Monday, June 8th 2009
Pirate Party Elected to EU Parliament
The Pirate Party silenced skeptics, gathering enough votes in the European Union elections this year, to make it to the Parliament from Sweden. This serves as a huge victory to the party whose ideology revolves around fighting harsh and archaic copyright laws and enforcement agencies, that it finds incompatible with the digital age we live in. The party secured 7.1 percent of the 99.9 percent districts' votes counted, which guarantees at least one of the 18 or 20 seats Sweden contributes to the EU Parliament. Sweden has 20 seats, but until the Lisbon treaty passes only 18 with voting rights. In this case, the party might secure 2 seats.
Rick Falkvinge, leader of the party, in a statement to TorrentFreak said "Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it." National and International press gathered in Stockholm, where the party celebrates its landmark victory. "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," Falkvinge added.
The voter turnout for the elections was 43 percent. Nearly 200,000 people voted for The Pirate Party, way up from its performance in the 2006 Swedish national elections, where it secured 34,918 votes. With their presence in the EU Parliament, the party wants to fight the abuses of power and copyright laws at the hands of the entertainment industries, and make those activities illegal instead. On the other hand they hope to legalize file-sharing for personal (non-commercial) use.
Source:
TorrentFreak
Rick Falkvinge, leader of the party, in a statement to TorrentFreak said "Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it." National and International press gathered in Stockholm, where the party celebrates its landmark victory. "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," Falkvinge added.
268 Comments on Pirate Party Elected to EU Parliament
Still faster than a DVD of it in the mail, and free too, except the long wait.........
And I swear if I hear a song I like i will look it up in the index and buy the song and or CD.
how much does a CD cost then? :O
These industries wont allow that, simply because they're full of middlemen who dont want to lose their profits. Cant blame em really, it would suck to have your job taken away by the internet - but they can always move over to internet based stores and make the profit there (less profit per sale, but 100x more sales at least)
Online, there is are a few factors that weigh in including including the size of the content to be distributed, the monthly charge to the hosts ISP(s), and the average number of times the content is downloaded per user.
There is a point where online distrobution costs far more than retail. What that point is, I can only guess.
Which distrobution method is selling the best, and by how much, is also an industry secret.