[IN QUEUE] On Piracy

[Coporiana]

Submitted by me through Ather North.

The Security Council,

Aghast that there continues to be activities of piracy in national and international waters,

Concerned by the profit loss caused by piracy of cargo in transit and of media posted online,

Disgusted by the harm cyber and sea pirates cause in their selfish crimes,

Astonished that this act has not been included in Condemnations past and imploring this council to rectify this severe oversight,

Delighted by on-going efforts by this esteemed body in addressing these piracy issues at sea and in the cyberverse,

Encourages continuation of anti-piracy efforts by the World Assembly and its members by condemning more nations that permit and sponsor the act of piracy,

Hereby declares the Security Council's position against the practice of piracy.

Discuss!

[Outer Sparta]

Not sure it really fits, but this is a declaration, and you could do anything with it. Just make sure it doesn't legislate anything as they're supposed to do nothing but declare.

[Concrete Slab]

Me when I queue stuff

[Omnicontrol]

pirating games and software from multi-billion dollar corporations that believe i should not own them even after i have paid is morally right, sorry

[Bhang Bhang Duc]

Against. A particularly stupid Declaration.

[The Armed Forces of Kenmoria]

The Security Council, The Security Council should not waste its effort on declarations which do not meaningfully declare anything. This declaration is not written well, which I will demonstrate on the next clauses. Furthermore, I am confused as to why this was submitted to the Security Council. The General Assembly is the body of the World Assembly that is supposed to handle international law, and this is a topic which has been addressed and which there is room to yet address further in the resolutions of the General Assembly. Like a lost sheep, the draft appears to have wandered between the chambers, and its present location is highly unsatisfying.

Aghast that there continues to be activities of piracy in national and international waters, This is worded badly. “Activities of piracy” is tautological, unless you wish to protest the concept of piracy in abstract. It should be simply “piracy”. Furthermore, “there continues to be” is a strange way of introducing this clause. It would be far simpler to make this direct, in such phrasing as follows: “aghast at the proliferation of piracy…”. That makes a much more convincing impact.

Concerned by the profit loss caused by piracy of cargo in transit and of media posted online, Piracy is inherently of cargo in transit. It is impossible to commit piracy in respect of cargo that is not in transit; that is simply theft. Therefore, “in cargo” is unnecessary. The same is true of media posted online. Theft of media that is offline, such as a book, is just theft, and it does not qualify as piracy. The only exception would be if a narrow definition of “posted online” is intended, in which case this clause is far too narrow, since it ought also to include piracy of televisual and cinematographic media.

Disgusted by the harm cyber and sea pirates cause in their selfish crimes, I have never heard “cyber pirate” be used in actual conversation, nor have I heard “sea pirates”. It would be better to refer to “seafaring pirates”, since “seafaring” is at least an adjective, unless “sea”, which is a noun. This would also allow for the construction of “cyberfaring”, which is a morphosyntactically valid construction that is, at least, somewhat interesting. Instead, there are two phrases, one split by a conjunction, which together sound awkward.

“Selfish crimes”, additionally, is astonishingly mild wording for something by which the General Assembly is supposed to be disgusted. There is far stronger wording that can be used against these despicable deeds, which would have a rhetorical effect of actual worth. I also note that cyberpiracy might not be universally illegal across all member-nations, following a recent repeal, which makes “crimes” a little questionable as a descriptive noun.

Astonished that this act has not been included in Condemnations past and imploring this council to rectify this severe oversight, There are two separate lexemes, by which I mean “astonished” and “imploring” which could properly begin a clause. Putting them together places two thoughts in one passage, which makes for awkward reading. Piracy, as defined in both thalassic and technological terms, is not a singular act but rather a multitude of occurrences, which makes “this act” an in accurate descriptor. This clause laments the fact that piracy is not mentioned in past condemnations, which are capitalised so as to refer to the type of resolution, yet it is a clause that forms part of a declaration. A baffling mismatch of argument is therefore created.

Delighted by on-going efforts by this esteemed body in addressing these piracy issues at sea and in the cyberverse, I have not heard of these efforts, unless a reference to the law of the General Assembly is intended. In that case this clause is factually wrong, since piracy online is not prohibited by the international law of the General Assembly. Indeed, that would be a gross overreach from the international to the national sphere, where piracy of solely domestic works is concerned. In the alternate case that this clause refers to something else, it is vague to the point of uselessness. Nowhere does it offer even the slightest hint of what these efforts are.

“Ongoing” can be rendered without a hyphen, and it is aesthetically displeasing to utilise hyphenation where it is superfluous. I also find the wording of “piracy issues” to be less than ideal. First, “piratical” is available as a more elegant predicate to “Issues”. Second, this is another example of a situation where righteous rebuke can be sent against piracy, and instead the proposal chooses mild language that seems more appropriate for a calm discussion over a cup of tea.

Encourages continuation of anti-piracy efforts by the World Assembly and its members by condemning more nations that permit and sponsor the act of piracy, The implication here is that the World Assembly currently condemns nations that permit and sponsor the act of piracy. However, the proposal earlier was very clear that this is not the case. “More” is therefore not only superfluous but also actively misleading. For the sake of clarifying that both permitting and sponsoring are individually criticisable, “permit and sponsor” should have been “permit or sponsor”.

Hereby declares the Security Council's position against the practice of piracy. There is no actual reference to this position. Piracy is a malicious act that appropriates the profits of those who invested pecuniary or creative effort into a good or work, and it therefore deserves righteous and severe criticism by governments. What was just written is an example of a position. The fact that the Security Council is against the practice of piracy, which, incidentally, could be written more simply as just “piracy”, is nothing more than a summary.

[Tinhampton]

Withdrawn to facilitate the swift passage of Liberate Serovski Mir 2022. Unlikely to ever be resubmitted, given that the whole point of this exercise was to prevent Atlanticana from being injuncted and destroyed and it is now virtually certain that this will not happen (the transition will be completed when the Liberation is at vote).