
A new Political Party has formed and gained a lot of popularity in Sweden – The Pirates’ Party. Why? Because they are for File Sharing on the Internet – not commercial File Sharing, as in “rip-off and sell” but as in “Share what you have” – The Political Establishment woke up yesterday, hicupping and reeling from the impact. In two day the Party went from 1500 members to 6000, and rising. Major member Groups? Those born between 1980 and 1995…and some of their parents – the eternal Generation X.
It’s illegal to File Share in Sweden. It was originally made illegal so the police could do something about the Commercial Rippers/Pirates. It hasn’t even made a dent in their activities – but it has hit a large number of private people, who share files on-line, not for finacial reasons (other than low incomes), but for the sake of sharing with those who have not – a simple measure of Justice.
Have I ever File-Shared? No, I have not – simply because I never managed to figure out how it works….Would I? Yes, if what I wanted was no longer for sale or if what I wanted was not within my range because it’s too expensive.
I don’t race around Town looking for a specific CD or DVD – I already know that it will be too expensive for me. So I don’t get the latest or even the 5 year old CDs or DVDs by artists I like – I don’t get it until it’s either second hand or on sale at less than 50% of the original price.
You see that is primarily why people do it – because what they want is not available for a reasonable price or available at all due to “Out of Print”. File-Sharing between ordinary ‘civilians’ is one thing – the original artist, or the company producing the music or the film or the game doesn’t loose any revenue from people file-sharing, because the people on the receiving end of the sharing wouldn’t go to the shop and buy their product anyway, not because they don’t want it, but because it’s too expensive.
They do loose revenue due to those who rip their product and sell commercial copies… and those – by all means go get them, rip them appart and make them pay – but don’t go after those that in the end don’t make a dent in the artists income.
Shalom!
Poll on my Yahoo
360° “Should File Sharing be allowed for non-commercial use?”
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