In an exclusive interview to 15min.lt, four members of the Lithuanian Pirate Party – Justas Mikalauskas, Justas Ingelevičius, mantas Zimnickas, and Vytautas Butėnas – reveal their plans to become a counterweight to various anti-piracy organizations and copyright lobbies. The latter, in their view, pursue their goals completely disregarding any public interest.
Propelled into action by ACTA
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| Piratpartiet.se/ |
A network of Lithuanians partial to the Pirate Party ideology has existed in one form or another for several years now and they have considered going public on numerous occasions. What prevented the grand coming out was a certain lack of initiative and doubts: was it better to remain a non-formal network or to establish an organization? Or perhaps a political party?
The pirates had their smouldering enthusiasm blown into full flame this January, when entire Europe rose against the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Closed and irregular meetings blossomed into energetic activism: the pirates participated in public debates, contributed to organizing an anti-ACTA protest in Lithuania.
According to Ingelevičius, ACTA drew so much attention because people finally realized that Internet, too, is their business.
“Technologies are becoming part of everyday life, Internet is near-universally accessible and relevant to everyone. Perhaps several years ago, there were still many who couldn't use computers, Internet and didn't face such problems,” Mikalauskas agrees.
Cautious of politics
As the pirates set their eyes on the public, they started polishing their ideological base. Lithuanians stick to the same principles shared by all Pirate Parties: modern solution to patent and copyright issues; unrestricted access to knowledge and information; protecting people's rights and privacy; defending free speech and democracy; ensuring transparency in business and politics.
However, the Lithuanian pirates do not rush to politics just yet – they intend to take one step at a time. First, they want to attract more like-minded people and, as they put it, grow a spine. Then they intend to set up an NGO and only later a political party.
“At the moment, we are marketing the brand and forming a team. We are completely open, we're seeking to be Lithuania's most transparent and open party,” Ingelevičius says. “I think Lithuania really needs such a party, as does any other civilized state.”
Different perspective on piracy
The term “pirate” usually carries negative connotations and is often associated with thieves and criminals. The Pirate Party members aspire to change this.
They agree that digital theft does harm, yet the solution they offer is different. “We think that the best way to stop piracy is to encourage close cooperation between authors and consumers, bypassing intermediaries. Also, promoting the spread of free-licensed information on-line,” Ingelevičius says.
His mates assure that if we learn how to use new technologies for distributing copyrighted material, both the society and the authors will win, since the latter will have ever-greater reach.
The biggest problem that the Lithuanian on-line community currently faces is inaccessibility of information, the pirates say. “I would love to buy music or shop on-line, but I'm constantly being told that the service is unavailable in Lithuania. All because copyright defenders allegedly protect authors' rights and do not allow selling their production abroad,” Mikalauskas regrets.
History
The first Pirate Party was established in January 2006 in Sweden. The same year, similar parties appeared in Austria, Germany and later in other countries.
At the moment, many European countries have local Pirate Parties. The most influential are the ones in Sweden and Germany. Swedish pirates won 7 percent of the vote in 2009 election to the European Parliament and delegated 2 MEPs. German pirates triumphed last year, when they won staggering 9 percent of the Berlin state election vote and took 15 seats in the local parliament. Pirate Parties have representatives in city councils in Czech Republic, Spain, and Switzerland.
