The Pirate Bay is closed

Daniel Pocock daniel at pocock.pro
Wed Dec 10 14:19:53 UTC 2014


On 10/12/14 14:33, David Gerard wrote:
> On 10 December 2014 at 10:43, Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.pro> wrote:
>> On 10/12/14 11:29, Max Mehl wrote:
>>> Of course, Free Software has many links to free culture. But TPB was a
>>> site with lots of illegal content. And of course we could (and should)
>>> criticise the current copyright laws but we shouldn't connect it with
>>> this event. It would provide our opponents with a target IMO. Just my
>>> 2 cents. Best, Max Original mail of Andrés for better understanding:
>> If a PR can be written without direct criticism of the raid then it
>> wouldn't be such a bad idea
>> There are many points that can be made, e.g. the consumers of digital
>> downloads have far less rights than their parents who bought compact
>> discs and the situation will only get worse for the consumer.
>
> I disagree. The Pirate Bay raid is largely orthogonal to free
> software/content concerns. And appearing to support it would carry
> only the message of support; not helping our concerns and, at worst,
> handing those who dislike free software/content a stick to hit us
> with.
>
> Without some point of direct impact on software or content freedom, I
> suggest leaving this one.
>
> (I do volunteer PR for Wikimedia, and getting any message of *any*
> subtlety through to the press is, in my experience, largely futile.
> And any commentary we could put forward would require subtlety to get
> through. If it can't fit in a hard-to-distort headline, it'll be a
> tricky one.)

I don't think there is a prospect of FSFE gaining a headline from such a
PR and hoping for such publicity would be silly.

What is more relevant is the possibility that some of the more balanced
reporters may quote somebody from FSFE when putting context information
at the bottom of their story or if they decide to write some feature
about this for what it is: whether legal or not, TPB's beginning and end
are milestones in the evolution of digital entertainment.





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