The recent elections for the European Parliament have given the Pirate Party of Sweden the right to have one of their number join the Parliament. While the name of the party is intriguing (think what they must do on Talk Like a Pirate Day), their origins are even more interesting.

The party seens to have been set up in response to Swedish efforts to shut down the file exchange site, Pirate Bay. There’s no official link between the Pirate Party and Pirate Bay but the Pirate Party has expressed support for Pirate Bay as it fights the government sanctions in court.

The Pirate Party wants to see a radical reform of copyright laws where all noncommercial copying becomes legal and file sharing is encouraged.

This, if enacted, would be a seismic shift in copyright law. It seems to suggest that anything I or you create can be copied, downloaded or otherwise passed on for free as long as the person passing it on is not making money off of it.

I have to wonder how a writer, artist, producer, singer, etc could possibly make a living doing what they do if anyone could copy their work and pass it on for free? What would our the incentive to financially support singers or directors if we could have their work for free? What would an artist’s incentive to work and create new songs or movies if you could legally buy one DVD and copy it repeatedly, passing it on for free to all your friends? It would destroy any market for their work.

I can’t help buy wonder if the Pirate Party has thought out the
implications of their stand. They sound much like high school students who think they should be allowed to have everything for free simply because they are technologically able to get it for free. “The worker deserves his wages.” How will those who have toiled be paid so that the people who don’t feel like paying can have their toys for free?