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Ole Husgaard wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:494852DA.7020200@sparre.dk" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Having followed closely what was happened in Sweden this year, maybe I can explain.
</pre>
</blockquote>
Thanks for the explanation, it's quite helpful :)<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:494852DA.7020200@sparre.dk" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">The current swedish government is proposing one bad law after another. Bad laws that take away our basic rights. And PP SE has been very active
in the public debate about these laws. Let me give you three examples.
The first really bad law this year was the FRA-law (aka. Lew Orwell). This law says that the government must have a copy of all electronic communication that passes swedish borders. Initially the old media was completely silent on this. But PP SE kept pushing the subject in blogs. When the rest of the bloggosphere also started writing about it, it started spreading fast. When almost all political (and a lot of otherwise non-political) blogs were writing about it all the time, the old media had to write about something unusual going on in the bloggosphere. And then the old media also had to report what this blog activity was about. This got the public debate started, and when the law was passed there were mass protests. Lots of demonstrations, and PP SE
has been involved in almost all.
</pre>
</blockquote>
Let me try to explain why had we, in PIRATA, been not able to make the
same here in Spain; we had been not able in spite of having here
simmilar laws being proposed and even passed. Let me use the censorship
in the Internet as an example -note: most links are in Spanish-.<br>
<br>
One year ago, a law was passed in Spain; it was a transposition of
2000/31/EC Directive concerning the Information Society in general and
specifically the e-commerce. That law allowed administrative
authorities to seize media in the Internet without prior court ruling
-in certain circumstances, very simmilar to the sadly infamous <i>Bono
amendment</i>-. When the law was going to be passed, we denounced it
-even <a href="http://www.partidopirata.es/blog/pirata-recurre-lisi/">we
appealed to the Ombudsman</a> (as well as a civic group, Asociacion de
Internautas, did) to denounce its unconstitutionality, without
success-; however we found out that one 8.000-member organisation,
HispaLinux, not only <a href="http://hispalinux.es/node/657">stated</a>
that such liberticidal law "<i>has an important value for the rule of
the law in Internet</i>" -in spite of being unconstitutional-, but also
achieved that the most relevant civic groups sign their statement
-check the <i>Firmantes</i> section, at the end of that article, to
see how many important civic groups backed HispaLinux-.<br>
<br>
Actually, about the signatories, the <a
href="http://www.partidopirata.es/blog/analisis-de-la-junta-directiva-nacional-del-comunicado-de-hispalinux-sobre-el-canon-resumen/"><i>blank
signatures affair</i> was unveiled</a>; an affair where representatives
of those civic groups gave consent to HispaLinux to include their
signature ... no matter whether the groups they represented actually
were willing to sign or not -even the own representatives were unaware
most of times about what they'd supposedly signed-. The affair was
silenced as, while in the beginning some of them admitted privately not
having signed anything and even disagreeing with some parts of
HispaLinux statement, at the end they publicly backed the statement.<br>
<br>
Recently, HispaLinux played a bizarre game:<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>first of all, they <a href="http://hispalinux.es/node/674">purportedly
<i>discovered</i></a> (?) the government's plot concerning giving
the RMOs power to become censors within the Internet; in spite of them
having stated one year ago that "<i>no problem, folks</i>" -by the way,
they acted as if they had never backed the law that allows such
movements-; as if Asociacion de Internautas and us hadn't even formally
appealed because of the unconstitutionality of the law that backs such
movements</li>
<li>then, the government made some make-up to their proposal, to make
it seem harmless; however, it still is the most harmful thing -it
pretends to give censoring power to a 41-seat public organism where the
pro-<i>copyright</i> lobby would control 16 seats-</li>
<li>and recently we've discovered that, after the government's
proposal -made through the parliamentary group of the government's
party- was passed, <b>HispaLinux <a
href="http://hispalinux.es/node/676">stated again "<i>no problem, folks</i>"</a></b>
-literally, "<i>PSOE backs out in its attempt of controling contents in
the Internet</i>" (?)-</li>
</ul>
<br>
So the thing is that, except for few cases -and most of them concerning
SGAE, the Spanish biggest RMO, or other RMOs-, nobody listens to
PIRATA; nobody does it about Information Society, almost nobody does it
about civil rights and liberties, almost nobody does it about culture
and author's rights ... so what can we do?<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:494852DA.7020200@sparre.dk" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">And then of course educate the public. Tell them the facts. Stick to the facts, even when your opponents try to derail the debate by using emotional arguments or direct lies.
</pre>
</blockquote>
We are mentally prepared to fight against political parties which
support, not to fight against civic groups that theoretically defend
same or simmilar viewpoints. What can we do when a high-profile
representative of a civic group states in an important TV debate "<i>we
oppose the filesharing</i>"? what can we do when we discover the blank
signatures affair? Of course, <b>we can deny such statements, we can
unveil such affairs </b>... but <b>in the end, it only weakens us,
weakens the civic opposition to the kind of laws that Ole commented</b>
-just for the good of the governments and certain lobbies-. Or we can
avoid to deny or unveil, though doing so would also be harmful, as it
would tease the public -making them think that the "<i>no problem, folks</i>"
statement is true (when it's not)-. <b>If we answer those civic
groups, we all lose; if we remain silent, we all lose</b>.<br>
<br>
I already asked you about it in January, in Berlin, and I ask it again:
what would you do when you find here and discover that most or all the
important civic groups are there -and, specifically, when it comes that
they're mistaken (like in the LISI example)-? How do you deny them
without weakening the civic opposition to the government's plans?<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:494852DA.7020200@sparre.dk" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">So to get a lot of members you have to get your voice heard. Best would be if you get to debate your issues on national TV and in old media like
newspapers, as PP SE has done a lot this year.
</pre>
</blockquote>
Yes it's our weakest point, PRs. We have to improve on it, or otherwise
we'll have no chances; actually we have made recent improvements -<a
href="http://www.partidopirata.es/blog/nota-de-prensa-de-rrpp-lobby-pro-copyright-cuando-caer-mas-bajo-todavia-resulta-posible/">this
is our most recent success</a> (being linked by many of the most
relevant blogs), echoing about the fact that RMOs, labels,
MicroSoft/BSA and others are using school theatre, with the consent of
local governments, to brainwash the children; however, we achieved only
3.000 daily hits (many more than usual) ... we need at least to keep
that audience, and try to raise it-, though we need many more
improvements. Regards,<br>
<br>
<br>
Carlos Ayala<br>
( Aiarakoa )<br>
<br>
Partido Pirata National Board's Chairman<br>
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