I don't think that's a perfect solution, but it gets at the real solution. If people think you can solve a technical problem (privacy) with a political movement, they are hopelessly incorrect.
The political movement is to fight legislation that would make using something like Freenet illegal. That is, it's not a fight to make your data private. It's a fight to make it legal to have private data. If I'm not incorrect, it is already illegal to withhold encryption keys to private data in the UK.
Then why tie that fight to copyright? If that's what they want to fight then they should make that their platform instead of going on about file sharing.
Truth is that they've wrapped up the file sharing in a blanket of privacy to try to legitimize copying of copyrighted works.
> Truth is that they've wrapped up the file sharing in a blanket of privacy to try to legitimize copying of copyrighted works.
Upvoted for honesty. Let's be intellectually honest and admit that many people pirate stuff, not because they believe in freedom of information and privacy, but because it's cheap. I don't want to state an opinion here or there, but let's at least keep the discussion honest.
At least I can speak for myself. I'm a pirate. I download most of my music and movies, buy the rest in 3rd party stores and pawn shops. I dont buy games any more after all the crapware on them. My biggest things I download are books. In fact, I even have most of my collection duplicated digitally (using free formats) along with nice bound books. Even that e-paper stuff sucks. I just like nicely bound, hopefully acid-free paper bound books. And yes, I usually buy what books I download... most anyways.
I even downloaded that Wolverine workprint. Not a great movie, but OK.
I can also remember the times I've been burnt in actually buying media. I remember the C64 games we bought that used disk drive_destroying calls for anti piracy. I can recall movies that didnt play and the money we lost cause we couldnt return them. I remember being screwed around with on DVD region garbage cause we _bought_ legit dvds.
I've been burned by countless types of media and "policies" regarding them, but never books. Even the bookstores have cafes in which they're cool for you to take a book that you havent purchased to peruse. They're like for-profit libraries. The only thing I wish is that book dealers would get their act together and publish easily searchable text with each book... Oh, and these days, vinyl is another thing I dont mind buying. Now, much vinyl comes with a scratch-off card that the publisher provides all MP3s of what's on the album. Cool and retro, and vinyl sounds good.
It's a really a "What Provides Value?" game. Books and vinyl+mp3s provide perceived value. Badly done DVDs and CDs and crippled games do not. The pirates provide better quality product with no hassle in opposition to the DVD/CD/game sellers.
Again, I don't think that freenet is the ideal solution, but the real solution is available, and it would essentially involve doing things that (for instance) the CIA uses to operate securely. There are thousands of spies in this country--in every country--who could be executed for their behavior, but...well, there are ways of avoiding detection.
The truth is, very few people are interested in security (despite their hyperventilation over the issue), but if the government became genuinely oppressive, it could happen on a mass scale.
Well, yeah. But I'm trying to be generous when I say "privacy"--highlighting that aspect of their platform. Obviously, the party is mainly concerned with not paying the onerous 99 cents that itunes charges for an mp3.
Listen to me, because I'm tired of saying it and getting downmodded: It is a SOLVED FUCKING PROBLEM.
Use an encrypted drive, use freenet, and the government will not be able to prosecute you unless they happen to have many trillions of years of CPU time on their hands.
Seriously. Not one person has even approached refuting me. Just downmods. That's how I know I'm right.
The real problem, the one the Pirate Party is trying to solve, is that the worlds culture is being trapped behind private paywalls in which high costs and penalties are extracted. For thousands of years, our culture was free, as everybody told stories, and people sang songs they created and performed.
However, for the last 100 years, copyright has really taken off. The "consensus" is that thoughts: stories, songs, plays, diatribes, you name it, can be owned and money extracted like the old troll under the rotating bridge.
However, once the "Gutenberg Press for Everybody" got out, suddenly these people want money from everybody. And now, everybody is a potential criminal because of this. Hence DRM and high governemnt-sanctioned blackmails.
The question has never been "Can you trade copyrighted media if you use heavy encryption with everything and get your friends the same?", but instead "Can I share this to people I know would like without fear?" or "Can I sing Happy Birthday in public?". There's always going to be nutters who will apply the most obtuse, obfuscated encryptions they can because they can.
The real question is "Who's culture is this, but why do select few gain?".
I don't think that's a perfect solution, but it gets at the real solution. If people think you can solve a technical problem (privacy) with a political movement, they are hopelessly incorrect.