April Fools joke reveals absurdity of copyright laws, says Pirate Party

With many people believing Pirate Party Australia’s April Fools gag was genuine, the issue highlights the fact that it is becoming increasingly impossible to distinguish real instances of overzealous copyright holders’ claims from parodies of their behaviour.

The Party released a statement claiming that it had received a takedown request in regard to a poster that parodied YouTube’s notice that a video had been removed due to a copyright claim[1]. Although this was an obvious joke to those who created it, the Party was surprised when people mistook the fictitious claim as genuine.

“The resulting enquiries regarding whether or not this actually happened amazed us because we thought the idea was too far fetched to be believable,” said Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer, Deputy Secretary of Pirate Party Australia. “Rather than poking fun by parodying copyright maximalists, it appears we came frighteningly close to the truth.”

“This entire issue highlights the entire point we were making in the gag press release. Copyright enforcement is now beyond a joke when even parodies can’t work against it,” he continued.

Poking fun on April Fools Day has become a tradition among Pirate Parties. Last year the Swedish Pirate Party demanded “to be paid for its hard work” in doing the job of Swedish parliamentarians[2], while this year the United States Pirate Party claimed that former Senator and chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, Chris Dodd, had joined their ranks with the intention of bidding for the 2016 presidential election[3]. In Germany, the Pirate Party joked that it was changing its branding to reflect the new name — the “Pony Party”[4].

The Pirate Party wishes to assure everyone that apart from the fictional takedown request, the remainder of the press release was entirely true, and the Party will remain committed to fighting against the imposition of stricter copyright laws.

[1] https://pirateparty.org.au/2013/04/01/pirate-party-takedown-parody-poster-receives-takedown-request-is-taken-down/
[2] http://falkvinge.net/2012/04/01/pirate-party-demands-payment-for-its-hard-work/
[3] http://falkvinge.net/2013/04/01/mpaa-chairman-former-senator-chris-dodd-joins-pirate-party-announces-2016-presidential-bid/
[4] http://www.piratenpartei.de/2013/04/01/aus-der-piratenpartei-wird-die-pony-partei/

One thought on “April Fools joke reveals absurdity of copyright laws, says Pirate Party

  1. It’s a known fact that Yankian corporations follow the “do as I say, not as I do.” rule and will sue at the drop of a youtube for nasty persons infringing on their copyrights/trademarks. Government by the corporation for the corporation.

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