Piratbyrån
Encyclopedia
Piratbyrån was a Swedish
organization (or think tank
) established to support people opposed to current ideas about intellectual property
— by freely sharing information and culture. Piratbyrån wishes to give another point of view about spreading information as opposed to certain lobby groups.
In 2005 Piratbyrån released an anthology
entitled Copy Me containing selected texts previously available from its website. Members of Piratbyrån have participated in debates on Swedish Radio and Swedish Television and have also been giving several lectures in other European countries, such as at the 2005 22nd Chaos Communication Congress
in Berlin.
Piratbyrån's activities might have changed over the years, partly as a result of the addition of the Pirate Party to the Swedish political scene. During Walpurgis Night
2007, Piratbyrån burned all of their remaining copies of Copy Me in a ritual-like performance, declaring:
Jonas Andersson, a Swedish researcher specialized in the politics of file-sharing, gave this brief definition in October 2009:
The MPAA-funded Svenska Antipiratbyrån
(Swedish Anti-Piracy Agency), an agency devoted to fighting pirating of copyrighted material, was formed in 2001, before Piratbyrån. Piratbyrån humorously copied the name of their opponent, removing the "anti".
In June 2010 the group disbanded following the death of Ibi Kopimi Botani.
in 2009, the jury statement said:
Members of Piratbyrån founded the BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay
in 2003 as a Swedish language site. The Pirate Bay now operates independently from Piratbyrån, although a number of The Pirate Bay administrators were also active in Piratbyrån.
, a popular Swedish BitTorrent tracker
, and Piratbyrån were confiscated in a raid by Swedish police. The seizure was part of investigation into possible illegal activities on the part of The Pirate Bay. Piratbyrån and the Antipiratbyrån set up a temporary news blog during the investigation.
in February 2007, participation in the planning of The Oil of the 21st Century conference in Berlin, presentations at a Norwegian computer party (The Gathering), interviews to the media regarding the raid on The Pirate Bay
, opening of a webshop to sell Kopimi Klothing, participation in the organisation of protests to mark the one year anniversary of the police raid on The Pirate Bay
, attendance of the BELEF07 festival in Belgrade
(Serbia
), and participation in the organisation of a one day art event in Stockholm
titled "Who Makes And Owns Your Work".
In March 2007 Piratbyrån members were invited to a meeting with the executive group for the Swedish Film Institute
, to share their views about film and copying. According to Piratbyrån "The leadership listens with interest — only to some months later launch new anti-piracy initiatives...". In the same month Piratbyrån collaborates with the Norwegian
group Piratgruppen, launching the counter-campaign "Piracy frees music" (promoted via The Pirate Bay
), in response to the "Piracy kills music" anti-piracy campaign by the Norwegian record industry.
In 2007 members of Piratbyrån also helped in the production of the film Steal This Film
(two), which features interviews with Piratbyrån members and was released in December 2007.
in Stockholm, early in 2009.
Installed the Embassy of Piracy - The Embassy of Piracy, for the First Internet Pavilion at the Venice Biennial
At the Prix Ars Electronica
Piratbyrån received an "award of distinction" (including a prize money of 5000 euro) in the category "Digital Communities". The motivation of the jury underlined the Piratbyrån "never forget that humor and irony are among the strongest weapons available to cultural producers."
, although Kopimi adds a positive imperative for others to copy.
The Kopimi page contains various versions of the Kopimi logo, and explains that the logo is a symbol showing that the work is allowed to be copied. Kopimi may be put on homepages or blogs, in books, in software, as sound logos in music, or whatever.
The Kopimi concept and logo was created by Ibi Kopimi Botani (Ibrahim Botani) in 2005.
"Some of you may have noticed that little symbol at the bottom of the page, the pyramid. It's a symbol called Kopimi (Copy Me) which was founded by an old friend of ours, the artist Ibi Botani."
created their own version of the concept called "Copie", which plays both on the English word "copy" and the Portuguese "co-pie" or "twit together". The Copie logo shows 5 birds twitting together.
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
organization (or think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
) established to support people opposed to current ideas about intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
— by freely sharing information and culture. Piratbyrån wishes to give another point of view about spreading information as opposed to certain lobby groups.
In 2005 Piratbyrån released an anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
entitled Copy Me containing selected texts previously available from its website. Members of Piratbyrån have participated in debates on Swedish Radio and Swedish Television and have also been giving several lectures in other European countries, such as at the 2005 22nd Chaos Communication Congress
Chaos Communication Congress
The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual meeting of the international hacker scene, organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues....
in Berlin.
Piratbyrån's activities might have changed over the years, partly as a result of the addition of the Pirate Party to the Swedish political scene. During Walpurgis Night
Walpurgis Night
Walpurgis Night is a traditional spring festival on 30 April or 1 May in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. It is often celebrated with dancing and with bonfires. It is exactly six months from All Hallows' Eve.-Name:...
2007, Piratbyrån burned all of their remaining copies of Copy Me in a ritual-like performance, declaring:
The file-sharing debate is hereby buried. When we talk about file-sharing from now on it's as one of many ways to copy. We talk about better and worse ways of indexing, archiving and copying—not whether copying is right or wrong. Winter is pouring down the hillside. Make way for spring!
Jonas Andersson, a Swedish researcher specialized in the politics of file-sharing, gave this brief definition in October 2009:
Piratbyrån is entirely separate from The Pirate Party; it is more of a loosely organised think-tank, a website, a philosophical greenhouse or FAQ guide to digitization.
The MPAA-funded Svenska Antipiratbyrån
Svenska antipiratbyrån
Svenska antipiratbyrån is a Swedish lobby group representing companies and organisations within the Swedish film and computer game industry. Its activities involve promoting copyright issues and fighting copyright infringement...
(Swedish Anti-Piracy Agency), an agency devoted to fighting pirating of copyrighted material, was formed in 2001, before Piratbyrån. Piratbyrån humorously copied the name of their opponent, removing the "anti".
In June 2010 the group disbanded following the death of Ibi Kopimi Botani.
Self-definition
In 2008 Piratbyrån published a report titled Piratbyrån - The Bureau of Piracy Activities 2007 which starts with the following description of the organisation:Definition by Prix Ars Electronica jury
As Piratbyrån received an "award of distinction" at Prix Ars ElectronicaPrix Ars Electronica
The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music...
in 2009, the jury statement said:
BitTorrent tracker
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
in 2003 as a Swedish language site. The Pirate Bay now operates independently from Piratbyrån, although a number of The Pirate Bay administrators were also active in Piratbyrån.
Police raid
On the morning of May 31, 2006, the servers of both The Pirate BayThe Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
, a popular Swedish BitTorrent tracker
BitTorrent tracker
A BitTorrent tracker is a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. It is also, in the absence of extensions to the original protocol, the only major critical point, as clients are required to communicate with the tracker to initiate downloads...
, and Piratbyrån were confiscated in a raid by Swedish police. The seizure was part of investigation into possible illegal activities on the part of The Pirate Bay. Piratbyrån and the Antipiratbyrån set up a temporary news blog during the investigation.
Activities in 2007
In Piratbyrån - The Bureau of Piracy Activities 2007, published in 2008, Piratbyrån list its activities for the year 2007. Activities by Piratbyrån members include lectures at universities and conferences, the publication of reports, participation in art projects and research projects, an interview with Vanity FairVanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
in February 2007, participation in the planning of The Oil of the 21st Century conference in Berlin, presentations at a Norwegian computer party (The Gathering), interviews to the media regarding the raid on The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
, opening of a webshop to sell Kopimi Klothing, participation in the organisation of protests to mark the one year anniversary of the police raid on The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
, attendance of the BELEF07 festival in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
(Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
), and participation in the organisation of a one day art event in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
titled "Who Makes And Owns Your Work".
In March 2007 Piratbyrån members were invited to a meeting with the executive group for the Swedish Film Institute
Swedish Film Institute
The Swedish Film Institute was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the Filmhuset building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm...
, to share their views about film and copying. According to Piratbyrån "The leadership listens with interest — only to some months later launch new anti-piracy initiatives...". In the same month Piratbyrån collaborates with the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
group Piratgruppen, launching the counter-campaign "Piracy frees music" (promoted via The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
), in response to the "Piracy kills music" anti-piracy campaign by the Norwegian record industry.
In 2007 members of Piratbyrån also helped in the production of the film Steal This Film
Steal This Film
Steal This Film is a film series documenting the movement against intellectual property produced by The League of Noble Peers and released via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol....
(two), which features interviews with Piratbyrån members and was released in December 2007.
Activities in 2009
Piratbyrån organized the "Spectrial", a theatricalizing intervention in The Pirate Bay trialThe Pirate Bay trial
The Pirate Bay trial is a joint criminal and civil prosecution in Sweden of four individuals charged for promoting the copyright infringement of others with the torrent tracking website The Pirate Bay...
in Stockholm, early in 2009.
Installed the Embassy of Piracy - The Embassy of Piracy, for the First Internet Pavilion at the Venice Biennial
At the Prix Ars Electronica
Prix Ars Electronica
The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music...
Piratbyrån received an "award of distinction" (including a prize money of 5000 euro) in the category "Digital Communities". The motivation of the jury underlined the Piratbyrån "never forget that humor and irony are among the strongest weapons available to cultural producers."
Kopimi
Piratbyrån proposed, and published most of its work under, a copyright alternative called kopimi . Designed to be the opposite of copyright, a kopimi notice specifically encourages that the work be copied - for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. Kopimi is similar to the CC0 license created by Creative CommonsCreative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
, although Kopimi adds a positive imperative for others to copy.
The Kopimi page contains various versions of the Kopimi logo, and explains that the logo is a symbol showing that the work is allowed to be copied. Kopimi may be put on homepages or blogs, in books, in software, as sound logos in music, or whatever.
The Kopimi concept and logo was created by Ibi Kopimi Botani (Ibrahim Botani) in 2005.
"Some of you may have noticed that little symbol at the bottom of the page, the pyramid. It's a symbol called Kopimi (Copy Me) which was founded by an old friend of ours, the artist Ibi Botani."
Copie
Inspired by Kopimi, the Pirate Party of BrazilPirate Party of Brazil
The Pirate party of Brazil is a political party in Brazil. Based on the model of the Swedish Pirate Party, it supports reform of copyright law, freedom of information, and privacy. The party was a founding member of Pirate Parties International....
created their own version of the concept called "Copie", which plays both on the English word "copy" and the Portuguese "co-pie" or "twit together". The Copie logo shows 5 birds twitting together.
See also
- Anti-copyrightAnti-copyrightAnti-copyright refers to the complete or partial opposition to prevalent copyright laws. Copyright is known as the owner's right for copies to be only made by the owner or with his/her authorization in form of a license....
- CopyleftCopyleftCopyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
- Pirate PartyPirate PartyThe Pirate Party is a political party in Sweden founded in 2006. Its sudden popularity has given rise to parties with the same name and similar goals in Europe and worldwide, forming the international Pirate Party movement....
(Piratpartiet) (not affiliated with Piratbyrån) - The Pirate BayThe Pirate BayThe Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
A bittorrent site. - Steal This FilmSteal This FilmSteal This Film is a film series documenting the movement against intellectual property produced by The League of Noble Peers and released via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol....
- TelecomixTelecomixTelecomix is a decentralized cluster of net activists, committed to the freedom of expression. Telecomix is a name used by both WeRebuild and Telecomix. WeRebuild is a collaborative project used to propose and discuss laws as well as to collect information about politics and politicians. The...
External links
- Piratbyrån Official Site
- Piratgruppen.org - Danish sister organization
- Art Liberated - Another project from Piratbyrån, highlighting remix cultureRemix cultureRemix culture is a term used to describe a society which allows and encourages derivative works. Remix is defined as combining or editing existing materials to produce a new product. A Remix Culture would be, by default, permissive of efforts to improve upon, change, integrate, or otherwise remix...
and opposing censorshipCensorshipthumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of art. - Slashdot on Piratbyrån's May Day Demonstration 2004
- Press release about Piratbyrån's May Day Demonstration 2005
- The Grey Commons, strategic considerations in the copyfight Text by Piratbyrån's Palle TorssonPalle TorssonPalle Torsson is a contemporary artist working with videos, interactive works, live video games and performance...
and Rasmus FleischerRasmus FleischerRasmus Fleischer is a Swedish historian, musician, freelance journalist and debater. He is currently working as a Ph.D...
, presenting the activities of 2005. - The Pirate Bay and Piratbyrån taken down by Police
- Between artworks and networks: Navigating through the crisis of copyright Theoretical lecture by Piratbyrån's Rasmus FleischerRasmus FleischerRasmus Fleischer is a Swedish historian, musician, freelance journalist and debater. He is currently working as a Ph.D...
. - Presentation of Piratbyrån by Magnus Eriksson, from the Bzoom festival in BrnoBrnoBrno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
, October 2006.