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Pirate Party Canada Starts a BitTorrent Tracker

Canada has had its very own Pirate Party for a few months now. The party is currently trying to get federal approval, a goal that should be achieved in the coming week. In the meantime the party’s members haven’t been sitting still and today sees the launch of their very own BitTorrent tracker.

pirate party canadaThe Canadian Pirate Party is one of the youngest Pirate Parties around but they are not too shy to make a statement. Today the party has launched a BitTorrent tracker of their own.

By starting a BitTorrent tracker the Pirates hope to show that BitTorrent and filesharing are not a threat, but a great tool for artists to promote their work.

“We’re starting a BitTorrent tracker to show artists how to properly use P2P technology in order to gain access to a cheap and efficient marketing and distribution network,” Pirate Party spokesman Jake Daynes told TorrentFreak.

“In addition we hope to show the public that P2P is not only for ‘illegal’ activity, and that it can be used to allow aspiring artists access to the global stage. A tracker is the epitome of filesharing, and one of our platform ‘planks’ as it were, is about the promotion of filesharing,” Jake added.

The Canadian Pirate Party is using RivetTracker‘s tracker software and they will be featuring content from artists who release their work under a Creative Commons license.

In the future the Party hopes to add more content to the tracker though. “Right now it is only artists, though we hope to include a lot more CC material. If an artist would like to submit their work, they can email it to us with their info, and we will host it,” Jake told TorrentFreak.

Currently there are just a few releases on the tracker, but the Party hopes that this will grow exponentially in the weeks to come. If you’re Canadian and you want to support the Pirate Party you can do so by signing up for a free membership.

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  • moep

    nize

  • dude

    coolio eh?

  • GrX

    Great to see new legal uses of this distrobution system springing up

    Each pirate party across the world should do the same thing.

    oh and if you think rivertracker is good wait till you see a brand new tracker script that’s soon to be released,

    congrats for their members not just sitting back but actually getting involved physically in something that everyone can get their teeth into.

  • Canuck

    Go Canada!!

  • enter8

    A ‘pirate’ party that condemns ‘illegal’ filesharing? WTF!?! What’s next, a stripper that doesn’t take her clothes off?

    The pirate party’s primary purpose is to challenge draconian copyright laws and promote filesharing of EVERY kind. I don’t care if they’re creative commons or not, no political party should be spending their time promoting artists.

    I know Canada can be pretty unfriendly to P2P, but that doesn’t mean that this new organization has to be completely spineless.

    Yeesh! Grow a pair, people!

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  • Widget

    May I suggest copying everything over from Hexagon’s CC group?

  • michael8124

    Woot i’m #63.

    I wonder how long it will take for the big record companies to fight this and try to get the tracker shut down. This is a big step to promote independent artists, instead of artists tied down to corporate dicks who sue people on behalf of the artists without the artists even knowing someone is sued on their behalf, or even having a say in the matter.

  • http://www.eZee.se www.eZee.se

    Good luck Canada!

    The more “legal” content out on BT the better.

  • SirReal

    I think that this is very good, you have to realize that the more legal content there is on P2P, the more peoples perception of P2P will change.

  • GrX

    Enter8:

    they are just doing something legal with a protocol system that is and has been tared with the illigal to use brush.

    i think it’s great they are giving artists a way for their fans to discover them just showing and proving the point that filesharing does not hurt if anything it’s saving millions of pounds/dollars in advertising and getting their stuff out free of charge to millions of people who never knew they existed.

    they had to do something so why not this? everyones happy the artists are happy, the users listening are happy, anything to anoy the corporate industry and stick it up their asses i’m all for.

    i’m glad they are killing 2 birds with 1 stone while promoting the legal use of filesharing they are also showing how to promote content users content.

    win win win win they are the ones with balls , balls enough to fight in court for rights on stupid copyright laws while getting people around the world to support them

    i’m from the uk and supprise to me finally a service in the usa that i can use without being smacked with stupid neo geo restrictions all the time.

    yes i know canadians dont like to be called american’s just pointing out the fact usa or places over there always have restrictions for people in the uk.

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  • Anonymous

    well, I’ll atleast contribute them some bandwidth while im at it :-)

  • JakeDaynes

    Hello everybody,

    Thanks for the show of support, and a shoutout to TorrentFreak for the article.

    At current we don’t have many artists, mainly due to the rush in which we pushed this out. If anybody would like to put their own music or any other CC material(Books, tutorials, whatnot) they can email me directly at JakeDaynes@PirateParty.com

    Sincerely,
    Jake Daynes
    Marketing and Public Relations Director
    Proud Member of the Pirate Party of Canada

  • Oneismany

    Personally I think P2P and maybe even bittorrent itself would be a useful tool for online voting – distributing tallies simultaneously across a shared network to bolster data redundancy and prevent vote counting fraud.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, they have Internet up there in Canada?

  • 4nd

    Awesome move, Pirate Party Canada.

    I have a suggestion for you.

    http://www.jamendo.com

    That’s a website that hosts music released under Creative Commons licenses by the artists. They have nearly 25k albums on their servers. You could possibly look into getting in contact with them and seeing whether you could host some of their music. I know they have a tracker but nobody ever seeds; I’ve always had to download via HTTP, though I’d rather use BitTorrent.

    Just a suggestion. Keep fighting the good fight. ^^

  • k

    Note that many of the dominant forces in the Pirate Party of Canada seem to have some fundamental misunderstanding about what the pirate movement stands for, and are actually opposed to piracy.

    The way some serious questions have been addressed by those in control of the party is also rather disturbing (threatening and actually kicking out pro-piracy members, starting votes to decide the principles of the party and then calling them off after voting had started when certain people didn’t like the results, etc.)

    Just some things people should keep in mind when thinking about the PPoC.

  • Reasoned Mind

    All CC content? Excellent.

  • Cujo

    we can share more ,, cool

  • .neo.styles|nvDX

    I doubt the artist would appreciate the exposure when they were neither asked for permission or payed for their work.

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  • Jimmy

    I will vote for this party in the next election, and would for-sure volunteer to go canvassing if they run a candidate in Windsor-East, so long as there’s no danger of a Conservative or Liberal party candidate getting the seat. If our local NDP member (Joe Comartin) is in danger of losing to a Con or Lib I’d have to strategically vote for him again though.

    It’s too bad they didn’t form this party with a different name. The name is going to limit them.

  • Bluneon

    Thing is. . .CC needs to be the new defacto standard. All of us creating new music, kick~ass games, books, art, etc. instead of being held hostage by the MAFIAA. It is the best way to take back control of our content, and screw the industry at the same time. And it”s completely legal!

  • Anonymous

    Way to go Canada! Education as to why P2P is so incredibly beneficial is an excellent step forward! Guns were NOT created with illegal use in mind. Neither were cars, VCR’s, baseball bats, explosives, computers, balaclava’s, knives and a zillion other things. That includes Bittorrent. Technology isn’t something to be feared but embraced.

  • Dar

    Quit saying the pirate party doesn’t support piracy, they do

    “In turn, we want to adjust copyright for consumers to make private, non-commercial copying of content legal. This will promote artists and help spread culture farther than ever before.”

  • michael8124

    @20

    “It’s too bad they didn’t form this party with a different name. The name is going to limit them.”

    Look on the bright side.At least they don’t call themselves The Butt Pirate Party. With all the Pirate Parties popping up all over the world, we are going to beat these copyright Ferengis at their own game, by entering politics, as that is what they use to force their strict rules down our throats. We file sharers are like Klingons. If they try to silence us, we will die in battle and with great honor.

  • basement dweller

    Any private use should be legalized, such as music on home videos and making your own remixes of songs or editing existing video!

  • Joder

    Go Canada!

    Super idea right there!

  • steve

    About as purposeful as a wet dishcloth. Pretty much what you would expect.

    Compare with the Swedish/ UK approach and you get a sense of national attitudes. Here in Europe people have actually got off their arses and hosted all material. In canada they pussy foot around pretending to be pirates when all they are sharing is freebies.

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  • bluber

    canada sucks balls

    just kiding , but really SUCK MY BALLS CANADA

  • prodigydancer

    Go Canada!

  • Aaron

    I have to agree with some of the above posters that said that, in short, this act is pretty pointless. If they really wanted to do something they would host a tracker like OpenTracker. Isn’t there a protocol for all those trackers to mirror each others databases? That would be something. This is just another place for new musicians to put their stuff. Nothing wrong with that, except that there are already lots of those. Kind of hard to make a statement when you’re just doing something that’s already been done, and done, and done…

  • Stephan

    Witj a name like Pirate Party, It will not only be pointless but will bring attention to it and finally be pressured by the States to legislate on it.

  • evvtt

    I just downloaded the Y2hlen album =)
    chiptune 8bit

  • charlies

    very nice! can’t wait to get on the site, I agree with stephan above, a name like Pirate Party, it will not only be pointless but will bring attention to it and finally be pressured by the States to legislate on it. but I think it will ultimately be shutdown.

    ~
    charlie
    http://blog.eightforums.com

  • The Damascian

    soon you’ll have a Syrian tracker …here in my country Syria copyright means shit to us LMFAO

    Pirates for Ever,Never shall we die

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  • personne

    Know a bit about these guys, they are totally disorganized glory seekers. Same old blaming old people for all their problems (meanwhile look at all the young wankers), they’re the most digital party and they insist on an offline inner circle without full disclosure. They’ve got their own disjointed cms, wiki, blogs, forums, just like every other party, couldn’t figure out anything more progressive, and can’t agree what they are in any consensus way. And they start their own tracker that fragments the value of bittorrent. What a waste of some good hype.

  • TrollLogic

    @5

    “A ‘pirate’ party that condemns ‘illegal’ filesharing? WTF!?! What’s next, a stripper that doesn’t take her clothes off?”

    The point is to convert the todays supposedly illegal status back to legal again. That’s why. Hence, illegal filesharing is bad, legal is good, get it?

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  • canadagirl

    yes! i finally have a party i can vote for!!

    pirates forever

  • United Hackers Association

    “not only for illegal activity” from there mouths and that comes RIGHT form the guy that infiltrated them form the get go a cbc shill buddy, and ya know hes got hollywood buds too. AND i practically labeled these NOOBS ANTI-P2p for 4 days until they recanted. NOW they are going the other way again perhaps they need ot know that we have a BLANK MEDIA LEVY
    for all the so called illegal stuff that holly wood gets paid off for.

    AM I the criminal for being smart and paying 26.6 cents per cd where you twits pay 10.00+

    HEH were better off without this go no where party and we need more radical goals like ending lobbying and reduction of copyright to no less then 12 years.

    Canada already has effective counterfeiting laws, and i’ll add we have laws against cams so whats the big deal.

    Go ask them if there position is the same as fair copyright for Canada that failed miserably in the end ( have a look its a face book mess).
    Go ask them if they support p2p. Hollywood will not support it and if you are you might as well go all the way and become real pirates.

    Makes me sick that a pirate party would call p2p downloading of music and tv and other stuff , illegal. Shows you how much they know about stuff.

  • United Hackers Association

    also go see how many so called marketing students they appear to have and how few actual pirates joined that so called mess , it might as well call it self FOR.DMCA

  • United Hackers Association

    @36 you win the idiot of the day award, seriously go there join up and ask about stuff , you will quickly see why i left

    why then it took them 3 months to get past 56 signatures when i have 1000 members that would have signed up to help out.

    YOU will see why i called them anti p2p for 4 days on the uha1.com website
    and then they recanted.

    YOU will see why they have a ISP in quebec from one of the very telcoms that would see us have a 3 strikes law.

    YOU WILL SEE
    YOU WILL SEE

  • trancefreak

    I’m from Denmark, but:

    canada <3

  • Warez Liberation Front

    This isn’t a bittorrent tracker, it’s a hideously designed website for downloading a handful of free MP3s set up by an anti-piracy organization masquerading as a legitimate Pirate Party.

  • diarRIAA

    Kinda odd that it’s a private tracker for legit content. Defeats the purpose of being a tracker run by a pirate group.

  • TheDoubtfullTroll

    @19 .neo.styles|nvDX

    ‘I doubt the artist would appreciate the exposure when they were neither asked for permission or payed for their work.’

    Yeah, what artist, or content creator, would appreciate exposure, even without getting a pay check for the ‘orrible exposure?

    Yep, cost free exposure is bad for business in your world apparently. But,

    for the rest, it kinda tends to be a good thing, that pays off big time.

  • Canadian 4 life

    I’m Canadian and I think this party and tracker idea is pointless and stupid. Like No.35 post said, they are just glory seekers.

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  • parrrty

    I hope they call the tracker pirateparty.com

  • moa

    come on world,
    stand up !!!

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  • Johnny the Hund

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  • tazmanian devil

    @38, @39, @40. Chronoss take your meds. You’re terrible at concealing anything; not much of a hacker lol. Do yourself a favor and pick up some new names.

    I was one of the first to donate to said pirate party and I support this decision.

  • k

    @49 tazmanian devil: What decision? The PPoC could not even decide on how to tie their shoelaces even if their lives depended on it.

    And the degree of paranoia and attempts to blame a single person (oh, wait, two persons?) for all the ‘dissent’ (ie., the demands that the party stand for actually something worth a shit). You guys sure are taking this ego trip real seriously.

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  • Mr. Briggs

    @ people who are saying that this Pirate Party is trying to bend towards the industry (especially you, @5 enter8):

    Stop being such hardasses. Please. This party is trying to further your cause by legally making a point that BitTorrent and open distribution can help artists in the long run.

    And what do you do? You attack them outright for not supporting the “illegal” activity as well.

    Well, really, I don’t think they do support “illegal” activity either, but only because they want to make it legal. And to do that, they need to prove their point first.

    And “Canada is unfriendly to P2P”? Give me a break. We are one of the most look-the-other-way-when-it-comes-to-illegal-filesharing countries in the frigging world.

    @27 (steve):

    Here in Europe people have actually got off their arses and hosted all material.

    And that’s exactly why those European countries’ plights are turned a blind eye by the MAFIAA, if you shall so call it. The “MAFIAA” think that those European countries’ actions are illegal. But they have nothing on those Canadian people who are trying to make their own voice.

    We’ll see how this turns out.

    In the meantime…

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  • Martym8

    Is it for or against P2P?

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