Left Party ‘Pirates’ The Pirate Party
Elements of the new election manifesto of Sweden’s Left Party bare a striking resemblance to those of the Pirate Party, but meet with approval from Rick Falkvinge.
It seems that Sweden’s Left Party may have had an eye on some of the more popular elements of the Pirate Party’s politics.
One of the sections in the Left’s new manifesto is entitled “The right to be private” and mirrors almost identically the policies of Sweden’s Pirates.
The Left Party is also advocating the nullification of both the FRA and IPRED legislations, and wishes to limit the right of the state to spy on its citizens.
“The insidious development of a Control society is a reality. There is a need for change. We need freedom of movement of personal integrity,” they write.
Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge acknowledges that his party’s politics have been copied, but true to his own ideals, is supportive.
“I think it’s great to spread our ideas and with more parties tackling these issues, this is what we wanted from the beginning,” he said.
But is Falkvinge concerned that the Lefts are going to steal his voters?
“For us it is not an end in itself to sit in government. The more people talking about issues and spreading ideas is what we want. From the beginning politicians did not want to take on these issues, now that several parties have this is very good,” he added.
Way to go! Like most things, this will cause talks through ought the world about this which is truly great. The more publicity there is about the right to be private, the more chances there is to turn the tide on it on when so many things are starting to be monitored.
It’s a cute story, no doubt. The only flaw is that (and you’ll be shocked to hear this I’m sure) the journalist has done about 0 minutes of research and got the whole thing wrong. All the positions the article claims that the left party has “pirated” from the pirate party are positions that the left party has held for ages. It has been against massive electronic wiretapping since long before the pirate party was founded and has voted against both FRA and IPRED in the parliament. The decision to be officially pro free file sharing was taken at a congress shortly after the pirate party was founded, true, but it would be dishonest for them to claim to have inspired it since the debate in the left party that led to the decision had started years earlier. For example, the youth section has been officially pro-piracy since 2001.
I like the pirate party just fine, but they are not the “representatives” of the filesharing movement, and can and should not claim that any one else who might believe the same things they do has copied it from them, that’s more copyright industry behavior if you ask me.
Well, they’re not really claiming that anyway.
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