in to politics, it would be perfect for me.
*tear of happiness*

shenanigans1982

CianRyan wrote: »

Bloody fúcking yes!!!!!!!:eek:

YAAAR!!!
My future plans in my yearbook were all about becoming a pirate, if i ever decided to get in to politics, it would be perfect for me.
*tear of happiness*

Just don't wipe it away with your hook hand.

CianRyan

shenanigans1982 wrote: »

Just don't wipe it away with your hook hand.

Que that scene from hostel.

BeerWolf

To hell with them - they basically want to allow piracy...

yurmothrintites

senordingdong wrote: »

No way.
All pirates want to do with their wealth is bury it.

Not a good investment if you ask me.

It's better than giving to the banks.....At least with burying it, you've some sort of hope of retrieving it, as long as you draw a good map.

j1smithy

I can't ever see myself voting for a single issue group/party ever. The world is far more complicated than that. Those prople will have to deal with non-copyright related issues and one would have no idea how they would handle them.

Its the same reason I wouldn't vote for one of those open-more-hospitals candidates that often run here in Ireland. While the goal is lofty and commendible, these people rarely if ever achieve anything. Apart of course of wasting their time and our money trying to change a political system they have no experience in working.

You don't need to be elected to effect change if you have enough support behind you. I cite Johanna Lumley and the Ghurkas as how you go about it. with enough pressure politicans will cave to public opinion even if it means they have to make huge cuts elsewhere. They are after all elected by us, and will do anything to promote their own popularity (and save their own skin/seat).

Rented Mule

They voted in a 'pirate party' so they wouldn't have to pay to for another Abba record ?

Anyone else wonder why this world is going to hell in a handbasket ?

Overheal

Knife-WREEENCH wrote: »

Depends. What policies do they have other than anti-copyright law?

Tax breaks for Grog~!

Dravokivich

Sabre0001 wrote: »

I would unless they were up against an Irish 'Ninja Party'

Ninjas > Pirates
Fact!

But then we could have a grouping of pirates and ninja's...


DeNinjARRRRRRRRRS!!!!!!!!11

- Drav!

(DeNinjARRRRRRRR at heart)

Kiith

The ****!

Terry

I voted for this guy for the county council elections, so I'd have no problem voting for others of his ilk.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Didn´t 22% (or somethign) vote for pirates a few days ago..?

ShooterSF

Possibly

AnonoBoy

Only if they sailed up the liffey in ye olde pirate ship(e) and canvassed people by firing cannons at them.

banquo

Terry wrote: »

I voted for this guy for the county council elections, so I'd have no problem voting for others of his ilk.

I can't believe it took this many posts for someone to post this.

Was expecting 2nd or 3rd tbh.

davyjose

Can we change the Poll answers to "Yarrr" and "Nayyy"? For funnyness purposes, of course.

For the mood...

banquo

davyjose wrote: »

Can we change the Poll answers to "Yarrr" and "Nayyy"? [/URL]

I'm down with that.

General Zod

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Only if they sailed up the liffey in ye olde pirate ship(e) and canvassed people by firing cannons at them.

Well, the Brits did that in 1916 and it didn't work out too well for them.

More serious, Copyright does need to be reformed. It's currently used as a bludgeon for the large players in the music industry to make sure they still remain in control and their pockets remain full at the expense of the artist as well as Joe Public.

I don't torrent myself, but I can sure as hell understand why people would take the itunes or the free option for the songs they want rather than pay 25 euro for a crap sandwich album.

banquo

General Zod wrote: »

Well, the Brits did that in 1916 and it didn't work out too well for them.

More serious, Copyright does need to be reformed. It's currently used as a bludgeon for the large players in the music industry to make sure they still remain in control and their pockets remain full at the expense of the artist as well as Joe Public.

I don't torrent myself, but I can sure as hell understand why people would take the itunes or the free option for the songs they want rather than pay 25 euro for a crap sandwich album.

Agreed. DLing is wrong, but everybody does it. They can wag their finger all they want, but nobody ever fought human nature and won. They just need to find a better means of distribution. Reform of copyright law benefits everyone.

Red Alert

What really annoys me is when the excessively long copyright term is nearly up, the government always puts an extension on it. :S

banquo

It just seems to me that everything in this area sucks atm. Eircom = suck. Copyright = suck. Media proliferation = suck. I'm glad that there's a political movement to fix it, even if it's their only policy. One more policy then a lot of parties...

johnny_knoxvile

Were these not the lads ambushing American ships?

The_Minister

I wouldn't.
I believe that copyright is a good idea, and I believe that stealing movies/games/books online hurts quality in the long-run and is wrong.

That said, the current copyright times are far too long - until the death of the author is preferable.

People who illegally download large quantities of material deserve to be treated like shoplifters and jailed. The only difference is in your head.

EDIT: The new Liberal group is where it's at :cool:

120_Minutes

I'll vote for anyone that legalises weed, closes down rte and abolishes the tv licence.


yeah, i'll be waiting a while.

Pygmalion

This seems the closest we have, but as you can see doesn't seem to be any mention of what they're actually DOING.
And obviously they're not exactly ready to run for election or make any demands yet, seem to very much just be out there to spread the word and get a feelfor whether it'd be feasible.

I'd say if the pirates continue to do well elsewhere (Sweden, there's also a German one that ran, didn't get anywhere near a seat but got just enough votes to recieve state funding I think) then an Irish one may be feasible, but not anytime soon.

Pygmalion

120_Minutes wrote: »

I'll vote for anyone that legalises weed, closes down rte and abolishes the tv licence.

We only have 4 TV channels available to everyone, RTÉ runs two of those, and they're not terrible channels in terms of what's on.

thelordofcheese

banquo wrote: »

So here's the 99c question: Would you vote for a Pirate Party TD in your area in the next general election?

No, because politics is for big boys and girls.

jimmycrackcorm

I'd vote for the pirate party because my father did and his father did and the local PP candidate fixed some potholes.