WTF!? "Massachusetts voters can now register as ‘Pirates’"

[wildbilln864]

snip/
"The Massachusetts Election Division has approved the Massachusetts Pirate Party as a political designation, allowing voters in the state to register as a "Pirate."

The party strives to increase government transparency, promote personal privacy, reinforce the spread of knowledge through copyright reform, and abolish patents.

"We live in a country founded on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the Massachusetts Pirate Party said in a statement. "For many people, those ideals are not real. The Supreme Court and Congress have expanded the power of corporations and made them more powerful than people. Increasingly government officials ignore open meeting laws, make deals favorable to corporations behind closed doors and sell off our public information to private interests.""
more here...

[Arkana]

1. Awesome! Now I can vote Jack Sparrow/Will Turner 2012!

[NYC_SKP]

2. K & ARRRR!

:hide:

[Champion Jack]

4. +1,000,000,000 !

[fishwax]

43. lol

:thumbsup:

[DirkGently]

49. Perfect.

[pinboy3niner]

3. AAARGHHH!1!! Does this mean they can talk like a pirate EVERY day? :)

[Warpy]

5. Some of the lawsuits going on now are appalling

Since much music now is being rehashed from old recordings, suits have been filed over one phrase or even one chord used in sampling. It has just gotten insane.

All music is derivative. All art is derivative, come to think of it.

We've also seen copyright laws extended long after the artist is dead, purely on the basis of greed. This is also nuts.

Were I crazy enough to have stayed in Florida, I'd strongly consider registering as Pirate. Our laws are in desperate need of reform, something they will never get as long as greed rules everything.

[Luminous Animal]

6. 1st in the U.S. to join an international movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Parties_International

[AsahinaKimi]

7. I would imagine their flag looks like this ..

**personally i prefer this;


:hide:

[Towlie]

8. You have to admit, honoring copyrights and patents is not an intuitive moral concept.

You can imagine a primitive caveman making himself a club out of a stick and a rock, and if another caveman then took the club away from him, the tribe would presumably consider him a thief and ostracize him.

But if other cavemen saw the club, got their own sticks and rocks, and made their own clubs, would the tribe then support the right of the club's inventor to collect royalties?

I don't think so.

[Hannah Bell]

21. The revision of copyright/intellectual prop laws which occurred sometime

during the tech boom (I believe under clinton but may be wrong) was pretty much rent-seeking by large corporate interests.

I'd vote for its complete rescindment in a heartbeat.

There's no evidence it contributes to innovation or does anything but jack up monopoly & lead to stupid lawsuits like the one where some corp sued a town for using its "intellectual property" -- which happened to be the long-standing name of the town.

[NuclearDem]

23. Are you referring to DMCA?

It was passed during the Clinton administration...and yes, I would love to see it gone too.

[Hannah Bell]

26. probably. i wasn't paying close attention then, but i remember hearing about

it vaguely & then noticing weird things that seemed to be effects. like idiots suing cities over their name & disney getting million-year copyrights or something.

i now know those weren't the worst effects by a long shot. i was less suspicious of democrats who said the right things then.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

38. And the copyright extension which was sanctioned by the Bush II SCOTUS.

[Buzz Clik]

9. A lot of DUers will be thrilled to finally have a third party to represent them.

I mean, every good pirate needs a parrot, right?

[davidinalameda]

14. hehehe

pretty much

[RainDog]

19. this is a funny comment

because it demonstrates an ignorance of one of the really popular political positions among the young.

the pirate party is supported by a lot of people interested in open source and the creative commons - that's the copyright issue.

they've had people run for office in European nations for nearly half a decade.

it's like someone snickering about that silly thing called "the internets."

[Buzz Clik]

20. Somebody left lost their sense of humor today.

Oh, wait. It's DU.

Nevermind.

[RainDog]

33. defensive much?

oh wait, it's DU

nevermind

you think you can pass off some insult as a joke but when you get called on it - it's still someone else who doesn't get it.

LOL.

fail.

[Buzz Clik]

35. Sorry, but I make it a point to always return fire.

You don't want to get nailed, then don't deserve it. I made a joke, you came out with claws bared. Shit happens.

[RainDog]

37. lol

you didn't nail anyone.

you look like a jerk, that's all.

[Buzz Clik]

39. Ah, you do have a sense of humor after all.

Excellent. :thumbsup:

[RainDog]

40. yeah

I was laughing at you the whole time but you didn't get it. you thought I was offended because I took something personally - but that wasn't the case at all.

have a great day!

[Buzz Clik]

45. I get it! Calling me ignorant and inferring that I'm some old bastard who calls this the "internets"

... was just a joke!

Dude, you are frickin' hilarious!

[phantom power]

10. I am deeply, deeply envious

:patriot:

[BlueIris]

11. Yaaaargh!

I love the Pirate Party, which I would never register with in my life, never (don't ban me.)

[lumberjack_jeff]

12. Yarr, harr, fiddle-de-dee. n/t

[Forkboy]

13. Yellowbeard 2012!

Avast, ye scurvy dogs, vote or ye be walking the plank!!!!

[keroro gunsou]

52. feh i say!

whitebeard for president! (shame he's dead mind you....)

[leftstreet]

15. Johnny Depp 2012

[Marrah_G]

41. Can you imagine the Inauguration?

[Little Star]

54. Depp shiver me timbers among other things,

[glinda]

16. What the hell is wrong with people?

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Which people do you think have something wrong with them?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

34. I eagerly await the reply too. -nt

[glinda]

51. People that would even apply for as well as OK "pirates" label. How stupid is that.

What is the issue? They were denied "playing pretend" as a child or what? What a bunch of nincompoops.

[Pacifist Patriot]

56. Um, you might want to look into it a bit more. We're not talking eye patches and planks here.

[muriel_volestrangler]

59. The excerpt in the OP explains this

"The party strives to increase government transparency, promote personal privacy, reinforce the spread of knowledge through copyright reform, and abolish patents."

'Pirate' as in 'pirated software', 'pirate radio' and other common terms. And those nincompoopish Swedes chose 2 Pirate Party members as their European Parliament representatives (out of 20). And, as the OP link says, a member of the Tunisian version had been imprisoned by the old regime, and is now released and in the unity government.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

63. Sweden is, of course, evil, as Jon Stewart's correspondent (I forget his name) demonstrated.

They don't even have Baconnaise. The horror!

[CommonSensePLZ]

17. You can own privacy, but not intellectual property?

Transparency and privacy I agree with, but I do respect patents also, even though they're hard to always follow. Their platform seems a bit contradictory to me.

[Lorien]

60. Agreed. As someone who worked in the film industry for years I view

piracy as theft. My colleagues and I spend several years working on a project only to have it distributed for free? That's like saying that no artist anywhere deserves to be paid for their labor.

[NuclearDem]

18. So what's their platform?...(er, excuse me, their 'deck needin' swabbed')

If I vote for these scalawags, will they bring us answers to the all important questions, such as 'why is the rum gone?'

[LooseWilly]

22. Uhh, anyone can register anywhere as whatever they want... it's a free country.

Or, is California the only state that will let me write in my party affiliation?

Are you trying to tell me I can't register "Cthuloid" in Massachussetts?...

WTF is wrong with Massachussoids?

[Mnemosyne]

27. I tried to register as the 'Karma' party in PA, no go. Needed 73,000 sigs. n/t

[old mark]

30. PA is set up like that-only the 2 major parties unless you have a huge #

of verified signatures...even "established" 3rd parties, like the Greens, have a tough time getting candidates on the ballot here in PA- the big boys want to keep the money and power for themselves.

mark

[Mnemosyne]

64. I was disgusted they would not allow it. And cross-filing needs to be illegal.

Voters here have the attention span of a gnat. They remember nothing they hear after seeing an R after a name or even a D. :hi:

PA - We Freaking Glow in the Dark!

[reformist2]

25. I predict this is going to become surprisingly popular, especially among males 18-34.

[TheCowsCameHome]

28. Someone is spending too much time shivering their timber.

Good luck, matey.

[mod mom]

29. It's shorter than writing out Investment Banker.

[border_town]

31. I am a registered voter in Ma

Because I choose to be an independent and not enroll in the two political parties they have me as an unenrolled voter. I like the pirate party much better.

[Champion Jack]

32. "James O'Keefe, the party's organizer," shouldn't that be the fake pimp party?

James O'Keefe, the party's organizer, told Raw Story that the party is now in the process of training activists and building local chapters. (Not to be confused with conservative activist James O'Keefe, otherwise known as the "ACORN pimp.")

[KamaAina]

36. So if Code Brown were to switch,

would he be Sen. Brown (Arrrrrr!)? :P

[slackmaster]

42. So much for Global Warming. With an increase in pirates, the trend has obviously been reversed.

[blm]

44. Idiocracy

thank the corpmedia's dumbing down of America

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

46. I think you need to follow the links and read more.

The Pirate Party is NOT a dumb dress-up gimmick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Parties_International

[blm]

47. I appreciate their goal...and hope it DOESN'T fail due to the moniker

.

[Wait Wut]

48. Free For All...screw your hard work!!

This will be a huge draw for idiots that don’t want to actually learn about politics. Instead of researching the other parties to find one best suited to their individual ideals, they’ll just say, “I WANNA BE A PIRATE!!!!!!”.

Depending on the person or persons running this “party” it could lead to a lot of young people being misinformed and brainwashed (a young person’s Tea Party). But, hey...they get to be pirates. Nevermind that “true” pirates are/were murderers and thieves. It’s so much cooler to dress up like Capt. Sparrow than JFK.

I would imagine many of the people here whining about copyright laws aren’t artists. I work with artists daily and have seen their work stolen. I personally had to threaten someone with a lawsuit for stealing a web design. These aren’t people that can afford someone else making money off of their own originality and talent. The same goes for any other invention or design. I think many missed the hidden LOL of “Pirate Party”.

To whomever suggested that copyright laws are just “greed”, in your perfect world no one would be able to make money for themselves. Also, a copyright is often extended beyond the life of the artist/inventor to maintain the integrity and/or quality of the material.

[MilesColtrane]

50. How dare someone infringe on their right to free music, movies, and software!

[Wait Wut]

55. Geez...

That's the attitude I'm getting in many of the comments here. I forgot to mention the UNIONS that would be affected by all this. "I support unions as long as no one makes any money!" Thinking beyond the obvious is hard.

:banghead:

On a lighter note, I have go listen to some Coltrane now. Yes, we PAID for the damned CD!
Feed the artists (including the techies...firm believer that "geek" is an art form)!

[Codeine]

62. The other day the lead singer of Cake

in an NPR interview lamented the future of making a living as a working musician, declaring that in a few years he'll likely switch to farming to pay the bills. Disrespect for intellectual property really burns me.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

58. Yeah, yeah, like Barack Obama is a socialist Muslim. Recycled bashing is recycled.

:eyes:

[Just_visiting]

53. ,,,,

sounds right.

[Modern_Matthew]

57. Intangibles cannot be stolen. All creative work is derivative. FREE CULTURE, FTW! nt

[Codeine]

61. People who say that have never created shit.

One has the right to the fruit of one's labors, be they the labors of art or the labors of industry.