The foundation of the Pirate Party in Sweden in 2006 was seen by many as a joke. After all, the argument would be associated with the "pirates" or vote by a narrow platform? They forget that the traditional political parties have consistently ignored the concerns of voters who understand that the Internet raises important questions on areas such as copyright and privacy. By focusing on these issues precisely the Pirate Party has given disaffected voters an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with the old political parties and their policies obsolete.

This was done not only in Sweden, where two members of Parliament were elected in 2009, but also in Germany. In Berlin, the Pirate Party has won nearly 9% of the vote in parliamentary elections in Berlin include a level of support is reflected in Germany if you believe the latest polls.

among the most threatened by the rise of the pirates are the German Greens, a party that has traditionally appealed to voters precisely the pirates hold support. Green is the risk that hackers could take over as the option "alternative" in the main German elections, turning a setback in the first pre-digital anachronism.

To avoid this threat, the German Green Party has prepared a proposal of 16 pages entitled "The openness, freedom, participation - to exploit the possibilities of the Internet - Making the transition to digital green" , which aims to position the Green Party as a defender of all things that appeal to voters pirate (original in German.).

There is support for a shopping list of digital technology to use ideas like freedom on the Internet, net neutrality, privacy, data protection, online anonymity and aliases, free software, open access, open data, open government, the CC licenses - even for things like free public WiFi DDoS attacks, the Greens relationship as "civil disobedience". There is also a list of things that the Greens do not want: the censorship of the Internet, "three strikes" exclusions, data retention, online monitoring, software patents and export monitoring tools.

It's all good, but the really interesting part of the proposal on copyright, this is where the Greens are constrained by the Pirate Party to make more radical changes, and where the greatest battles in the Green Party seem to take place. According to a report in the journal

Der Spiegel

(original German), the "cultural" wing of the party want copyrights remain unchanged, while "Internet" wing wants his term reduced to only

five years

this gulf explains the vague statements of the policy document of the Greens on the subject:



The Greens are committed to the modernization and reform of the law of intellectual property and the right balance between the interests of copyright owners and users, ie for all participants to the Internet. We want to strengthen copyright owners and artists against the exploitation and marketing of its content but also to provide adequate financial compensation for the free use of its protected content on the Internet. At the same time, we want to end the criminalization of non-commercial use of copyrighted works over the Internet and provide access to them. If copyrighted material is delivered directly into a web page or platform, which has a significant effect (higher cost recovery) income from membership fees or through advertising or links, then it is considered a commercial scale. > Specific proposals are the right to make private copies:

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