The Case for Copyright Reform

Legalized file sharing, shorter protection times for the commercial copyright monopoly, free sampling and a ban on DRM.

These are the main points of the proposal for copyright reform that the Pirate Party is advocating and which the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament adopted as its group position in September 2011.

This is a constructive alternative to the controversial ACTA agreement and to the criminalization of the entire generation of youths.

This booklet explains why such a reform is both necessary and sustainable and will benefit both citizens and artists.

Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the first Pirate Party and a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a backgound as a tech entrepreneur.

Christian Engström is a Member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Pirate Party. Before becoming a politician he was an entrepreneur and computer programmer, who became involved in politics over the issue of software patents.