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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><A
href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/87c523a4-6b18-11de-861d-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/87c523a4-6b18-11de-861d-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1</A></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>;)</FONT></DIV>
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style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=nicco77@gmail.com href="mailto:nicco77@gmail.com">Nicolas
Sahlqvist</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net
href="mailto:pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net">Pirate Parties
International -- General Talk</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, July 19, 2009 3:47 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [pp.int.general] Christian
Engstrom on FT on July 7</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Excellent text, but where was it published on the 7th of July,
URL?<BR><BR><BR>- Nicolas<BR><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Alex Foti <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A
href="mailto:alex.foti@gmail.com">alex.foti@gmail.com</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote>for archive-minded pirates. ciao, lx<BR><BR>Copyright laws
threaten our online freedom<BR>By Christian Engström<BR><BR>Published: July
7 2009 18:10 | Last updated: July 7 2009 18:10<BR><BR>If you search for
Elvis Presley in Wikipedia, you will find a lot of<BR>text and a few
pictures that have been cleared for distribution. But<BR>you will find no
music and no film clips, due to copyright<BR>restrictions. What we think of
as our common cultural heritage is not<BR>“ours” at all.<BR><BR>On MySpace
and YouTube, creative people post audio and video remixes<BR>for others to
enjoy, until they are replaced by take-down notices<BR>handed out by big
film and record companies. Technology opens up<BR>possibilities; copyright
law shuts them down.<BR><BR>EDITOR’S CHOICE<BR>Curb on content threatens
France Telecom - Jul-07E-retailers find big<BR>brands hard to touch -
Jul-07This was never the intent. Copyright was<BR>meant to encourage
culture, not restrict it. This is reason enough for<BR>reform. But the
current regime has even more damaging effects. In<BR>order to uphold
copyright laws, governments are beginning to restrict<BR>our right to
communicate with each other in private, without
being<BR>monitored.<BR><BR>File-sharing occurs whenever one individual sends
a file to another.<BR>The only way to even try to limit this process is to
monitor all<BR>communication between ordinary people. Despite the crackdown
on<BR>Napster, Kazaa and other peer-to-peer services over the past
decade,<BR>the volume of file-sharing has grown exponentially. Even if
the<BR>authorities closed down all other possibilities, people could
still<BR>send copyrighted files as attachments to e-mails or through
private<BR>networks. If people start doing that, should we give the
government<BR>the right to monitor all mail and all encrypted networks?
Whenever<BR>there are ways of communicating in private, they will be used to
share<BR>copyrighted material. If you want to stop people doing this, you
must<BR>remove the right to communicate in private. There is no other
option.<BR>Society has to make a choice.<BR><BR>The world is at a
crossroads. The internet and new information<BR>technologies are so powerful
that no matter what we do, society will<BR>change. But the direction has not
been decided.<BR><BR>The technology could be used to create a Big Brother
society beyond<BR>our nightmares, where governments and corporations monitor
every<BR>detail of our lives. In the former East Germany, the government
needed<BR>tens of thousands of employees to keep track of the citizens
using<BR>typewriters, pencils and index cards. Today a computer can do the
same<BR>thing a million times faster, at the push of a button. There are
many<BR>politicians who want to push that button.<BR><BR>The same technology
could instead be used to create a society that<BR>embraces spontaneity,
collaboration and diversity. Where the citizens<BR>are no longer passive
consumers being fed information and culture<BR>through one-way media, but
are instead active participants<BR>collaborating on a journey into the
future.<BR><BR>The internet it still in its infancy, but already we see
fantastic<BR>things appearing as if by magic. Take Linux, the free
computer<BR>operating system, or Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Witness
the<BR>participatory culture of MySpace and YouTube, or the growth of
the<BR>Pirate Bay, which makes the world’s culture easily available
to<BR>anybody with an internet connection. But where technology opens up
new<BR>possibilities, our intellectual property laws do their best
to<BR>restrict them. Linux is held back by patents, the rest of the
examples<BR>by copyright.<BR><BR>The public increasingly recognises the need
for reform. That was why<BR>Piratpartiet – the Pirate party – won 7.1 per
cent of the popular vote<BR>in Sweden in the European Union elections. This
gave us a seat in the<BR>European parliament for the first time.<BR><BR>Our
manifesto is to reform copyright laws and gradually abolish the<BR>patent
system. We oppose mass surveillance and censorship on the net,<BR>as in the
rest of society. We want to make the EU more democratic and<BR>transparent.
This is our entire platform.<BR><BR>We intend to devote all our time and
energy to protecting the<BR>fundamental civil liberties on the net and
elsewhere. Seven per cent<BR>of Swedish voters agreed with us that it makes
sense to put other<BR>political differences aside in order to ensure
this.<BR><BR>Political decisions taken over the next five years are likely
to set<BR>the course we take into the information society, and will affect
the<BR>lives of millions for many years into the future. Will we let
our<BR>fears lead us towards a dystopian Big Brother state, or will we
have<BR>the courage and wisdom to choose an exciting future in a free and
open<BR>society?<BR><BR>The information revolution is happening here and
now. It is up to us<BR>to decide what future we want.<BR><BR><BR>The writer
is the Pirate party’s member of the European
parliament<BR>____________________________________________________<BR>Pirate
Parties International - General Talk<BR><A
href="mailto:pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net</A><BR><A
href="http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general"
target=_blank>http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR>
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<P></P>____________________________________________________<BR>Pirate Parties
International - General
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