(on joining the Pirate Party) > Heh, no it's not. That'll just get you marked a radical and summarily ignored by anyone with power. Not that I agree with that,

(on joining the Pirate Party) > Heh, no it's not. That'll just get you marked a radical and summarily ignored by anyone with power. Not that I agree with that, but that's how things are. The Pirate Party already has one MEP. If (probably when) the Lisbon Treaty is passed, they'll have two. The Pirate Party will probably be in power in several countries over the next 10 years (as part of coalitions). > The _real_ way to get software patents taken care of is, as with any other matter of public policy, to convince large swaths of major, consistent contributors to the campaigns of your incumbent representatives to press the issue. This might be true in the USA under their current political system. But as you imply from what you say, the USA isn't properly a democracy, it's an oligarchy ruled by corporations. This is in fact a bigger problem than software patents. It isn't true in Europe, where Pirate Parties have a siginificant chance of getting people elected, due to using more democratic electoral systems. If Pirate manage to get software patents abolished or neutered in one major jurisdiction, they will probably indirectly win in the rest of the world. > This will probably be difficult because people with money want to do evil with these patents I agree. > But right now, Microsoft is trying to use its patents to neuter its open-source competitors, so they may value that too highly. That's certainly part of Microsoft's plan for their patents.