The enough is enough urge
June 21st, 2006
Thank You!
David and I would like to thank everyone for the huge outpouring of support we have received these last few days. We’re working very hard to bring the new site online and start the very important work of this party.
We look forward to working with you. – Joshua Cowles
The Pirate Party of the United States is this country’s version of the Piratpartiet, a Swedish political party that wants to “fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent system, and ensure that citizens’ rights to privacy are respected.” As a fraternal party, the PPUS shares similar goals while working within the political context of U.S. to achieve them.
For far too long, Big Media copyright cartels like the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America have held back technological progress and individual freedom. They have done so through cutthroat litigation against ordinary Americans, interfering with peer-to-peer networks by flooding them with bogus files, and corrupting the political system with unscrupulous lobbying and political donations.
Similarly, the pharmaceutical firms of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have, through the power of their medicine patents, denied lifesaving medical treatment to the world’s poorest people suffering on a horrific scale just to raise their profit margins. Doctors and scientists are beholden to Big Pharma’s grant money, extorted through patents, to devote research efforts on what makes the most money, not always on what saves the most lives or reduces suffering. The New England Journal of Medicine can no longer find unbiased reviewers of medical studies because of Big Pharma’s long patent-granted reach.
Preceding and following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government has had a longstanding antipathy towards protecting the privacy of ordinary Americans when it conflicts with their interests in state control. The NSA’s phone-tapping, the FBI’s Carnivore email spying program, and Congress’s two so-called “PATRIOT Acts” are symptoms of a rampant disregard in law enforcement and the legislative branch for the private lives of U.S. citizens.
No matter what excuses or rationalizations Big Businesses and Big Government offer, it all comes down to cold, hard corporate greed and state control at the expense of your freedom and well-being. Most Americans have wished that one of the major parties would have the courage to stand up to these undemocratic conglomerates and policies and win back control of the cultural, scientific, and personal spheres for artists, critics, scientists, patients, and citizens from all walks of life. Both the Republicans and Democrats have instead, as a whole, enthusiastically rolled over for Big Media’s and Big Pharma’s campaign dollars.
While fine groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Free Software Foundation, Creative Commons, and Doctors Without Borders have been fighting these battles for a long time with us, no political party in United States has made the reform of intellectual property and privacy laws their top priority.
Until now.