There Be Pirates!
 Johnny Depp’s Jack
Sparrow may be the paradigm of the pirate in most people’s minds these days, but a
swashbuckling adventurer in the Caribbean isn’t the only kind of pirate. Piratpartiet
(Pirate Party), a political party founded in January 2006 in Sweden, has taken the word pirate
in another direction. These new Swedish pirates, fed up with what they perceive as the
hijacking of government by corporations and industry groups such as the RIAA, have a
simple political platform: reform the copyright system, abolish the use of patents, and
ensure each citizen’s right to privacy.
Piratpartiet acknowledges that copyright has a legitimate
function: to balance the rights and interests of the individual creator with the rights
and interests of the public. It is in the creator’s interest to retain control of
that which he or she has created, but it is in the public’s interest to be able to
use and experience that which has been created. Piratpartiet argues that the current
system is skewed too far in favor of the creator. They propose that a copyright expire
five years after the initial publication of a work of art. In today’s culture, the
profit-producing life of most commercial art is incredibly short. If a new band’s CD
doesn’t make the band and its record company money in the first five years, then, in
all likelihood, it will never make money for them. The Piratpartiet proposal takes
this into account. After five years, the work would be available for anyone to use
commercially. Piratpartiet also argues that all noncommercial use of the art should be
allowed from the beginning.
Another aspect of Piratpartiet’s desire for copyright
reform is the abolition of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) software that some media
companies have used to protect games, DVDs, and CDs. This past December I wrote about the problems faced by some people
when the DRM software on some Sony-BMG CDs was installed on their computers, without their
knowledge, when they played those discs. It not only controlled how they could use the CDs
they’d purchased, it also caused their computer systems to become unstable.
Piratpartiet argues that DRM essentially lets companies set up their own laws and violates
buyers’ legal right to use their property the way they see fit. Would you buy a car
if you thought the car company could limit which roads you drove on or which states the
car could enter? DRM gives media companies that kind of control over your CDs.
Even if you agree that current copyright conventions are
outdated, you probably realize that artists need some way to pay for the creation of their
art. The Pirate Party addresses this on their website.
One way would be to incorporate advertising directly into the product. Maybe this would
work with movies and video games, but I can’t see it catching on with most music
(although I heard on a news report that companies have paid rappers to mention their
products in songs). A second solution would be to make access to digital music a service
analogous to phone service. I discussed something like that here on GoodSound! a
few months ago, when I discussed Dave Kusek and Gerd Leonhard’s book, The Future
of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution.
A third solution would be to have patrons pay for the
creation of art. In the past, wealthy citizens paid for the creation of great works of
art, which were then put in public places for all to enjoy. In the digital age, many
people working together with small contributions could perform the same function. Want
your favorite performer to record a new song? Get enough like-minded people together on a
website, have them each pledge a dollar, and the performer will record the song and make
the digital file available to everyone. The artist gets paid, the music gets performed,
and everyone is free to enjoy it.
The other two-thirds of the Piratpartiet platform,
advocating strong privacy laws and the abolition of patents, will have a less direct
effect on music lovers. The loss of patents may trouble some audio manufacturers, but the
justification is that, in general, patents hurt society. Most important, patents held by
healthcare companies can damage public health. Piratpartiet would rather see companies
succeed because of constant innovation and attempting to meet the needs of society in
creative ways rather than rely on the keeping of scientific secrets.
The original Pirate Party has expanded past its Swedish
beginnings. There are now affiliated parties in Belgium, France, Italy, and the US.
Piratpartiet hopes to win some seats in the Swedish parliament in the September general
elections. To do that, they’ll need to win at least 4% of the vote, or more than
200,000 votes. Whether they can do that or not, the growth of the party may indicate
growing international dissatisfaction with the copyright status quo.
Whatever the outcome of the copyright fight, and whether we
purchase records or CDs or digital downloads, we need an amplifier to get the music to our
speakers. This month we review an integrated amplifier from Dussun that can form the heart
of a stereo system. Our reviewer, Jeff Stockton, praises the Dussun’s honesty; read
his review for the full story.
…Eric D. Hetherington
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