Pirate Party UK ducks fight with BPI

The Pirate Party UK has closed its proxy access to The Pirate Bay, rather than face a ruinous battle with the major labels.

The decision came after the BPI chose to make its battle personal - rather than attacking the party, the BPI chose to take action against six individual members of the organisation.

Obviously, the BPI is legally within its rights to do this, but it distorts the battle - a well-funded music industry business against private individuals stacks the odds completely in the favour of the business, making it effectively an impossible fight.

BPI take on the UK Pirate Party

Since the BPI's miserable failure to try and close down access to The Pirate Bay, the UK variant of the Pirate Party has been running a proxy service.

The BPI is now trying to get that closed, too, reports Torrent Freak:

Referencing the Party’s pro-freedom stance, [Geoff] Taylor apparently told Kaye, “Freedom of expression is not an absolute right. It comes with a duty to respect the rights of others, including those whose talent, hard work and investment help to create music and other entertainment.”

That's so true - who can forget how Evelyn Beatrice Hall caught Voltaire's stance - "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it, providing you don't somehow impinge on an investment by Vivendi while you're doing it."

It's not clear how far the BPI intend to take this - The Pirate Party UK say they've only had a vague email so far, and no formal demand; given how trying to stop people in the UK going to the Pirate Bay resulted in a massive upswing in traffic to the site and the government going cool on the idea of blocking webpages, a wise organisation might choose to do nothing.

But then, when has the BPI ever been wise?

Ten Pirates attempting to take seats

Ten candidates representing The Pirate Party of Canada are standing in their nation's general election.

They've got some lovely policies.

Pirate Party in France: Not a huge debut

A by-election in the 10th District of Yvelines has given The Pirate Party's French wing a first electoral test. It wasn't entirely a resounding success, with the candidate Maxime Rouquet winning just two per cent of the vote, trailing everyone. Even the Party Of France.

Still, campaigning built around copyright might be new, but the Pirate Party are happy to be part of one of the oldest traditions of politics: presenting a by-election soaking as part of a strategy. This was all about creating visibility rather than doing anything like winning. Or getting close to winning.

It's worth also noting that the turnout was a little over a quarter of the electorate.