Reform 4: Copyright, Patent & Civil Rights
Copyright
Copyright is well out of touch with today's cultural landscape. It has evolved into an obstacle to creativity, particularly grass roots creativity. We need at least these changes to copyright law:
- Copyright is commercial Copyright only regulates commercial activity. (Local law usually defines "commercial activity" in sufficient detail.) Non-commercial activity is never regulated by copyright law.
- Sharply reduced monopoly term Copyright is a limited commercial monopoly that expires well within one generation. The exact term is left to the local pirate party.
- No media or hardware levies No levies to compensate for copying should be permitted - but we allow for government scholarships or similar, which are not compensation. This way, it's obviously unilateral, and the copyright lobby doesn't have the implied right to accept or reject.
- Parliament writes copyright law, not the lobby Technical measures that prevent consumers from using culture in ways permitted by law, so-called DRM technologies, are outlawed.
- Derivative works always permitted Instead of having derivative works normally prohibited except in quite fuzzy fair use exceptions, under our copyright, derivative works are always permitted (not covered by the original copyright), with exceptions to this very specifically enumerated in law with minimal room for interpretation (like "direct translations of a book").
Patents
The patent system of today has lost touch with its original intentions, and has developed into something that is harmful to innovation and economic progress in many areas.
Pharmaceutical patents raise many ethical concerns, not least in relation to people in developing countries. They are also a driving force behind increasing costs for publicly funded health care systems in the member states.
We demand an initiative for a European study on the economic impact of pharmaceutical patents, compared to other possible systems for financing drug research, and on alternatives to the current system.
Patents on life (including patents on seeds and on genes) and software patents should not be allowed.
Civil Rights
EU and it's member states should adhere to the highest standards of democracy. Therefore such principles as transparent government, speedy and fair trial and freedom of speech should always be respected. In this day and age it is crucial to preserve the legal protection of citizens from arbitrary exercise of authority. The EU has an important role to play in shining a light on violations against civil rights in member states.
A democratic society needs a transparent state and non-transparent citizens. The citizens should be able to freely gather to formulate and express their opinions without fear of government surveillance. To expand this to an information society the right to anonymity in communication must be expanded. Therefore the secrecy of correspondence should encompass all digital communication.
