Of course, the power of the Internet has come to the forefront in recent years and is now widely used as a tool to maintain current supporters and entice fresh blood to the cause.

Right now, Fight for the Future and Personal Democracy Media are using the Internet to encourage netizens to get registered to vote, no matter who for, but not everyone is so neutral.

One organization currently using the web to attract voters to the Republican cause is the American Future Fund organization.

According to Open Secrets, the AFF is a conservative-leaning organization that primarily raises money in support of candidates who back “conservative principles that sustain free market ideals focused on bolstering America’s global competitiveness across the country.”

AFF currently lists seven advertising campaigns on its website, but at least one is missing. Right now, AFF is running an ad campaign on the world’s largest torrent site.

Geo-targeted to visitors from the United States, the AFF campaign consists of a large skyscraper ad on the left hand side The Pirate Bay. Alongside pictures of President Obama from 2008 and 2012, the ad asks people if they are “better off” after four years of “the same speeches”.

So whose funds are sponsoring torrents?

AFF doesn’t disclose its donors but Open Secrets staff discovered three, including the Center to Protect Patients’ Rights who in December last year donated $11,685,000. The sources of CPPR’s donors are shrouded in anonymity (Open Secrets point to a “mystery health care group”) but in 2010 the group pulled in $61.8m.

Despite the controversial nature of The Pirate Bay, there can be little doubt that AFF will reach millions of potential voters with their ad campaign, but whether this is what they intended remains to be seen. Last week the Canadian government were quick to disassociate themselves from a campaign they inadvertently ran on The Pirate Bay.

Or maybe, just maybe, AFF’s ad agency realizes that advertising on The Pirate Bay will not only reach millions, but will be cost effective too.

Due to the site’s reputation, advertising there comes cheaper than some people might think. And with the New York Times revealing in 2010 that AFF won 76 percent of their House and Senate races making it the most successful big-spending Republican-leaning group, it’s possible that getting the most bang for their bucks naturally involves torrents these days.

TorrentFreak asked AFF if it does, and we’ll post an update once we’ve received a response.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Thus far the United States Government has kept relatively quiet on this issue, but that doesn’t mean that such plans are not being discussed behind close doors.

According to Ari Emanuel, a famous Hollywood talent agent and the model for the character Ari Gold in the hit series Entourage, Hollywood lobbyists are working hard to convince President Obama and others to ram through similar legislation in the United States.

“We are in the midst of talking to the president and some attorney generals and [we are] trying to implement a three strikes and you’re out rule,” Emanuel said, while adding that this issue would most likely result in a “fight with ISPs”.

At this point it is impossible to assess the exact nature of these talks, but since Ari Emanuel is the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, there is no doubt that these talks are taken seriously. President Obama, who vouched to decrease the power of lobbyists in Washington, is not turning a deaf ear to this one for now.

Before even considering the implementation of a three-strikes model, United States lawmakers might want to take a good look at what’s happening in France. Unlike earlier projections that up to 95% of the file-sharers could stop downloading copyrighted content, the piracy rate has actually increased in the face of the new law.

The entertainment industry, nevertheless, continues to push legislation as the solution to online piracy, while ignoring their own role in the creation of the problem.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

However, with the decision to choose Joe Biden as VP, many worried that with his ties to copyright lobby groups, he would influence things to further increase the reach of already-draconian laws. Despite this, he was endorsed by both Lawrence Lessig, and the US Pirate Party, with the former’s wife even campaigning for him.

After his election he wasted little time in establishing a ‘transition’ website at change.gov. However, to the dismay of some, the copyright notices were as draconian as ever. That has all changed now, though, as the site embraces Creative Commons, opting for CC-BY. While Obama is not exactly a stranger to Creative Commons licensing – his flickr photos are under a CC BY-NC-SA license – it is no small step to go from photo album to entire website.

What does this mean for copyright? Well, as Creative Commons themselves point out in their blog, the group behind change.gov is not a part of the government – yet. It’s a non-profit organization, so could (and did) fill the site with copyright notices. Yet, that a Creative Commons license has been embraced by the President-Elect means good things. Most importantly, that the President has knowledge of less-restrictive copyright methods, and first-hand experience that not only do they work, but that the sky doesn’t fall down when they are used, cannot hurt. That the license chosen was, in Lessig’s words, the ‘freest license’ is more encouraging still.

One can only hope that when the likes of the RIAA and MPAA come to talk about further strengthening copyright, he turns around and says, “I’ve been using these great CC licenses, have you heard of them?” Regardless, it’s a great boost to Creative Commons, as they prepare to celebrate their sixth birthday.

TorrentFreak articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Andrew Norton, a spokesperson of the US Pirate Party told TorrentFreak: “We believe in democracy, and progress. Since we are not putting forward a candidate of our own, we stand solidly behind Mr. Obama, as he is the only candidate that seems to realize that personal privacy is a right, not a privilege, and believes that copyright is, as the constitution defines, for progress, rather than profit.”

Mr. Obama clearly understands the important role that the Internet plays in delivering information and communications in general according to the US Pirate Party. A great example of this is the speech he gave at the at the Google campus where he said, “I will take a backseat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality.” He later told TechCrunch: “I will prevent network providers from discriminating in ways that limit the freedom of expression on the Internet.” So, no BitTorrent blocking if it was up to Obama, sorry Comcast.

Don’t want to trust on the Pirate Parties? You can do a votematch here if you’re tired of all the campaign commercials and want to base your decision on what the candidates actually stand for.

Note: all Ron Paul comments will be censored ;)

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.