The Votes Are in Hooray!

Now although BT are still abusing my Internet rights my fave political party has just been voted a seat in the European Elections.

Now I don't agree with all of their views and although I am a self confessed pirate I am not about to think that people should not buy music or games and I do often download things and if they're good enough I buy the full game if not it gets given away I don't keep the copies I make for very long before they have moved on. And more often than not I do it out of not having enough money to purchase games or CD's or DVD's on release day. I don't know what your views will be on the topic of file sharing sites so please feel free to comment and let yourself be heard. I once was given the Star letter in OXM for writing about the topic of games prices and the fact that they are dropping from the £65 I paid for SF2 on the SNES.
But as a political party I do believe in the not so harsh persecution of certain peoples because of the use of a file sharing site. Especially in Sweden where they seem to be dolling out prison sentences to people who just download a few movies or make download sites. Are they to blame for all of their user generated content? To a degree but not to a degree for harsh prison sentences.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/06/08/pirate.party.eu.win/?iref=mpstoryview

cool i never heard of the Pirate Party, although i don't tend to follow politics much either. Great news for them, i think file sharing should be legalised but within reasons, i like using it for back up copies, of stuff i own.

However, i am gutted that another political party managed to get 2 seats

Yeah Kris I wasn't happy with that result either. We can do nothing but hope they don't garner too much power among their friends in the EU.

Which Issue of OXM, mate?

File sharing is an odd one. It's one of those crimes, like speeding, that so many normal members of the public do, that the average Joe just doesn't think of it as being illeagal anymore.
Woman opposite me at work once told me she would never do anything illeagal, then half hour later was swapping downloaded films with someone else. I called her on it, and she said "well that doesn't really count though, as everyone does it".

I can't remember what issue I was in? it was a while ago now I'll see if I can find it .

yeah file sharing is dif one carnt really make my mind about it to be honest

i dont download anything i buy all my movies on the market 12 films for £20 or when i had my last 360 chipped i got my games for a fiver each or 5 for £20 even before they come out in the shops thats how i got caught when cod waw came out i was playing it 3 weeks before it came out needless to say that xbox is now banned from xbox live had it chipped for nearly 2 years as well had a good run out of it

wow i think thats brilliant. after having conversations with people about a none ofthe above option on voting papers and getting told to start my own party, this is amazing.

i heard about a bloke from pirate bay getting in trouble but had no idea someone did somethign that big.

i agree with the grey area on d/l and piracy, the trouble i have with it is with new gizmos like v+ and tv online sky boxes you can catch up on old shows.... or just download them and watch them when you like. so i suppose i use them just as a replacement service to something thats already there. and if i like something i then buy it . (which i done with the unit recently ;)
as i see things most troubles people have with rules are that they arnt clear, people work with whatever they think they can get away with or what they think the rules are.... so most people do it and false assumptions and ignorance go a long way

Thats it theres always something nice about having the box or the instructions as opposed to just having the data on some form or storage device. So I do like to go out and get the real thing. I have a few games that I've liked so much I got import versions for different box art! As you can imagine this is rather costly at one point I owned 5 different colours of Gamecube
It nice that these people now have support within government and a party like that might even effect the laws regarding media censorship and such given the right backing/leadership.

Also these people have a working knowledge of how file sharing works. I think too many laws are based on knee jerk reactions and passed by people who go on only what they are told (i.e. games are for kids, so violent games should be banned).
By having people in parliment with actual knowledge, maybe that'll help open the debate more.
It'll be interesting to see how it goes.
The sweetner being that as they are elected officails, the other parties will see that voters have an opinion, and feel strongly enough to use their vote on it.