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This module tries to assist librarians in developing countries who are considering organizing to influence the shape of copyright laws. It does so by examining how other groups have sought in the past to modify (or to resist modifications of) copyright systems.
To that end, it offers three cases studies, involving sharply different issues and countries. No simple lesson emerges from these case studies. Rather, they are intended to provide the basis for reflection and discussion concerning what forms of activism are effective -- and what forms are not.
On July 1, 2005, the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag, amended its copyright law to comply with a 2004 European Union directive requiring all member nations to ban downloads of copyrighted material absent the rights-holder’s consent. Before the end of the year, a Swedish court handed down the country’s first conviction and fine for an illegal download.
Swedes were well poised to organize against the tightening copyright law because of the following local factors:
(1) the Swedish government was an early adopter of public high speed broadband, which made unauthorized downloading of audio and video recordings particularly easy.
(2) Swedes were culturally predisposed to understand property rights as tools for public good rather than as natural rights of the holders.
(3) a grassroots think tank named Piratbyran (or “Piracy Bureau”) had been publicly contesting copyright protection in Sweden since 2003.
On New Years Day of 2006, just months after the first file-sharing prosecution, an IT entrepreneur named Rickard Falkvinge formed Piratpartiet , the Swedish Pirate Party. Neither Falkvinge nor his co-founders had any formal political experience when they made the decision to start the party. As a result, they did know that the party needed 2,000 signatures to register formally with the Swedish Election Authority, Valmyndigheten. When they learned, they hosted a website for citizens to declare publicly their membership and then began collecting physical signatures in person. Once formally registered, the party recruited candidates for the Riksdag elections in September, drafted a party platform, fundraised, and built local organizations in both urban and rural areas throughout Sweden.
The Pirate Party articulated its copyright policy goals as part of a larger effort to expand freedom of access to culture and to protect fundamental rights.
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