ALB
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As I noticed that the Pirate Party is contesting a ward in the Lambeth borough elections where we are too (not the same one) and they specialise in opposing this sort of thing, I wrote to them for their take on it. Here's their reply (reproduced with their permission) on the (objectively silly) legal issues likely to be involved:
Quote:That falls slap bang in the middle of our core issues with regard to copyright reform – In fact I spent a bit of today using it as an example.. Its absurd when you think about it for more than a moment.. The people who created the work can no-longer benefit, yet something that should be in the public sphere, something that adds to the sum of human knowledge is yanked away and hidden. I haven't looked at the specific legalities of it (it covers too much international ground – and things like freedom of translation were corner-stones of Soviet copyright legislation, as were short copyright lengths..) but if the Lawyers are sending letters and its a translation there is a good chance its valid in the jurisdiction its happening in. As sad as it is that the material itself will be less available, hopefully it will open up the issues more widely and maybe bring a few more people into understanding that the commons include our cultural and historic works and that we are losing access to them faster in an age where almost everything could be protected and shared.gnome wrote:This is what comes of having an 'open door' policy.Precisely.Incidentally here's someone (who has just contacted us) who puts over the case for a moneyless "resource-based economy" in a much simpler way than Peter Joseph, i.e without any impressive-sounding scientific jargon:http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xef5na_on-the-edge-no35-duane-mullin_shortfilms
There's a petition circulating against this:http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/lawrence-wishart-no-copyright-for-marx-engels-collected-works#share
I'm not sure we should take up this challenge as a party. After all, Zeitgeist have reached more or less the same conclusion as us (that the framework within which to solve the world's problems is a moneyless world society where the Earth's resources have become the common heritage of all), even if on the basis of some faulty analysis (eg about banks) and they have no clear idea of how to get there, i.e our argument with them is about tactics not the goal (which we don't want to refute and which we, like them, claim, as we used to say in our pamphlets, is "backed by incontrovertible facts and logical argument").Let's reserve our arguments to refute the supporters of capitalism, including state capitalism, who don't share our goal.
The leaflet we will be distributing door-to-door and at literature stalls (outside Head Office every Saturday from 3 May at 12 noon till voting day on 22 May) can be seen here:http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/our-election-leaflet.html
I'm sure it will be viewable somewhere on Youtube after it has been broadcast. In any event, the BBC have informed us that it will be on BBC online the day after. So we will be able to use it in the rest of the campasign in South East Region as well as in Wales.
The BBC have informed us that our Party Election Broadcast will be shown on Monday 12 May at 22.35 on BB1 (Wales) and at 23.20 on BBC2 (Wales). Presumably this is after the local news.ITV (Wales) has indicated they will be showing it on Tuesday 6 May but haven't yet confirmed or given a time.
I've been drawling through the lists of persons nominated in the councils where Stuart said LU was having candidates (Wigan, Exeter, Norwich, Barnet) and have found that they are standing a grand total of 10 (6 in Wigan, 2 in Noewich, 1 in Exeter, 1 in Barnet).I'll be scutinising the results after 22 May to see if they do better (or worse) than our 4 local election candidates.Incidentally, I noticed quite a few "Labour and Cooperative Party" candidates and wonder how long the Cooperative Party will survive. Also, disappointingly, a Tory candidate in Wigan called Winstanley. Gerrard must be turning in his grave if he wasn't already about Georges Hill in Surrey becoming a gated community for the filthy and jumped-up rich.
Here's what happened (or rather what didn't) in the end:http://www.heart.co.uk/sussex/news/local/brighton-hove-no-council-tax-referendum/
In the end No2EU is standing in 7 of the 11 mainland European constituencies, i.e all except North East, East Midlands, South East and South West. Pity as I thought (and hoped) they were going to disappear. The Scargill Labour Party is only contesting Wales and people in the North West will have a chance to vote for the Trotskyist "Socialist Equality Party".
There are 11 lists in Wales. The others besides us are: Labour, Tory, Liberal, Plaid Cymru, Green, UKIP, BNP, No2EU, SLP and "Britain First" (sounds like a BNP breakaway, anyway another nasty party, whose slogan is "Remember Lee Rigby"). Curiously, none of the candidates of the Scargill Labour Party come from the ex- mining valleys of South Wales, 3 are from North Wales and one from West Wales.
We now know who we're up against. Nominations closed at 4pm and the Returning Officer has just published the list of the parties standing. There are 15 (same as last time, in 2009).Apart from the usual suspects (Tories, Labour, Liberal, Green, UKIP, BNP), there's the Christians Peoples Party, the English Democrats, the Peace Party and the Roman Party (a joke party) who stood last time. New are the Harmony Party, Your Voice, Liberty Great Britain (real "revolutionary" fascists) and "An Independence for Europe" list (rumoured to be a Tory party dirty trick to draw votes from UKIP as they did once before when they put up a "Literal Democrat" candidate).Unlike last time there is no Scargill Labour Party or No2EU list. Which means that we are the only list using the word "socialist", i.e no jokes about the Peoples Front for Judea and the Judean People's Front.
