The present’s already hard to believe. It’s the most hopeful of times, the most dreadful of times.
On one hand, the Pirate Party —a left/right-bloc-independent party pursuing “the reform of laws regarding copyright and patents, the right to privacy, both on the Internet and in everyday life, and the transparency of state administration.”WP— wins an astonishing 7.1% of Swedish votes and gets a seat in the European Parliament. We’ve felt the wind blow in our sails. We’ve seen the polls prior to the election. But to stand here, today, and see the figures coming up on that screen… What do you want me to say? I’ll say anything.
On the other hand, in less than a month, China will start forcing PC manufacturers to include censoring software —ridiculously named Green Dam Youth Escort— on every computer’s hard drive.Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge, via TorrentFreak
It’s like downloading spyware onto your computer, but the government is the spy.