James Delahunty
15 Sep 2007 19:14
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), along with other trade organizations for the entertainment industry, has been pursuing Internet pirates and sources of movie exchanges such as BitTorrent sites for the past few years. In that time, failed attempts to bring down the Pirate Bay was an embarrassment to the MPAA and other groups that accuse it of being an illegal service.
In several areas, so called "Pirate Parties" have emerged that could challenge the meaning of copyright itself through political process. However, when Dean Garfield, director of MPAA's anti-piracy department, was interviewed by ZDNet, he responded to a question of whether fighting the MPAA and similar organizations through the Democratic process is legitimate by addressed the "Pirate Party".
"There's nothing about what the Pirate Bay does or what the Pirate Party does that is legitimate. There's nothing philosophically principled about it. They steal copyright content and accept advertising dollars based on taking other people's work. There's nothing noble about it," he said. Of course, the existence of Sweden's Pirate Party is not to destroy the concept of copyright and legalize rampant piracy.
"This can only be seen as MPAA calling democracy illegitimate. We are a registered political party finishing in the top ten in a parliamentary democracy," says Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Swedish Pirate Party. "That these people claim it would somehow be illegitimate to change laws through a parliamentary process shows just how corrupt to the core they are."
He added: "On the other hand, I think the statement may be partly out of fear. There's one thing that beats all their lawyers, war chests and monopolies. Just one. That one thing is votes in a democratic election, and that's what we have and they don't. These claims are so far out they don’t even reflect sunlight. Unfortunately, that seems to be true for most statements from the Music And Film Industry Associations of America, but we're also seeing the oldskool politicians slowly starting to understand our counterpoints. It's going to be an interesting couple of next years."
Source:
TorrentFreak