Pirate Party Germany gets into the parliament for the state of Berlin

[Luyt]

Arrrr, me hearties, I still can't get used to the term 'pirate' that is slapped upon people who copy digital music.

A pirate is a criminal at sea, who inititiates violence against sea travelers. Pirates steal property (like vessels) and valuables, and it's not uncommon that pirates murder their victims, or take them hostage for a ransom.

How the term 'pirate' ever could be used to denote kids swapping MP3's, is unfathomable to me. The analogy is ludicrous. But maybe it could be because pirate (the seafaring kind) communities in the 18th century had a liberal approach to freedom, which was unusual in that time, and maybe that extrapolates somehow to the liberal file swapping in our digital age. Which doesn't, by the way, harm anyone, nor takes away things from people.

[wheels]

Piracy has been a term for unauthorized copying of works for over 400 years [1][2]. It's not an analogy; it's just one of the meanings of the word.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#.22Pirac...

[2] http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/yeare.html

[morsch]

Note that this usage of pirate goes back several centuries, e.g. see these entries from the OED:

1668 J. Hancock Brooks' String of Pearls (Notice at end), Some dishonest Booksellers, called Land-Pirats, who make it their practise to steal Impressions of other mens Copies.

1703 D. Defoe True-born Englishman in True Collect. I. Explan. Pref. sig. B3v, Its being Printed again and again, by Pyrates.

The term is metaphorical in origin, and in that regard I don't think it's particularly outrageous. If you say that he's "a lion of a man" you're not arguing that the person in question has got large teeth, a mane, or hunts antelope.

[Tichy]

I didn't like the name at first, but you can get used to it. Also I think in former times pirates were actually often endorsed agents of some empires (supporting their war efforts, at the very least). And they are famous for being early democrats.

[Iv]

I like RMS view on piracy : "attacking ships is very bad, but helping your friends and your neighbours is good"

The Pirate Party uses that term in a humorous way. It all started as a joke after the Pirate Bay was attacked in a court of law.

[Luyt]

I'd like to add that I don't condone the act of illegally duplicating CDs/DVDs in high volumes (complete with liner notes and backcard) with the intent to sell them on the black market. That's just a ripoff. I think such duplication is different from digital music file sharing.

[bocanaut]

one shouldn´t take this too literal and see the diversity of this term. Especially in political context a pirate is someone whos challenging the status quo. Pirates/Buccaneers also established some kind of grass roots pre-democratic system while everyone else at that time still praised their god-given leaders

[FrojoS]

There is a funny fact, that shows that even the Berlin Pirates them self did not dream of a greater success: According to the current exit-poll estimations, they would get 15 seats in the parliament. That's exactly the number of candidates they assigned. Would they get more seats, those seats would have to stay empty.

Though, as others have pointed out, its more likely, that their share will go down once all votes are counted out.

[loevborg]

The German political spectrum is interesting to watch at the moment. There are substantial changes, with real consequences on all levels. So far I think this is democracy doing its job well. Thus established parties, like the "liberals" (FDP) and the Greens, have neglected topics like data privacy, net neutrality. The creation of a new party, like the Greens in the eighties and the Pirates in the aughts, is a drastic sign that the agenda needs updating. Let's hope that the German political system is stable enough to sustain substantive changes to the political landscape without instability.

[muuh-gnu]

> "liberals" (FDP) and the Greens, have neglected topics like data privacy, net neutrality.

They didnt neglect them, they in theory represented the same values as the pirate party, but after the elections, they ritually neglected their promises in order to get into coalitions with the two big parties and into goverment. So for a certain number of younger, technology-savy people they became literaly worthless to vote for. The Pirate party rose at a such fast pace, because an increasing number of people and their concerns werent even taken seriously by the opposition.

[nextparadigms]

Glad to see that the party that actually fights for Internet liberties, rather than for the companies lobbying them, is starting to get more and more political power in all these different countries where it exists.

[mhd]

The problems the Pirates face are getting beyond that one issue. I've read their party programme, and it's a bit wishy-washy. Some interesting (and unique) points, but no clear stance on the usual issues of politics (finance, Euro-zone etc.). The run into the the danger of being a one-trick-pony, a pure "option" part, who just add some point of views to the bigger coalition partner ("I'll vote left with side-dish of legal file-sharing").

Same problem the Green party had (or, well, still has), but with even more problems on the horizon, considering that the Greens were quite solidly leftist from the start, where the Pirate party unites lefties and libertarians.

Certainly a party to watch. I'd vote for any party that has a clear emphasis on civil rights (not just for the internet), and their former "champions" in Germany (the FDP) have done a pretty bad job in that regard lately.

[aw3c2]

For what it's worth, the linked page currently does show pre-vote estimates, not the current numbers. The results will be official later.

[DasIch]

Those estimates are generally very accurate.

[Create]

I can't help not to wonder, who's counter-revolution this is exactly...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/09/the_curse_of_t...

[cabalamat]

This is an exit poll rather than the actual result. Nevertheless, WELL DONE PIRATES!

[FrojoS]

Yes, but according to the current exit polls they reached 8-9% so its safe to assume that they are above the 5% threshold.

[mdariani]

Good Job. Let's see how they will perform over time. At least there will be some very young and motivated people in the berlin parliament.

[aualin]

Great stuff, let's hope this happens in Sweden as well

[bocanaut]

chart (german): http://wahlarchiv.tagesschau.de/flash/?wahl=2011-09-18-LT-DE...

and some further info: http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=...

[aw3c2]

And without Flash http://wahlarchiv.tagesschau.de/wahlen/2011-09-18-LT-DE-BE/i...

[jaryd]

*Parliament?

[tep]

Well, Parlament is German for parliament. So that mistake is easily made ;-)

[FrojoS]

Thanks for pointing out. (In German its 'das Parlament'.)

[melvinng]

Nice this is just like the Swedish party that took seats in the European Parliament in 2009.

[zeynalov]

No, they doesn't get into the parliament, it's only an exit-poll, not official.

[bocanaut]

as written above, exit polls are quite accurate and won´t change much

[etaty]

Is it because of Apple suing Samsung? (PP is against patents)

[NanoWar]

Yarrrrr! Still voting green, but good job!

[oemera]

I'm little confused that this is a popular news at HN. They fight for Internet stuff but they also deny that there was an Holocaust in Germany.

For me this is pretty bad news to hear that they will get into the parliament.

Source for denying the holocaust: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js...

[bitboxer]

To be fair that was only one member and that member has been thrown out of the party a long time ago.

[loevborg]

I don't think this is valid criticism of the party in its current state. If you can't give any evidence other than a post from two years ago based on a Twitter message (!), we can assume that, if someone denied the Holocaust, that was the opinion of a single individual. All established parties have nutters; what counts is how the parties deal with them once the nutters make their nutty views public.

[codecaine]

the Pirate Party is a very liberal party and as such attracts all kinds of people with varying viewpoints. Im pretty sure that holocaust denial is not the norm.

[coldarchon]

There's a party fighting for freedom of all information of any kind and someone who criticizes that there's one exception for freedom of opinion immediately becomes a denier? What are you? A zionist? A Nazi-hunter? Give me a break.

If you want to fight fascists and become one yourself, you failed ..