Pirates of the...Music World?

A group of like-minded individuals forming their own political movements to bring about change in ways that existing political parties cannot is nothing out of the ordinary. The individuals in question could be striving to save the earth, improve and protect human rights, or simply to bring freedom to the downtrodden.

Or...to do away with copyright laws and legalise music file sharing.

Swedish national Rick Falkvinge founded a political party known as the Pirate Party four years ago following a government raid on illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. The party aims to make file-sharing legal and to abolish copyright laws, sparking an outcry from officials in the music industry and several musicians.

Mr. Falkvinge was invited to the In The City music industry forum in Manchester, only to arouse fiery criticisms:

"Burn him at the stake" said one of the delegates present at the conference.

Yvette Livesey, organiser of the conference, has had her share of criticism for inviting Mr. Falkvinge to the event. However, she has her reasons for doing so:

"I think it is important to have these debates. If we'd had these debates 10 years ago, perhaps we wouldn't be in the position we are in now in the music industry," she said.

The closing down of the Swedish service The Pirate Bay and the subsequent arrest and incarceration of its founders on April 17th, 2009 has boosted already growing support for the party. The Pirate Party received 7% of Sweden's total vote at the European election in June, and 13% of German voters voted for the German Pirate Party. The movement has now spread to 32 different countries, although not all of them are formally connected.

If the Party should gain power and start winning seats in parliaments around the world, it could spell doom for workers in the creative industry. By manipulating or even abolishing existing copyright laws, performing artists, writers, and record labels will no longer be entitled to profit from their efforts.

According to Mr. Falkvinge, the creative industry is not feasible in economic terms:

"In economic terms, there is an enormous oversupply of people wanting to live off creativity, so there isn't enough demand to pay everybody.

In such an occasion, market forces dictate that there will only be so many successful creators."

Not surprisingly, artists such as James Blunt and Lily Allen have rallied against this movement.

Are adherents of the Pirate Party campaigners hoping to make the music world a better place?

Or are they freeloaders who are depriving creative artists the chance to fulfil their dreams simply because there is no demand in the economy for creativity?

I leave that for you to decide, friends.

Yours,

Journo-SEAL (Eric Alexandre Lafif)

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8314620.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8003799.stm