From muguet at mdpi.net Tue Jan 22 02:07:06 2008 From: muguet at mdpi.net (Dr. Francis MUGUET) Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 02:07:06 +0100 Subject: [Wsis-pct] "I Wouldn't Steal": European Greens advocate file-swapping Message-ID: <479541BA.2020702@mdpi.net> /Interesting trend :/ http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080121-european-green-party-advocates-for-file-swapping.html "I Wouldn't Steal": European Greens advocate file-swapping By Nate Anderson | Published: January 21, 2008 - 11:56AM CT A European political coalition has come out in opposition to the "multinationals" who want to put a stop to file-sharing, and they instead make the claim that file-swapping is "fair." The Greens/European Free Alliance has a web site and video designed to counter media industry claims that piracy is theft. The "I Wouldn't Steal" campaign argues that downloading movies or music without paying is "fundamentally different from stealing" (by which the group means physical theft of things like purses and cars). Instead, the Greens believe that sharing is fair and that "consumers are willing to pay if offered good quality at a fair price." Media companies (especially the movie studios) could certainly do a better job of making their content available, but the Greens go so far as to argue that they have "failed to offer viable legal alternatives" to piracy. Consumers are therefore apparently entitled to content on their own terms; if it isn't provided in those forms, they have the right to take it. To reform the system, the Greens want to make royalty payments regressive, so that "artists get paid less the zillionth time their song is played than the first time. Frequently played artists will still make more money, but no longer out of proportion." To collect more revenue for artists, the Greens suggest taxing advertising on TV, radio, and billboards, since advertising is a "form of mental pollution" and "corporations should pay for pollution." Torrentfreak, which has covered the campaign, praises the fact that the Greens "stand up for people's right to share culture," while The Pirate Bay is running a "I Wouldn't Steal" logo on its front page. The music and movie industries will no doubt be less convinced by the campaign. Still, the Greens' decision to embrace "sharing" illustrates a shift that's underway in some sectors of the European political establishment. In Sweden, seven MPs recently sent a letter to /Expressen/ in which they called for the decriminalization of file-swapping. The Greens' campaign could be a bigger deal, as Green parties have pulled in around 10 percent of the vote in recent elections in countries like Germany, Austria, and Belgium. In countries that use proportional representation, this translates into parliamentary seats at both the national and European level. The Green/EFA alliance is one of the seven major coalitions in the European Parliament, where it holds 42 of the 785 seats. Those are still small numbers, but the fact that politicians are even making such statements openly suggests that European thinking about artists and copyright could be moving in a different direction from that in the US, where such publicly-expressed sentiments are basically nonexistent. ---------------------- http://www.iwouldntsteal.net/ Whenever you rent a movie, the multinational media industry forces you to watch their propaganda. They claim that [downloading movies is the same as snatching bags, stealing cars or shoplifting ]. That's simply not true -- making a copy is fundamentally different from stealing. The media industry has failed to offer viable legal alternatives and they will fail to convince consumers that sharing equals stealing. Unfortunately, they have succeeded in another area -- lobbying to adapt laws to criminalize sharing, turning consumers into criminals. They argue that their laws are necessary to [support artists ], but in reality all they're protecting is their own profits. The Greens in Europe and worldwide has been opposing these laws. We believe that consumers are willing to pay if offered good quality at a fair price. We also believe that sharing is expanding culture -- not killing it. To protest against the faulty propaganda from the industry, we made our own film. The difference is -- you can choose whether you want to watch this one. Se the news flash about it at Aftonbladet . Download the ad here: [torrent ] I wouldn't steal The Greens | European Free Alliance in the European Parliament Support artists -- ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals Associate Publisher http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net muguet at mdpi.org muguet at mdpi.net ENSTA Paris, France KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS) muguet at ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society Working Groups Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org ------------------------------------------------------ -- ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals Associate Publisher http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net muguet at mdpi.org muguet at mdpi.net ENSTA Paris, France KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS) muguet at ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society Working Groups Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org ------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/wsis-pct/attachments/20080122/5c7b4dd9/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 18762 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/wsis-pct/attachments/20080122/5c7b4dd9/attachment-0001.jpeg -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: top.gif Type: image/gif Size: 7502 bytes Desc: top.gif Url : http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/wsis-pct/attachments/20080122/5c7b4dd9/attachment-0003.gif -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: logo.gif Type: image/gif Size: 1297 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/wsis-pct/attachments/20080122/5c7b4dd9/attachment-0004.gif -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: support.gif Type: image/gif Size: 3876 bytes Desc: support.gif Url : http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/wsis-pct/attachments/20080122/5c7b4dd9/attachment-0005.gif