Join the Pirate Party now!

As Pastafarians know, global warming is inversely related to the number of pirates in the world. But slightly more seriously, the Pirate Party in Sweden has gained a seat in the EU Parliament. They stand against the encroachment on individual privacy by the increasingly draconian Intellectual Property activists of industry. Their sudden success follows the jail sentences for the administrators of the Pirate Bay website.

I am increasingly concerned at the advent of democratic governments using these provisions to control what can, and cannot, be said in public forums like the internet. It basically means that culture is owned. That is as bad, in my view, as patenting ethnic DNA or some plant that grows naturally. So I have “joined” the Australian Pirate Party. This gives me better cred than PZ ArrrMatey.

Via Crooked Timber. Also, see Wired.