I'm suprised that party which seeks to seriously impair (if not completely blow) the software industry gets so much applause here.
How exactlly do the impair the software industry? Some (don't know how many exactlly) of the guys that got elected into the berlin parlament work together in a software startup. One of them even owns it. Why would they destroy the industry many of them work in?
If you are selling software product and all means of fighting with unauthorized redistribution are taken away from you then you are screwed. That's all I have to say.
Well then, there is your problem. Your business model does no longer work (or rather, is slowly but inevitably failing) - you cannot force people to pay for the distribution of infinitely copyable data, and neither can you ultimately force them to pay you to use it.
My question is: How exactly does this entitle you to demand laws to save your business model?
You could apply the very same argument you are using against Free Software (the libre kind), which is still nonsense.
Besides, generations of industries have been put out of business by technical advancements. I don't see why the software industry (or any digital media industry, for that matter) should be the first to have a special exception just because they whine loud enough.
How about you stop complaining about inevitable progress and instead try to find new ways to make ends meet? Adapt or face being made obsolete - it's that simple, really.
BTW. The next scheduled election is 2 years away http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_German_federal_election so its half time right now for the German Bundestag.
Yeah, you may want to explain exactly how. To me it seems like the pirate party's values are right in line with your average software developer's values.
Just because you don't agree with a political party's agenda does not mean news about that party isn't HN material.
We just happen to be in one of the first real industries (media is popular but not strictly useful, so not an industry for the purposes of this) whose product can be copied without incremental cost. Instead of throwing up artificial barriers around this to try to perpetuate our old-world business models we should be leveraging this and creating all the value we can.
Besides, making software free (by removing the ability to demand money for it) doesn't mean nobody would be paid to work on it. Many (most?) full-time Linux devs are paid. Probably 95% of software isn't a for-sale product, and of the bit that is, much of that could probably be supported other ways.