

Finnish campaigners seek crowdsourced change to copyright legislation - zxcdw
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/24/finland-copyright-law-crowdsource

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s_husso
As a Finn I don't hold my breath over that the the vote, if it gets to a point
parliament can vote on it (which I hope it does), will make a difference. Most
likely it will be shot down by the Government parties as the copyright holders
lobby-machine has quite strong influence. To make matters worst, most of the
parties MPs vote what the party says them to vote regardless what the
individual MP seems to be thinking.

Don't get me wrong, of course I want that the vote will pass, but I'll rather
see the vote being 'shot down' than not have it at all. At least it will
generate (more) discussion. We can always start the process over until we can
get a positive outcome.

Now that I think this more, the timing might actually be just right for this
to make a real impact as the the 9-year old girls confiscated Winnie The Pooh
laptop case should still be fresh in peoples memories..

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walshemj
The problem is that 99.99% of these motions to propose a new law are not
written by people who understand parliamentary procedure and drafting of valid
motions.

passing a new law may require altering existing law or striking down old laws
- the "conseqensials" get this wrong and you will lose.

and there the whole question of time tabling if the government can control
when the motion is time tabled it might fall off if time runs out if they
schedule it at the end of session for example.

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zokier
This has about as good chances of succeeding as the US Death Star project.

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bornhuetter
Does anyone have an example, worldwide, of any of these petitions being
successful in effecting change? (I'm not implying here that it has or hasn't
happened)

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nextparadigms
This is much more than just a petition, though, even compared to a White House
petition, which still has almost no chance of solving anything, other than
receiving a patronizing and vague response, if that. The proposals in this
"petition" get on the floor in Parliament it seems (if it passes the 50,000
mark), and they have to vote on it.

I really like the idea, and I wish more countries adopted this. If you're not
a big fan of direct democracy and citizen-referendums like in Germany, this
one still allows the representatives to have the final say on it. So nothing
changes from the republic point of view, but it does offer regular citizens
much better access to the Parliament and getting it to vote on laws they care
about.

Of course they can still vote no, and they might, but that's why you need to
build enough awareness and also try to change the politicians' mind on the
issue.

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bornhuetter
But are there any examples of one of these issues getting to Parliament and
successfully voted on? (as in voted in support of the motion)

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lautis
In Finland, there hasn't yet been a vote about a petition in Parliament. The
first petition with enough signatures was submitted in October, and the
signatures will first have to be verified.

