Well, I’m official a member of the Dutch Pirate Party! (PiratenPartij in Dutch.) Why? Because, as a software engineer, amateur CGI artist and hobby photographer, it is important for me that the current copyright laws are adjusted. I do think that copyright is important for artists, but the current laws are abused, and abused in a very bad way. They’re abused to prevent new works, to prevent innovation and worst of all, to enrich those who aren’t artists themselves but who employ artists and then take the profits.

Yes, copyright can be important but there are several large organisations who have a lot of cash to spend on lawyers who are stifling new developments out of fear that they lose profits to the competition. Musicians are complaining about other musicians because a word from their lyrics is used by the others. Photographers are complaining about other photographers because those others also took a picture of a cloud in the shape of a cloud. Movie directors complain about other movie directors because the competition also made a movie where the main character happens to be a woman in jeans. These silly claims have nothing to do with copyright. These things are meant to kill off the competition since these organisations can’t handle any competition!

The same is true with patents. Pharmacies create medicines for several rare diseases but these medicines cost what I make in a year to keep a patient alive for a month. Yes, some pills are that expensive! And sure, the costs of developing it might have been high but pharmacies use dirty tricks to keep patents on these pills for longer than they would normally have. Normally, the patent would last 20 years. But by making minor adjustments to the formula as “improvement” they create a new medicine with a new patent for another 20 years.

And then there’s this annoying thing called “privacy”. Well, we all think we have nothing to hide. But if this is true, then why do many people still wear swimming trunks at the beach and in the local swimming pool? Why do people turn off the light when they have sex? Why do people hide their diaries? People always have things to hide, things they’re either ashamed off or that might hurt the feelings of other people. Privacy is important! I want to keep my email address secret, else spammers will fill my mailbox every day with all kinds of malware, advertisements for blue pills and notifications that there’s one million dollars waiting for me in Nigeria. I want to keep my bank account a secret, else someone else might visit my bank and empty the content of my account. I want to keep my phone number a secret so strange people won’t call me in the middle of the night just to have a talk with someone they’ve never spoken with before. And I want to keep my name a secret because… Wait a minute! This blog is under my name so it’s not a secret. So okay, you can know my name…

The Pirate Party in the Netherlands wants a few things that I would like to support, so I do support them now as a member. Can’t do much, since I also have a life sometimes but still, I support them. These issues are actually the only ones on their political agenda. There’s nothing about the financial crisis or the War on Terrorism or whatever else. Just a simple-themed political party. I support them and am not ashamed to support them. I know they’ll never become a big party. But they have a message that I consider very important. A message about some things that most people don’t seem to think about.

Oh, well. Now I need a hook, a wooden leg, an eye-patch and a parrot. Already have the beard and wild hairstyle. Maybe a matching hat since a pirate in a Stetson just isn’t right. I like my Stetson, but still…