The turning point in the fight against the regime of copyright monopoly is much closer than it seems
When I founded the Pirate Party of Sweden with the goal of changing the political landscape of a copyright monopoly, I often told reporters the following: the plan is to change Sweden, Europe, and the whole world in that order. They usually started backing away, not believing in the seriousness of my words, so I gave them my plan in detail.
The key to the overthrow of the world regime of copyright monopoly lies in Europe and the European Union. The reason for this is that the United States has become completely dependent on a number of Industrial Self-Preservation ( IP ) schemes since the collapse of the country's industrial capacity in the mid-seventies, moving away from this collapse to deceiving one-sided extortionate schemes called "free trade agreements." The first of these was the WTO, an organization created to oversee the TRIPS agreement . Since then, many others have appeared. It is impossible to change the course of the United States on these issues, acting from the inside.
Following the aforementioned foreign policy, the United States exerts significant unilateral pressure on every country not subject to these agreements, up to and including the imposition of trade sanctions. (It will not be difficult for you to find a case in which the US threatened a country with trade sanctions or visa problems for too mild copyright monopoly — the United States even issues something called “Special Report 301” on a regular basis.) That’s why Europe is the key to to change.
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Europe has the largest economy in the world, slightly overtaking the United States in this parameter. (China is in third place.) For trade sanctions to be effective, they must be directed against a lesser player. Therefore, the United States can effectively apply trade sanctions against Cuba, but not vice versa. Thus, if the US tries to implement trade sanctions against Europe, it will harm itself more.
However, laws and power support of copyright monopolies, patent monopolies and other protectionist schemes have been implemented in the European Union at the national level. This means that an EU member state can significantly change its laws and still enjoy the shield of trade sanctions provided in conjunction with EU membership. (A country may receive a certain amount of criticism in its address within the European Union, but this will not be accompanied by any consequences if there is a political impetus in the direction of change. EU rules are regularly ignored if they are politically inconvenient.)
Thus, Sweden could change its laws on copyright monopoly and calmly ignore the saber-rattling of American sabers, knowing that threats cannot be implemented. Poland or Germany could have done the same, if that were their political will. But Sweden is not so interesting in terms of political influence. She just had to be proof of the concept; important first step.
Remember: Sweden, Europe, the world. In that order.
(Note: Latin American countries also have a politically fit climate for these changes and the gradual dismantling of Industrial Self-Preservation schemes, but they lack the necessary economic shield, and even if we assume the existence of a local economic union, their total economy will be about two times less than US or EU, without external support, this will not be enough.)
June 7, 2009 proof of concept materialized: the Pirate Party of Sweden took two of the twenty Swedish seats in the European Parliament. This event had an explosive effect on the political establishment. I thought it would be a call for the formation of Pirate Parties in other countries, showing that success is possible; in fact it was wrong. At that time , there were already Pirate Parties in fifty countries. Everything happened faster than I expected.
To see why Europe is the next step, we need to understand the political dynamics of the supporters of Industrial Self-Preservation (the founders of the copyright and patent monopolies). These schemes appeared in Eastern Europe under pressure from western Europe, in particular from Great Britain, France and Germany. But the trends are changing. Today, about half of the European Parliament still stands for monopoly protectionism, one-third against or skeptical of it, and one-sixth was undecided. Shift this balance by more than one-sixth, and opponents of protectionism will gain a political majority.
But the European Parliament does not end there. Europe is governed in many different ways in parallel, and I mentioned the UK, France and Germany. It is enough to win one of these three countries in order to incline the political majority in Europe to the course of the countries of Eastern Europe: a political course that exposes today's copyright and patent monopolies in the use of deceiving one-sided extortionate schemes that are harmful for everyone, with the possible exception of the United States.
Let's take a closer look at Germany. The Pirate Party there made good progress, but returned to a more basic level of support after it failed to justify the hype that had risen around the party. If she succeeds in occupying the position of the king’s maker in the German parliament, she will have enough power to change Germany’s position on these issues to the exact opposite (and other parties will gladly retreat on this secondary issue - in any case, secondary for them - in exchange for Chancellor).
To do this, the German Piratenpartei needs 5% of the vote in the elections to be held on September 22 of this year. If this happens, and the kingmaker’s move is successful, in Europe a majority is formed against copyright and patent monopolies.
According to surveys, the Pirate Party of Germany is currently gaining about 3% -4%.
Only a small push forward for the German Piratenpartei, and Germany won. At the moment when Germany is won, Europe is won.
On a day when Europe decides that it will not honor protectionist monopolies, it will. On the day when the largest economy in the world (Europe) decides that copyright monopolies are bullshit, they will in fact cease to exist in other places overnight. The same is true for any gradual destructive processes.
In other words, we are ridiculously close to the turning point that will end this war with information, knowledge and culture. We are ridiculously close to the turning point that will begin the dismantling of the atrocious copyright and patent monopolies around the world. In particular, we are at about 1.5% of the political support in Germany from this turning point.
The plan was to win Sweden, Europe, and the whole world. In that order. And he performed brilliantly.
The original article "A Tipping Point Against The Copyright Monopoly Regime Is A Lot Closer Than You Think" was written by Rick Falquing, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party.
The key to the overthrow of the world regime of copyright monopoly lies in Europe and the European Union. The reason for this is that the United States has become completely dependent on a number of Industrial Self-Preservation ( IP ) schemes since the collapse of the country's industrial capacity in the mid-seventies, moving away from this collapse to deceiving one-sided extortionate schemes called "free trade agreements." The first of these was the WTO, an organization created to oversee the TRIPS agreement . Since then, many others have appeared. It is impossible to change the course of the United States on these issues, acting from the inside.
Following the aforementioned foreign policy, the United States exerts significant unilateral pressure on every country not subject to these agreements, up to and including the imposition of trade sanctions. (It will not be difficult for you to find a case in which the US threatened a country with trade sanctions or visa problems for too mild copyright monopoly — the United States even issues something called “Special Report 301” on a regular basis.) That’s why Europe is the key to to change.
')
Europe has the largest economy in the world, slightly overtaking the United States in this parameter. (China is in third place.) For trade sanctions to be effective, they must be directed against a lesser player. Therefore, the United States can effectively apply trade sanctions against Cuba, but not vice versa. Thus, if the US tries to implement trade sanctions against Europe, it will harm itself more.
However, laws and power support of copyright monopolies, patent monopolies and other protectionist schemes have been implemented in the European Union at the national level. This means that an EU member state can significantly change its laws and still enjoy the shield of trade sanctions provided in conjunction with EU membership. (A country may receive a certain amount of criticism in its address within the European Union, but this will not be accompanied by any consequences if there is a political impetus in the direction of change. EU rules are regularly ignored if they are politically inconvenient.)
Thus, Sweden could change its laws on copyright monopoly and calmly ignore the saber-rattling of American sabers, knowing that threats cannot be implemented. Poland or Germany could have done the same, if that were their political will. But Sweden is not so interesting in terms of political influence. She just had to be proof of the concept; important first step.
Remember: Sweden, Europe, the world. In that order.
(Note: Latin American countries also have a politically fit climate for these changes and the gradual dismantling of Industrial Self-Preservation schemes, but they lack the necessary economic shield, and even if we assume the existence of a local economic union, their total economy will be about two times less than US or EU, without external support, this will not be enough.)
June 7, 2009 proof of concept materialized: the Pirate Party of Sweden took two of the twenty Swedish seats in the European Parliament. This event had an explosive effect on the political establishment. I thought it would be a call for the formation of Pirate Parties in other countries, showing that success is possible; in fact it was wrong. At that time , there were already Pirate Parties in fifty countries. Everything happened faster than I expected.
To see why Europe is the next step, we need to understand the political dynamics of the supporters of Industrial Self-Preservation (the founders of the copyright and patent monopolies). These schemes appeared in Eastern Europe under pressure from western Europe, in particular from Great Britain, France and Germany. But the trends are changing. Today, about half of the European Parliament still stands for monopoly protectionism, one-third against or skeptical of it, and one-sixth was undecided. Shift this balance by more than one-sixth, and opponents of protectionism will gain a political majority.
But the European Parliament does not end there. Europe is governed in many different ways in parallel, and I mentioned the UK, France and Germany. It is enough to win one of these three countries in order to incline the political majority in Europe to the course of the countries of Eastern Europe: a political course that exposes today's copyright and patent monopolies in the use of deceiving one-sided extortionate schemes that are harmful for everyone, with the possible exception of the United States.
Let's take a closer look at Germany. The Pirate Party there made good progress, but returned to a more basic level of support after it failed to justify the hype that had risen around the party. If she succeeds in occupying the position of the king’s maker in the German parliament, she will have enough power to change Germany’s position on these issues to the exact opposite (and other parties will gladly retreat on this secondary issue - in any case, secondary for them - in exchange for Chancellor).
To do this, the German Piratenpartei needs 5% of the vote in the elections to be held on September 22 of this year. If this happens, and the kingmaker’s move is successful, in Europe a majority is formed against copyright and patent monopolies.
According to surveys, the Pirate Party of Germany is currently gaining about 3% -4%.
Only a small push forward for the German Piratenpartei, and Germany won. At the moment when Germany is won, Europe is won.
On a day when Europe decides that it will not honor protectionist monopolies, it will. On the day when the largest economy in the world (Europe) decides that copyright monopolies are bullshit, they will in fact cease to exist in other places overnight. The same is true for any gradual destructive processes.
In other words, we are ridiculously close to the turning point that will end this war with information, knowledge and culture. We are ridiculously close to the turning point that will begin the dismantling of the atrocious copyright and patent monopolies around the world. In particular, we are at about 1.5% of the political support in Germany from this turning point.
The plan was to win Sweden, Europe, and the whole world. In that order. And he performed brilliantly.
From translator
The original article "A Tipping Point Against The Copyright Monopoly Regime Is A Lot Closer Than You Think" was written by Rick Falquing, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/189164/
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