The Pirate Party of Canada Is Official 430
wasme writes "The Pirate Party of Canada has become the first Pirate Party outside of Europe to become an official political party. Elections Canada confirmed with the party that the PPCA has gained 'eligible for registration' status, and can run in elections starting June 14. From the PPCA's official announcement: 'We are pleased to announce that as of April 12, 2010, the Pirate Party of Canada is officially eligible for Party Status. After 10 months of dedication and hard work, we have reached eligible status, which only leaves a 60-day "purgatory" period. After that, we will field candidates in subsequent federal elections, and begin the real work of a political party.'"
Reation from Big Media / Big Patents to this ... ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Have there been any reactions from Big Media / Big Patents to this? Their strategy in the past has been to label these folks as common criminals when lobbying governments.
How do they swallow the fact that the Pirate Parties are now taking a legal and official route to copyright reform?
Have they issued any formal statements?
Maybe with more Pirates sailing the seas of governments, we will finally get information about what this super-secretive ACTA thing is all about.
I can't say if I am for or against the ACTA . . . because I don't know the details.
I do have a problem with so-called democracies sealing international treaties, while keeping their citizens (subjects) in the dark.
New name... (Score:3, Interesting)
Although the "Pirate Party" is a good name to get some publicity in these early hours, I believe that on the long term a new name must be found which reflects the main issues the party stands for.
Pirate can be changed into Privacy - still a P, so not such a change.
But I would run with this name for the next months or even years.
History will look upon the pirate parties... (Score:5, Interesting)
...not as extreme promoters of the abolition of copyright, but the catalyst that led the eventual restoration of copyright as a tool to promote cultural innovation, instead of hampering it.
I can dream, can't I? :)
Re:New name... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Serving two masters (Score:2, Interesting)
He compares the PP to the International Socialist Org. I think his *real* problem is that he's rabidly against all that even slightly fetters corporate power due to his blind hatred of anything that smells like socialism. I wonder if he can spell "McCarthyism".
Re:Needs a better name (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Reation from Big Media / Big Patents to this .. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Pirate parties should rename themselves (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree. However, forming single-issue political parties is generally a "bad thing". Pushing as hard as you can on a single issue and ignoring the rest of the world is ok when you are a non-governmental pressure group but not when your goal is to be in the government. If you think that is unrealistic in case of the pirate parties, take a look at crazy coalitions in some European countries where parties with 0.5% of the vote are actually represented in the government and able to influence things way beyond their mandate since their limited platform allows them to trade support on all kinds of issues in exchange for their favorite issue. Canada doesn't have a proportional system so it's not as much of a problem there.
Do not need (Score:4, Interesting)
What we need is a party to split the right. I would be happier to see a pro-intellectual property, family values, pry gun from cold dead hands, anti-abortion, anti-gay rights party announce, something that could siphon votes away from the Conservatives.
Hey, Preston, how's about giving that Reform thing another whirl?
Re:History will look upon the pirate parties... (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think that dream is so far from reality.
Re:Serving two masters (Score:2, Interesting)
I want to add the crucial detail of it saying “gold”. Not “dollars”. This is intentional.
The whole economic crisis didn’t happen for those, who had their money in gold. Its value remained stable. Or in other words: Rose dramatically compared to the dollar.
Now they just have to sell it, to buy that cheap cheap dollar, and they have extreme profits, bought with our labor.
Now guess who had the gold during that time... yup, the very people that caused it in the first place.
And now the rule-making part starts. ...What is marketed by political sock puppets as “Yeah, well, because of the economic crisis, we will make this law worse, and you have to work harder or be fired there, etc...”
Re:Pirate parties should rename themselves (Score:1, Interesting)
So? If all people care about is one issue, to the extent that they're prepared to vote for a single-issue party, then why shouldn't that count for something? It's up to the other parties to decide if they want to compromise in exchange for support or not. If anyone should be criticized it's them.
Not to mention that at least the Green parties started in the same way, and by the time they entered government coalitions their scope had been broadened significantly.
Re:Pirate parties should rename themselves (Score:3, Interesting)
Canada doesn't have a proportional system so it's not as much of a problem there.
We instead have the problem where if you have less than 15% of the vote, unless you're a single issue party dedicated to one region like the Bloc, you have no power at all (see: Green party). I prefer having actual democracy to cycling back and forth between two major parties as soon as the current one does too many things you don't like.
Re:Oh great... (Score:1, Interesting)
I don't buy it. Yes, there is the potential fragmentation of the vote.
I'm a socialist and I haven't voted Liberal or NDP for well over 12 years, federally or provincially. I have been voting Conservative and Green. The former to "spite" the Liberals and NDP, not because my inclination is towards the centre-right. Since the Green party has been on the ballot, I've been pretty much voting for them.
I don't vote for which party that may win. I vote for the party that closely represents my values and/or addresses my concerns. Honestly, I may actually vote for the Pirate Party in the next election if they have a rep in my riding. It depends on your priorities.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS: VOTE!!! Always, even if you destroy the ballot. Let them see that you're a registered voter.
Re:Oh great... (Score:3, Interesting)
...You're only making copyright reform HARDER...
Copyright reform isn't happening, at least in the right direction, so no loss there.
How about only having 1 party? That'd guarantee total power. No fragmentation here, no siree...
Re:Pirate parties should rename themselves (Score:2, Interesting)
However, forming single-issue political parties is generally a "bad thing".
... are actually represented in the government and able to influence things way beyond their mandate since their limited platform allows them to trade support on all kinds of issues in exchange for their favorite issue.
Regarding the single-issue political parties look at life-cycle of the "green movement" wave since 80th of last century. I can not speak for outside EU, but in the European area they started as single-issue political parties and, even recognizing several unlucky excesses, they grow into mature "full hearted" political parties. After bringing the issue into top politics and getting the worse problems and threats solved parliamentarian way, the social push on the issue faded and the same faded the share of green parties in the parliaments. I thing this is fair and beneficiary to all.
Actually I see big parallel of the pirate movement with the green movement. Just think about these similarities:
* Parties established by "non-professional" politics, as the "last resort" to save the really big troubles ahead, which importance part of society oversees and the other does not believe is avoidable due to politicians. And politicians, pushed by big money interests, taking decisions which moves all closer and closer to some hardly reversible cataclysm (yes, the big nature disasters (greens tried to avoid) and big public riots (pirates tries to avoid) are similarly deadly in my opinion).
* Laughed at the beginning due its told naivety and inadequate program.
* Surprisingly flooding parliaments in the above-single-state areas once society realizes the issue seriousness and gets believe in the possibility of change.
However there is one major (positive) difference, which should be noted:
About a half of European pirate parties has "opened government" (meaning absolute and uncensored access not only to outputs, but to any internal background information for any government decision for all citizens) and "direct democracy" (meaning replacement of the old parliamentary government system, necessary when all decision makers had to confer at the same point in space and when fastest transport were horse riding, by some system allowing more direct and unbiased participation of everybody's opinion on the decisions taken, based on modern technical means) in their programs. I hope this point will spread into the whole pirate movement and in such case I forecast even longer life-cycle and bigger importance to pirate movement than the green one had.
Pushing as hard as you can on a single issue and ignoring the rest of the world is ok when you are a non-governmental pressure group but not when your goal is to be in the government.
Absolutely agreed. Just i would like to present "closer scale" look into the pirate party, Czech Pirate Party this case (preparing for its first parliament votes this June).
I myself was part of the "silent majority", voting different parties, not loyalty based but program and party history based. I was never (and still I am not) member of any politician party. However I proudly became "registered supporter" of the CPP once I noticed, they have this status along to the full regular party membership. This status requires same member fees as the full membership and grants you full access to all internal forums and meetings, however your votes are counted separately and are treated just as recommendations. However this sense of detail shows, what I think is typical for pirates movement: technocratic, sophisticated and theory of systems based ruling mechanisms. Why I like this status is, that it allows you to judge the party before eventually becoming full member and as such to have your name forever associated with it some way.
However I can say from my experience (and I did get access to internal forums of several, various oriented, politic parties before) the
Re:From that infernal nonsense Pinafore . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, I wanted to pick something written by and about Canadians. Plus you have the rhythm and rhyme scheme all wrong. This is a better version:
"In short, in matters digital, downloadable and musical,
I am the very model of a modern copy criminal."
Re:Oh great... (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't speak for Canada, but "Voting for the lesser evil so that 'The Other Guy(tm)' doesn't get elected" is half the reason the US political system is the shithole it is right now. Nothing saddens me quite like people dredging up this tired old line to oppose the formation of new political parties, and getting modded up for their trouble.
Other issues? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm all for this, but based on my "admittedly limited" exposure, it seems that the only issues that the Pirate Party have ever really talked about much are copyright issues. No qualms there, I'm all for that, but do they have an official stance on anything OTHER than copyright?
Re:Congratulations (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:From that infernal nonsense Pinafore . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
They call it theft for reasons that are quite clearly subliminal
In order to support a business model that's primordial
Infringement is a civil matter, extortion is criminal
But they push legislation that will kill our highway digital
And so we need a party that will argue antithetical
In order to preserve our freedoms we hold indispensable
So I say welcome to the party that is dubbed piratical
You'll get my vote election time lest Bob Rae joins your ensemble!
Re:And now for their party theme song (Score:3, Interesting)
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate - Arrogant Worms/Captain Tractor/Brad Johner
I used to be a farmer, and I made a living fine,
I had a little stretch of land along the CP line
But times were hard and though I tried, the money wasn't there
And the bankers came and took my land and told me "fair is fair"
I looked for every kind of job, the answer always no
"Hire you now?" they'd always laugh, "we just let twenty go!"
The government, the promised me a measly little sum
But I've got too much pride to end up just another bum.
Then I thought, who gives a damn if all the jobs are gone?
I'm gonna be a PIRATE on the river Saskatchewan!
And it's a heave-ho, hi-ho, comin' down the plains
Stealin' wheat and barley and all the other grains
It's a ho-hey, hi-hey farmers bar yer doors
When ya see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores
Well, you'd think the local farmers would know that I'm at large
But just the other day I found an unprotected barge
I snuck up right behind them and they were none the wiser,
I rammed their ship and sank it and I stole their fertilizer!
A bridge outside of Moose Jaw spans a mighty river
Farmers cross in so much fear their stomachs are a'quiver
Cause they know that Captain Tractor's hidin' in the bay
I'll jump the bridge and knock them cold and sail off with their hay!
And it's a heave-ho, hi-ho, comin' down the plains
Stealin' wheat and barley and all the other grains
It's a ho-hey, hi-hey farmers bar yer doors
When ya see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores
Well, Mountie Bob he chased me, he was always at my throat
He followed on the shoreline cause he didn't own a boat
But cutbacks were a'coming and the Mountie lost his job
So now he's sailing with us, and we call him Salty Bob!
A swingin' sword, a skull and bones and pleasant company
I never pay my income tax and screw the GST (SCREW IT!!)
Sailin down to Saskatoon, the terror of the seas
If you wanna reach the co-op, boy, you gotta get by me!
Cause it's a heave-ho, hi-ho, comin' down the plains
Stealin' wheat and barley and all the other grains
It's a ho-hey, hi-hey farmers bar yer doors
When ya see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores
(*spoken* Arrrr! Ya salty dog!)
(*spoken* Arrrr! Ya salty gopher!)
(*spoken* Arr.. ya.. salty bale of hay!)
Well, Pirate life's appealing but you just don't find it here,
I hear in North Alberta there's a band of buccaneers
They roam the Athabaska from Smith to Fort McKay
And you're gonna lose your Stetson if you have to pass their way!
Well, winter is a'comin' and a chill is in the breeze
My Pirate days are over once the river starts to freeze
I'll be back in springtime but now I have to go
I hear there's lots of plunderin' down in New Mexico!
Cause it's a heave-ho, hi-ho, comin' down the plains
Stealin' wheat and barley and all the other grains
It's a ho-hey, hi-hey farmers bar yer doors
When ya see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores...x2
When ya see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores...x2
Re:Serving two masters (Score:1, Interesting)
It's called the "golden rule" - he who has the gold, makes the rules.
You know, I was just thinking about that bastardization this truth yesterday. I've actually met a couple younger guys who did not know the origin of "The Golden Rule" - the ethic of reciprocity (treat others as you would have them treat you) - they actually believed the golden rule referred to money and power. Mention the golden rule in public somewhere, and odds are very good that you will hear your joke, only. Is that single notion of tolerance no longer part of the public education process?