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Aussie Pirate Party To Shake Up Politics Down Under

This year, Pirate Parties have emerged all around the world, putting copyright, censorship and privacy issues on the political agenda. Down under the Australian Pirate Party is eager to join in. They are currently seeking 500 founding members in order to become registered as an official political party.

pp australia2009 has been a disastrous year for several well-established torrent sites, with The Pirate Bay and Mininova losing in court against the entertainment industries. Not completely unrelated, this year has been a very successful one for the political Pirate Party movement.

The Pirate Party currently holds two seats in the European Parliament thanks to the massive support from Swedish voters. In the aftermath of this accomplishment several new parties were founded worldwide. In the UK the Pirate Party was officially registered at the Electoral Commission in August and Canada has been pursuing the same goal for a while, now followed by Australia.

The Pirate Party Australia just announced that it is now accepting founding members in their attempt to get the party officially registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. In order to get registered the party needs 500 members who sign and send in their application form, plus a $20.00 founders fee.

“With this small but significant step, we will be one step closer to providing Australian electors with the option of voting ‘Pirate’ at the next Federal election, to fight for a fairer and more balanced copyright, greater innovation and access to culture, information and knowledge, greater government transparency and the protection of our civil liberties,” the Party announced.

David Crafti, President of Pirate Party Australia, stresses the importance of a political party that defends citizens rights against the ever-growing power of pro-copyright lobbyists.

“With the current government attempting to implement an Internet censorship regime, continuing secretive ACTA negotiations and an increasingly belligerent war on sharing, here and across the globe – it is now more important than ever that we work to protect our civil liberties, and our democracy,” Crafti said.

The Aussie Pirate Party hopes to have the 500 required membership applications in before the end of the year. They encourage prospective members to send in their application forms (pdf) as soon as is possible, so the party can become officially registered and get to work.

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  • Ahmed

    Oh really :P

  • lolz

    Austria has one as well with more than 400 members :P

    http://ppo.or.at/

    #second

  • Anonymous

    Congratulations and good luck from Great Britain :D

  • Anonymous

    Only 500? They should be able to get that in a couple days.

  • Koegelsak

    and the Bavarian part of the German Pirate party continues to grow daily.

  • 1337x

    Congrats and good luck from 1337x.org

  • gonewalkabouts

    Good luck to you all

  • Leo the Lion

    FFS start doing things that will actually make a difference. Anti piracy REALLY=studios, they don’t get it. Or they do of course but don’t care.

    It pisses me off!

  • RoestVrijStaal

    Thanks to the AFACT vs iiNet-case, I think they will get even get more then 1000 members this year :)

  • BUT!

    Will it blend?

  • http://www.eZee.se www.eZee.se

    Good luck!

  • Mac

    Cool I hope they are successful.
    Good Luck.

  • Sanju

    I hope it blends.

  • matt

    good luck from the us! (ps: start a US pirate party already! we need it as much as everyone else since US is shoving their policies on the world)

    [If you search TorrentFreak for US Pirate Party, you'll find a number of articles referencing them, since their founding 3 1/2 years ago - Mod]

  • Dia

    You can’t start a party in the US, it’s a two party system.

  • bliss

    Wouldn’t it be better to name it something else than “The Pirate Party”? To get broader acceptance? Calling ourselves pirates doesn’t exactly help convincing anyone that file sharing should be legal.

    I think it would help to pick a more “serious” name.

    What do you think?

  • Cygnus

    Can someone make a general pirate party page, with a map to all the countries in the world and a link to those countries with official pirate parties.

  • diarRIAA

    Congrats matey’s! Plunder, pillage and slay the corporate Beasts!

  • Kapcha

    @17
    you can find it in Wikipedia.

  • Sanderman

    It’s articles like these that give me hope for a sane society. On the other hand I’m also sadly reminded that the pirate party in the Netherlands has yet to gain traction.

    Something is out of whack when people are more motivated to vote on parties in other countries than their own.

  • Kapcha

    P.S. And good luck to Australian Pirate Party. And there are elections in Sweden in september 2010. It will be very interesting ;)

  • Chien

    good luck from here in the states
    http://www.pirate-party.us

  • Cujo

    Pirate Party International ;)

    http://www.pp-international.net/

  • anon2

    best of luck to them and all pirate parties in all countries, in all elections, whenever they may be. this is one way that the feelings of ordinary people can be expressed freely. that is, of course, unless the freedom of choice to vote for whom you want isn’t taken away in the mean time!

  • —
  • Anonymous

    Good luck!

  • M-RES

    YAAAAR me antipodean brethren… good on ye!

  • A nun

    Totally off-topic, but related to the pirate party..

    IPREDATOR has launched publically, when is a TF in-depth review and article coming?

    I’d especially like to see someone find an option for anonymous payment quite frankly.

  • MovieFox

    Congrats and good luck from MovieFox.Org

  • KsbjA

    @16 – I agree, downloading data illegally and robbing ships is quite different. But then again, everybody would, unofficially, call them “Pirate party”, or worse, anyway. They had to pick a word everybody uses and that is direct. So the deffect-to-effect, or “we-are-the-oh-so-evil-pirates-can’t-you-see-how-evil-we-are” is actually a good tactic. This shows the public how the “bad pirates” fight against the Man spying on you, against medicine patents, and of course against ridiculous copyright laws. Instead of trying to, and failing at, changing the word “pirate”, they “clean” the word and show the so-called pirates are actually good people.

  • shasha

    good luck to all pirates around the world , Somali pirates got it all now ;)

  • TPB

    The more pirates the better.
    http://www.plentyoftorrents.com

    Except for Somali pirates. :(

  • Ralonto

    Good luck Aussies!

  • File Sharer

    I wish Australian Pirate Party best of luck.

  • Drake3

    “You can’t start a party in the US, it’s a two party system.”

    We do have third parties. That is why we have the term “third parties.” They don’t win, but they can cause the main two candidates to change their issues to get the votes from the party.

  • Ninja

    “Piracy”, “pirates” and such words used to describe file sharers and people that want freedom of choice of digital media they buy are just labels. It is obvious for any1 that people who share files don`t pillage, rob and d other nasty things.

    However in the eyes of the stubborn and blind media industries we are harming them. More than the people selling their goods on the streets. More than drug dealers harm the security.. But oh well…

    As I said in a previous article, TPB won an epic victory against them. The spoils of war so far are 2 seats in europe and pirate parties being born all around the world. Not to mention P2P activity is boiling hotter than ever.

    I think I started lovin MAFIAA for all these great things we have now =D

  • yabba

    I vote for a People’s Spying Party, in addition to the Pirates Party. Just like the government is allowed to spy on us so should we be allowed to spy on them whenever possible

  • TPB
  • we_do_not_tolerate_Axxo

    it has
    *** SCAM ***
    written all over it

  • Anonymous

    Think Canada wins the award for best looking site so far.

  • An

    Australia needs this.

  • John Paul Jones

    Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!

  • Louis

    Socialism: A Shit Story

  • \\.neo.styles|sSG

    Wow,these pirate parties are really popping up all over the place and while I agree with a few of their messages, overall, moral confusion seems to be biggest thing they have in common.

    A few examples :

    [quote]Real property is something that you can touch. In simple terms, if one person possesses it, another person cannot possess it at the same time. Intellectual property is information. If a person makes a copy of a song, the person who owns the original is not deprived of the song.[/quote]
    They just don’t get it do they. There is no “original copy.” The CDs that are sold are copies just the same. Copies are how the music is distrobuted to legitimate, paying customers. Do they really think that the artist makes one “original” copy and rents it out to whoever pays money for their music? Also, aren’t CDs tangible objects too?

    Why don’ they understand the difference between information and creative works. Something you get off of wikipedia, that is information. “DVDs store 8 gigs.” That is information. “AMD makes CPUs.” That is information too. A movie, a piece of software, or a album is creative work. Not even remotely the same thing.

    It gets interesting when they answer questions on copyright
    [quote]We are not against copyright as a concept.[/quote]
    And then they go on to admit that people should be abllowed to download copyrighted works withot contributing a single penny to their creators :

    [quote]We don’t think you should be considered a criminal, so one of our main policies is to decriminalise non-commercial copyright infringement.[/quote]
    So, they are not against copyright, they just support copyright infringement. Just because someone doesn’t earn money off of infrignment doesn’t mean that the creators lose money.

    Honestly, I don’t understand them at all. Although it may seem like a great mystery to them why it is neccesary, creators profiting from their work is crucial. When people download something instead of paying for it, the creator does not profit. Profit fostors creativity. When people complain about the movies or music not being good enough, they should keep in mind what happens when you choose to ignore it’s creators.

    [quote]We don’t believe that prosecuting non-commercial file sharers for copying a song from the 1940s is reasonable, however.[/quote]
    While I think that the lifespan of copyright is a reasonable subject for discussion, is this really the issue? Do they really believe that all the movies that have been rampantly pirated in the last few years are 50 or 60 years old? How about star trek, 2012, inglorious bastards, etc? A song from the 1940s is hardly something we should concern ourselves with because the demand for it is trivial. In contrast, every movie, game, piece of software, and music that has come out during the age of “information freedom” has been a victim of it’s own popularity due to out of control “filesharing.”

    I am going to watch this with great interest. Political freedom is of the utmost importance, but so is profitable business. Will the government have the strength to draw the line and not give in to a bunch of online vigilantes and armchair activists who are trying to change the system into one that revolves around soley themselves?

  • Pharaoh

    Well with the Liberal party in tatters…

  • muhammad kamal

    from cairo / Egypt i support liberal party.

  • I

    One in every country pleez.

  • \\.neo.styles|sSG

    (fixed quotes)

    Wow,these pirate parties are really popping up all over the place and while I agree with a few of their messages, overall, moral confusion seems to be biggest thing they have in common.

    A few examples :

    Real property is something that you can touch. In simple terms, if one person possesses it, another person cannot possess it at the same time. Intellectual property is information. If a person makes a copy of a song, the person who owns the original is not deprived of the song.

    They just don’t get it do they. There is no “original copy.” The CDs that are sold are copies just the same. Copies are how the music is distrobuted to legitimate, paying customers. Do they really think that the artist makes one “original” copy and rents it out to whoever pays money for their music? Also, aren’t CDs tangible objects too?

    Why don’ they understand the difference between information and creative works. Something you get off of wikipedia, that is information. “DVDs store 8 gigs.” That is information. “AMD makes CPUs.” That is information too. A movie, a piece of software, or a album is creative work. Not even remotely the same thing.

    It gets interesting when they answer questions on copyright :

    We are not against copyright as a concept.

    And then they go on to admit that people should be abllowed to download copyrighted works withot contributing a single penny to their creators :

    We don’t think you should be considered a criminal, so one of our main policies is to decriminalise non-commercial copyright infringement.

    So, they are not against copyright, they just support copyright infringement. Just because someone doesn’t earn money off of infrignment doesn’t mean that the creators lose money.

    Honestly, I don’t understand them at all. Although it may seem like a great mystery to them why it is neccesary, creators profiting from their work is crucial. When people download something instead of paying for it, the creator does not profit. Profit fostors creativity. When people complain about the movies or music not being good enough, they should keep in mind what happens when you choose to ignore it’s creators.

    We don’t believe that prosecuting non-commercial file sharers for copying a song from the 1940s is reasonable, however.

    While I think that the lifespan of copyright is a reasonable subject for discussion, is this really the issue? Do they really believe that all the movies that have been rampantly pirated in the last few years are 50 or 60 years old? How about star trek, 2012, inglorious bastards, etc? A song from the 1940s is hardly something we should concern ourselves with because the demand for it is trivial. In contrast, every movie, game, piece of software, and music that has come out during the age of “information freedom” has been a victim of it’s own popularity due to out of control “filesharing.”

    I am going to watch this with great interest. Political freedom is of the utmost importance, but so is profitable business. Will the government have the strength to draw the line and not give in to a bunch of online vigilantes and armchair activists who are trying to change the system into one that revolves around soley themselves?

  • TerribleTony

    Teh pwr of teh interwebs!

    Good to see more pirates laying down their anchor.

  • john doe

    @43…

    While your arguments sound somewhat more reasonable than the usual drivel, your basic logic is quite limited, when not simply wrong.

    First of all, there ARE original copys, of which all CD’s and DVD’s are derived from – the uncompressed ultra-high-quality studio recordings. However, THEY aren’t actually on sale, are they? Instead, we get either “lossless” CD’s or downright crappy MP3′s with ridiculous overpricing. It’s like being fully charged for an A4 POSTER of a Picasso, instead of the real deal.

    Second, the uncommercial copying of, say, VHS tapes, has long been off the hook in terms of copyright infringement. The same goes for CD’s, in case propaganda forgets to mention it. The TAXES paid with each blank media sale already compensate for possible “piracy”, so the industries’ asking for more is nothing but an act of greed, not intended to either protect the artists, nor uphold the ACTUAL LAWS.

    Lastly, like I commented in the “Never Back Down” article, creators rarely if ever gain their money from CD and DVD sales. Singers are paid for LIVE performances (and THESE revenues have recently increased their growth rate), ad contracts etc. , movies gain their profits from cinema goers (also increasing) , and considering the ever-growing game market, games are actually GAINING free publicity from P2P downloads.

    As you can see, political freedom and profitable business aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, if the cards are played right, they are most often mutually SUPPORTIVE. What IS ommited, however, is the “money-for-nothing” policy the industries have exploited for far too long.

  • Mystik

    @43 Neo

    “They just don’t get it do they. There is no “original copy.” The CDs that are sold are copies just the same. Copies are how the music is distrobuted to legitimate, paying customers. Do they really think that the artist makes one “original” copy and rents it out to whoever pays money for their music? Also, aren’t CDs tangible objects too?”

    Most people don’t want or need CD’s any longer. Else why would iTunes be the #1 music reseller.

    The Biggest difference between ‘Tangible’ and ‘Intellectual’ property is in the cost to reproduce it.

    Let’s take an example. A CD Player has costs to produce. It requires commodity priced supplies to produce. If those commodities go higher the cost will go higher. It has a changing cost. The market controls the price, If another company comes out with one and lowers the cost the price for the player will start to fall. The more competition the faster the prices go down and this also creates innovation. Innovative new features in players caused by competition in the marketplace is a very good thing. If the player fails to meet the consumers expectations it can be returned.

    Now let’s look at IP. Okay, we have fixed one-time costs to create the audio tracks. If we refer to CD’s we have a fixed (and always decreasing) cost to produce. Digitally there is the bandwidth cost to get the music to the purchaser but since music tracks are very small the actual cost is very tiny. What drives the prices in the marketplace? The consumer? Nope. There is *no* competition. What the price is on Amazon it is on iTunes. DRM removes the ability to do what consumers want to do with the music further reducing consumer choice. On the CD side once the consumer opens it he/she cannot return it. If the consumers are unhappy with it they are stuck.

    Note: Both have marketing and distribution costs which vary. These costs are generally equal for all products.

    No mater which creative industry we are talking about the principals apply the same. They have removed the standard marketplace pressures and displaced the consumers ability to control what they pay and how they use what they purchased.

    Since it is digital it can be reproduced with virtually zero cost the value of said product decreases dramatically. Why do you think the costs of mass produced items has decreased? The costs to reproduce them has dropped. A factory in China can make tons of screwdrivers for penny’s each and so the end result of that is a lower cost to the consumer. Now some companies take advantage of this. They use lower costs to generate more revenue for the company instead of passing that onto the consumer. Consumers will jump on to any choice that allows them to have control. So the company that thought oooh! more money! will end up losing customers in the end as they go off for the same product from a competitor.

    There has always been sharing of information and culture since the beginning of time. Do you think that cavemen said in order to see our cave drawings you must bring us something of value to trade for the viewing? 2 bison per person! We have the best drawings!

    I do agree with you that Information and Creative expression are two different things. Both have been treated the same way. Since industrialization they have been treated as a commodity instead of being shared for all. Don’t use the library example because you pay for the libraries with taxes so it has a cost as well. With the advances of the internet, Information has been freed from the shackles of print and is being shared by millions of people worldwide. The costs are covered by advertising on the sites. As the costs are lower so is the revenue needed to make it viable.

    Not so long ago if you had a leaky faucet your only choice was to call a plumber to repair it. Now with information available 24/7 a person has no need for that expensive plumber to fix the leaky faucet. Just as we have no need now for shinny plastic discs.

    “[quote]We don’t believe that prosecuting non-commercial file sharers for copying a song from the 1940s is reasonable, however.[/quote]”

    Note: Reply left out for brevity.

    The Pirate Parities goals are going to be the opposite of the extremists. The need arose for someone to speak on behalf of the people who wanted less copyright than the extremists. So the extremists created the minimalists. I do agree it will be interesting to see how it all pans out in the end.

    Really Real Realism

    The companies have forced their will onto people for a long time. Now people have a chance to fight back by sharing with each other. That’s what people are going to do, find an option that is best for them.

    Think about how much dipping goes on within the industry. Pay to see it in the Theatre, pay again for the DVD, Pay again for the BD, pay again for the digital file, eventually pay again for the HD digital file. Who now what to charge you for the ability to make a backup copy, something you are allowed under most copyright laws to do! Let’s do some math on a older movie. $8.00 to see it in the Theatre, $6.00 to rent it before it came to VHS, $10.00 for the VHS tape, $20.00 for the DVD, now $30.00 for the BD, $15.00 for the Digital crippled file. So a person paid the industry $89.00 for 1 (ONE) movie. No other industry would get away with dipping this many times and still be in business after a year. When people see their money going out the window left and right to this industry and then they claim piracy is killing them, then they report record revenues, how does this make a person react?

    Personally I have over 6k movies on VHS/DVD (85/15 split) and I’m not paying anymore for a DVD or BD of what I already own! I just download the SD or HD Digital file from P2P. No more super dipping from my bank account! I also have made 2 purchases of Video from the iTunes store. Once I found out I was limited to the devices it would play on, my $$$ never went there again. With P2P I have no limits, it can play on my iPhone, my TV’s via a 360, PS3 or the 2 Popcorn hour’s.

    Now this choice-less feeling is what has pushed people to P2P. Once they get there they see they can have anything the want, 24/7 within 1-2 days. So why go back to the ‘Super Dippers’? So people are staying with P2P and will stay until a solution can be provided that will give them the freedom to do what they want when they want instead of how someone else wants it.

    In the digital age TV networks, Cable TV channels and anything else is not really needed any longer. They, like the horse & buggy, are obsolete. Why not pay a monthly fee like you do to cable, for all the video and music you want? DRM free? no middlemen taking money, no shinny plastic discs. It would replace Cable & TV Networks with a realistic solution for a higher revenue stream for the studios?

    Never going happen? Why? It is not what they want. It does not give them the same dipping they have been getting for years.

    Ask yourself this question. if a music track cost 0.10 and 1% of the planet paid for it could the artist make a good living? (Not the music industry, the artist). If a movie cost $1.00 and 5% of the planet paid for it would it earn a living for the people involved with making the movie?

    Food for Thought…

  • A nun

    When will people get that pirate parties aren’t about communism for everyone, but for preventing life in a totalitarian like state as neogay and retarded mind openly pine for, where anyone who even dares mis-click once gets cut off from the access to free information for life, monitored in his behavior etc pp.
    We are being more logged, supervised and suspected than ever, all under the guise of international threats, child porn, copyright and whatnot.

    If we don’t stop things from catching on before they get rolling, then 1984 will have to be relabeled 2014. This goes double for Australia where already every other movie or game is being censored/banned as it is.

    It’s about freedom, not just about any single issue. Don’t believe the industry paid-for trolls.

  • John Paul Jones

    Hear, Hear and well said Mystik! Probably one of the best analysis of the situation I’ve seen! What I don’t get is why they can’t see the enormous profit potential of just changing their business plan. Just seems so obvious to me and apparently the rest of file sharers out there.

  • William

    Gogogogo!

  • paula

    Over the years, “Wealthycupid.org” has experienced tremendous success in bringing wealthy singles and their admirers together. It’s the largest dating club for CEOs, pro athletes, doctors, lawyers, investors, entrepreneurs, beauty queens, fitness models, and Hollywood celebrities and their admirers. No exaggeration, no falseness, check it out , you will believe what I have said. You never know who you’ll meet.

  • branty

    I found a HOTTEST interracial club = MixedConnect–*__*–C O M = for black Women and white Men, or black Men and white Women, to interact with each other. Interracial is not a problem here, but a great merit to cherish!

  • flaky

    I found a HOTTEST interracial club =MixedConnect *.* C0M=for black Women and white Men, or black Men and white Women, to interact with each other. Interracial is not a problem here, but a great merit to cherish!

  • saltarlo

    im aussie and it wud be sweet if this got up and going cos i can vote next year and i wud vote for the pirate party

  • cliffsearch

    May be a problem at CRUNULLA…

  • Anonymous

    “You can’t start a party in the US, it’s a two party system.”
    Yes you cant have a third party but you can have a Pirate Lobby!

    They want us to pay even our last penny…

    Aye From Greece!

  • Anonymous

    20$ sent!

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