Youth, the media, and piracy

Pascal has commented on a recent column article by John Dvorak of PC Magazine, entitled “The Politics of Piracy Emerge in Sweden“.

I appreciate that many of you may not believe, appreciate or even understand the idealistic nature of my ‘crusade’ against establishment, but please bare with me, and do try to pay attention as you read on…

From the growth of free culture to overcoming language and regional distances a free internet and a free software technology to access that free communication network will allow people to communicate freely across borders sharing ideas, works and resolutions.

This is a vision of a new future. A future that will be made so by the current generation of young people, contributing their resources globally to the betterment of society. The current state of ‘e-community’ around the world is advancing rapidly through its stages of reaction, both technologically, sociologically, and politically, supported by a large, uncontrollable catalyst: the internet. Never before have so many individuals been able to become a major proponent in modern society’s revolutionary paradigm shift. This shift is happening faster than many people can understand or appreciate. Many of today’s corporations and governments are stuck permanently within infinitely cyclic thought processes that revolve around outdated business practices and political ideals. These people will be beaten at their own game by those whom they tried to swindle, cheat and thieve every last penny from.

What proof do I have of this?

One major example is the advent and exponential growth of Sweden’s Pirate Party, an outcome that Dvorak touches on in his article, asserting: “once the next-generation youth finally figure out that they can take over at the ballot box, all hell will break loose.” The Pirate Party have taken that assertion one step further; creating their own party, and not relying on the Harvard business students of the nineteen-seventies currently in power.

When Sweden-based BitTorrent tracker site ThePirateBay was raided by police, consequent media attention helped raise awareness of the Pirate Party’s goals, and the party gained 1430 members over two days, following the initial media frenzy. They are well on their way to gaining the minimum four per cent vote required to instate members of their party into the Swedish government.

While I personally do not agree with much of the Pirate Party’s political platform (they wish to abolish all copyright laws — however, this is self-defeating, as the GPL, a popular open source licence, gets its teeth from current copyright laws), their intentions are noble and they have made a stand for themselves in the face of tough opposition.

The youth of today have a more powerful methods of communication at their disposal than any generation previously. With the advent and consequent popularity of the internet, never before has the world seen such a massive potential for communication of ideas, concepts, arts and media.

The establishment darkens our doorway with threats of DRM, news of frivolous lawsuits, and questionable business practices, yet we are empowered by the internet, and our ability to communicate freely with it.