08/06/09

As well as piling pressure on the beleaguered Labour party, the European elections brought astounding gains for one very radical party representing views many find hard to stomach. I am talking, of course, about Sweden's Pirate Party, which has won a couple of seats in the European Parliament. It is worth taking a look at their platform. As Jack Schofield points out, perhaps establishing a similar party in the UK is not such a bad idea. Some might scoff at the notion that that there might be something to learn from a single-issue party advocating the legalisation of file-sharing. But file-sharing is not wrong, and we shouldn't legislate against it. And actually it's important that we don't.

To defend file-sharing is not to say that you think stealing is ok. Or that artists shouldn't make money. In trying to use technology to stop it you make things worse, not better. The technical and legal 'solutions' to file-sharing have only punished consumers, made it harder to find new models for the culture industry to make money, threatened people's privacy and made it harder to capitalise on lots of new opportunities for people to engage with the culture around them. There are no success stories from the efforts to eradicate file-sharing. The outcomes usually involve ludicrous court cases in which, for example, a woman can be fined $222,000 for sharing 24 songs. (Ben Goldacre wrote a strong piece on the numbers often cited by the music industry).

We desperately need a set of rights made manifest in a legal framework that guarantees privacy. We need copyright law that promotes creativity and cultural participation. That's what people like the Open Rights Group and Electronic Frontier Foundation get passionate about. I hope but don't expect Lord Carter, who is to release his Digital Britain report imminently, will get on board the Pirate ship.

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