Introduce Yourself

[madmanjock]

We were on Channel 4 news? Sweeeeeeet

Yup

And welcome to other new members

[aptitude]

Hi
I'm Alex, a 17 year old student in London, probably not the first person you'd think interested in freedom; but as a Linux user you just have to be one step ahead of the patent brigade. I first became interested with copyright beause I am a maintainer/uploader-to of IMSLP http://imslp.org/ - a website (legal) which houses out of copyright classical music scores in Canada. And its a real mess and so complicated we had to hire a lawyer!
Essentially, music can be uploaded if it has been a lifetime (of the composer) +50 years (in Canada) and +70 years in the EU. AND the physical score must have been printed before 1923 (unless its a university edition......). This is ridiculous - if I copy the score verbatim onto a computer program like Finale I can upload it - quite an effort in a big symphony!- its legal
AND its completely different for Jazz and Pop music (50yrs since publication - bad for Elton John)

We hit a problem a few years ago, we got a cease and desist letter from UE a massive publisher of Music; because of the difference in copy right law between here and Canada, we can see a few scores which are still in copyright here but are legal in Canada. We had to close down for a year as we could not afford legal costs and refused to block european visitors. However we won. Is it me or is this mad that we have to go through this rigmarole. If we get a server in Angola we could upload whatever we wanted.
A Must read about copyright http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pageto ... 074786.stm

[graant]

Im grant, im 18 and from wales, the reason i have become associated with this party is because until i read about it i found that no political party spoke to me, they all seemed like they had a hidden agenda, all their policies diddnt seem to serve me, the only people getting what they wanted seemed to be corporations.

[pyros]

Hi there, I'm a 16 year old student.
Strong political ideals at my age are few and far between, however, after following what has been happening relating to file sharing and online privacy for some years, i feel it is important to voice my opinion now more than ever.
I will be registering to vote shortly and plan to promptly join the party after that
Regards
.

[Sharkz]

Welcome to you new guys.

[sidewinder]

Hi, I'm Joel, a 17 year-old student from Wiltshire. I've gotten interested in the pirate party through the internet from reading torrentfreak and the like. Mainly I'm here for the 'End surveillance' bit, though I do agree that we need more freedoms and that patents etc. are the wrong system to have

I may have spoken to some of you as I've been lurking round the IRC for a while

[FozzDog]

Welcome to you new guys.

pfft your not welcoming people, you just wanted to boost your post count past Rancid's

[Sharkz]

Welcome to you new guys.

pfft your not welcoming people, you just wanted to boost your post count past Rancid's

That is a lie and you know it. New people need welcoming

...

...

*shifty eyes*

[JohnB]

Welcome to you new guys.

pfft your not welcoming people, you just wanted to boost your post count past Rancid's

That is a lie and you know it. New people need welcoming

Welcome, sharkz

(shamelessly boosts post count by 1 )

[robriley]

Hello,

I just signed up as a member today.

My name is Rob, I am 25 years old, I loathe virtually all the current political parties.

I live in Nottingham and next month I start a politics and economics degree.

Thanks,

[xavien]

Hello,

I signed up as a Member around the 12th.

My name is David and I am 23 years old around the Wisbech (Cambridgeshire) area, I currently run an IT-based business.

1) I am sick of single issue politics where the main parties are more focused on saving their own skin rather than serving the people who voted them in the first place.

2) I'm terrible concerned that the main political parties seemed to be in bed with big business; and follow their interests instead of the interests of the people.

3) The copyright issue is completely ridiculous to me, right now at its best it slows down innovation and at its worse it causes deaths.

4) I am terribly concerned with our diminishing personal freedoms for the sake of "safety" and with, what I feel, the decent into a hellish 1984-esque situation where we are watched 24/7.

I hope that eventually the PPUK can change these issues for the better and that is why I became a member

Thank you for listening to the people.

[ric_yarr]

Hello all!

My name is Ric, i'm 27 and live in southend, i don't have a terrific amount to say right now as i'm just starting to take a look at copyright law and the likes, but, i am very willing to start something around my local area in support of the party, if anyone is from the southend/rochford/castle point area and feels the same please pm me and we'll get together and arrange some things

[steveathome]

Hello,

Im Steve a 49 yr old mechanical engineer (Tool/mold/jig maker) currently living in Peston Lancashire.

I have never really been very political, apart from being a member of a trade union, however, the developments I currently see from the government in various areas such as copyright/Internet and the surveillance is giving great cause for concern.
I admit I still need to get full clarity on exactly what is being done, as getting info that is completely understandable (well at least to me) is not as straight forward as it (IMHO) should be.

Regards,

- Steve

[random_turnip]

Hi, obviously i'm new.
19 / male / midlands / apprentice

Not that much of a pirate until recently tbh. I've not really downloaded much and i often use it to try out new bands and getting things that i simply can't find in shops anywhere else (soundtracks, old tv shows...) but with the whole country going into insanity about it i've stopped until it's all calmed down (and i only really use Demonoid which is sadly down for maintenance again).

Now i'm basically pretty scared that if i download a single album i'm going to have my life ruined by some stupidly large fine by some idiot corporation that is doing more harm than good.

It's not that i'm against paying for copyrighted material, i still probably buy a new CD virtually every week, i'm just really against the way piracy is being fought against, disconnecting and huge fines are disgusting punishments, why not just cut our hands off?

[daniel_c]

Hello, I'm Daniel. I'm 19 and in London.

I am an open-source hacker so I have a very keen interest in copyright, sharing information and openness.

[eadian]

Hi, I'm Heather. I'm 17 and from Halesowen (near Birmingham), currently studying for my A2s - hopefully this time next year I'll be in uni!

I've been file-sharing/downloading for years now, so the recent 'crackdown' on file-sharing by governments and big businesses has me just a little bit concerned. Not to mention other infringements on personal liberties enacted by the Labour government - most particularly ID cards. I really think we need a drastic change of leadership and I'd really like to help out if I could

[davidmcg]

Hi,

I am 34 years old, live in London and I am employed in the media industry.

For the past number of years, I have grown more and more dis-satisfied with the methods used by our government to control the population of the UK whilst ensuring the MP's are provided with their every whim and desire to ensure their lives of luxury.

I find the government do not have our countries population best interests at heart and they are motivated by the need to earn as much money as possible so they can line their own pockets. It sickens me that this country has been held to ransom by unscrupulous businesses and corrupt politicians who are bleeding our country dry.

I am saddened by the higher levels of control that are being put upon us in the interests of 'national security' and I believe the country and it's people need to be set free once again to show the world just how great the British population can be.

The British are a great people and we wish to be an inspiration and an example to the rest of the world. With the Pirate Party and other likeminded parties, we may just make it happen.

I find the Pirate Party has policies which are aligned with my own political beliefs and I am happy to provide my £10 donation and wish the Pirate Party every success in the future.

regards,

[originalslash]

Hello, my name is Michael and i'm 20. I'm studying Media and Cinematics at the University of Bradford in my 2nd year. Not really incredibly interesting, but my course means I have an interest in what's happening, as both a consumer and also from the other side - thats right, i'm somebody hoping to get into the very industry failing to understand its audience. DRM, anyone?

I believe there IS a way to please both the industry and the consumer in this digital age, and I think you guys might have the answer. Also, the growing amount of surveillance scares the crap out of me - I don't want the government to know what i'm eating for breakfast!

Copyright needs to change - one example of the twisted system is Disney - Snow White and the 7 Dwarves was a traditional story, with no copyright, and then they made it into a film, and have continued to push copyright laws to stop other people doing exactly what they did to the Grimm Brothers.

[comet]

Hi guys.

I'm 15 years old and I've recently become aware of how much the world sucks. Almost everyday I'm finding out about something I completely disagree on. I'm becoming increasingly angry at the world, and I don't know where it's all coming from.

It seems like everybody's working in pretty crappy jobs, just to keep the few rich. And I don't why it seems nobody cares about the people dying out there in poverty. Sure, loads of people give around £2 a month to a charity or something like that, but surely there's more we can do?

And why the hell are we watched all the time, at school, in town, etc? I know they say it's making things safer, and maker us feel safer. But if all the CCTV and monitoring is needed, I'm sure our society can't be very safe then. If anything, it makes me feel less safe. I read 1984 by George Orwell well over a year ago now and I've only just realised how close the book actually is to the world we're living in.

And one thing that infuriates me is racism. Things like the BNP,and racist views on immigration. The people coming over shouldn't have to put up with so much crap, especially if their reason for coming over is because they had an extremely hard time back home. I understand immigration is becoming a problem, but It's like people are ignoring the fact that there are actually reasons people are coming over. And how can people complain about the country being "invaded", then go and move to Australia and Spain and places like that? It's a crazy world.

The pirate party seems like just the thing for me. Although, I am not yet old enough to vote and I'm too young to become a member. However, I hope I can support the party in some way or another, because I completely agree with it. I guess this turned out to be more like a rant than an introduction, but I think it should say a lot about me.

[xceptopec]

Hi

I'm Stephen, 34 years of age, living in Stockport, (just south of Manchester for those that are not aware of where it is).
Currently unemployed - which is no fun, believe me.

Just got made aware of the PP/PPI and it's goals and motiviations

I've been getting progressively more and more pissed off and disenchanted by the way life has gone, in the UK, under the yoke of the EU and generally on a global scale. It bugs me that more and more companies and govts are watching what we do right around the clock, be it out and about in the word, or here on the Net (anyone with a Firefox browser and script blocker plug-in is all too aware of something called 'google-analytics' that is running on just about every site you can imagine). I get irritated at just how much our civil liberties and freedoms are encroched upon and eroded, from something along the lines of the smoking ban and being told that I can not relax in the pub on a cold winter evening with a bottle of ale and cigarette, all the way to civil protests and demonstrations suddenly being deemed illegal (such as the fuel protest of 2000) simply because the govt decides it can rule us with the iron fist and make us do what they want, when they want.

I have major issues with the way the recording industry deals with music, and how they decide who owns the works created, as well as exactly how little of the profit on a recording goes to the artists, and how the big companies simply pocket the rest of the profits for themselves. The way the companies want to try and deal with people who simply share music is obscene in a lot of cases, and hugely unwarranted and unjustifiable - sharing of music is perhaps the biggest and best way for a lot of musicians to get their work spread around the world, and so they benefit greatly from the increased interestthat file sharing might generate for them.

Bottom line is this - things have got to change, this fact is well known and it is long overdue, and for that I'm behind PP/PPI all the way.