Falkvinge: Everyone will pretend they're Pirates

"This is so typical when you have people who actually feel they are entitled to support. And all of the sudden they don't have it. So all of the sudden they come with these outrageous statements," says Richard Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party, to mbl.is asked for reaction to recent comments from conservative MP Vilhjálmur Bjarnason who suggested in Parliament last Tuesday that the Icelandic Pirate Party was affiliated with organised crime referring to online piracy.

The comment from Bjarnason was a reaction to growing support for the Icelandic Pirate Party in recent opinion polls. Falkvinge says the Pirates certainly want to change certain laws but as far as he knows changing the laws is not illegal. Otherwise the entire Icelandic Parliament would be criminal. But Bjarnason's comment does not surprise him as they are, he says, very typical for those in denial over the fact that times are changing. 

The only way to threaten lawmakers' jobs

"What I'm predicting will happen next is that everyone will compete to be the better Pirates.

This is what we saw in Sweden in 2009 and in Germany in 2011. How all of a sudden everybody were Pirates all along anyway and how they are delighted that we, who are all of a sudden taking their jobs, are now copying their program because they supported copying all along anyway. So everyone will suddenly be competing to be the better us," Falkvinge says furthermore. And that is the core issue he says:

"If you want change the only way to credibly create change is to take the jobs of the lawmakers who are not doing their jobs. Only when their jobs are on the line change will start to happen. Technological progress is important but at the end of the day if the law doesn't change to reflect the new reality the entire country is going to lag behind and the whole population will suffer because of this. If the lawmakers are not picking up on the fact that things have changed."

"That's when change starts to happen"

Falkvinge says the Nordic countries are fairly modern in this regard. But looking at countries in southern Europe and the institutions of the European Union another picture emerges. "There you will find that people are still stamping papers. You will find that lawmakers in Brussels are actually having secretaries print their e-mails for them. I mean they’re lagging so far behind it’s ridiculous," he says. In his experience the only way to force the rules and regulations to catch up are to put the lawmakers' jobs on the line.

"And that is exactly what is happening here. These reactions are exactly a symptom of the fact that they are now seeing this going personal. Instead of being just another day on the job their job is threatened, their pay check. And that's when change starts to happen. We've seen this before. If you're comfortable with the way things are and no one is threatening that then you're just going to let things be just as they are. Which is why it is so important to actually threaten law makers' jobs over not living up to changes in the world around them."

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