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Australia Piracy Politics

Pirate Party Becomes a Registered Political Party In Australia 122

Posted by samzenpus from the yo-ho-ho dept.
First time accepted submitter norpy writes "The Australian branch of the pirate party has today announced that their registration as a political party has been successful. According to the announcement the party will now turn its attention to selection of candidates and development of policies for the upcoming federal election. 'Organising and validating a membership database to then submit to the AEC for the purposes of registration is a daunting task. Fortunately, we had a team of volunteers who were prepared to spend many weekends ensuring that the list we sent to the AEC was entirely valid, and I thank them for their effort,' said Brendan Molloy, Secretary of Pirate Party Australia."
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Pirate Party Becomes a Registered Political Party In Australia More

Pirate Party Becomes a Registered Political Party In Australia

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  • Same in Norway. (Score:5, Informative)

    by p43751 ( 170402 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @05:17AM (#42645443)

    The Norwegian Pirateparty got enough signatures andis also now a legal party that will be in the 2013 election.

    • ... the kids running it might realise that adults who have to work for a living have more important things to worry about than whether they can download music and video for free. You know, minor things like healthcare, education, the economy etc etc...

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        ... the kids running it might realise that adults who have to work for a living have more important things to worry about than whether they can download music and video for free. You know, minor things like healthcare, education, the economy etc etc...

        By the time healthcare becomes an issue for that generation they'll be able to download pirated plans for medical droids off the internet and print them out on their 3D printers. I'm also pretty sure that by then uploading knowledge directly into your brain will have become a reality. As for 'mainstream economics', these will have been superseded by Warcraft economics and we'll all be able to support ourselves by mining for bitcoins online.

      • They'll get votes (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Because there's no difference between any of the candidates and therefore the only reason to vote for ANY of them is for single issue elements.

        And if there's a close election where a seat was won or lost by a thousand votes, TPP getting several thousand votes will show where either one can make a difference. If those votes had gone to THEM, they'd have won.

        PS why can't you download public domain music and video for free? And where do you get your free interenet access from?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

          PS why can't you download public domain music and video for free? And where do you get your free interenet access from?

          Here [archive.org] is your free public domain library, and you can get free internet access via wi-fi at a lot of places; bars, McDonalds, Laundromats, etc. Often there are private persons who deliberately leave their systems open as well.

      • So, which party do you recommend that has an "adult" focus and aren't just a bunch of liars?

      • Or maybe they are already mature enough to realise it's not about downloading music and video for free but rather about mankinds future.

        You know, minor things like freedom, innovation and mankinds future survival in the long run.

        All our progress so far has been dependant on refining things already done, and when the patent system stops this rather than helping it might mean that in the future we will get less innovation -> human will devolvle and die.

        (And we will also get less music, film and other cultu

        • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

          by Viol8 ( 599362 )

          "Or maybe they are already mature enough to realise it's not about downloading music and video for free but rather about mankinds future."

          LOL :o) Oh please, spare me the feeble self justifying party line that people like you spout

          "You know, minor things like freedom, innovation and mankinds future survival in the long run."

          Didn't you just say that? Or have you run out of argument already?

          "All our progress so far has been dependant on refining things already done,"

          Not everything , and whats that got to do wi

          • You know, when Disney makes a re-spin of "a Christmas carol", they are using something in the public domain to create something "new", that's good, but then they buy the politicians to make sure they never have to give it back to the public domain, that's not good (for anyone except Disney's shareholders, and not them either).

            When General Motors patents for example battery technology and uses it, not for doing anything themselves, but suing everybody who tries to make something that's bad.

            The copyright/pate

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Viol8 ( 599362 )

              "and it's much much more important than the media maffios wallets you seem to be protecting."

              Oh right, I disagree with your point of view so obviously I must be working for The Man.

              Grow up.

              • That's something you inferred yourself, I just said you seem to be protecting the media maffia, I don't know why, that you are paid by them is something you yourself said.

                "Grow up" is obviously something you use as an insult when arguments fail.

                I'm probably more "grown up" than you (think) both physically and mentally, since I have thought this through and don't think it's about "downloading music for free" that you seem to think it's a question what kind of society we want. A society that rewards invention

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by Viol8 ( 599362 )

                  "that you are paid by them is something you yourself said."

                  Err, care to cut and paste where I said that?

                  "I'm probably more "grown up" than you (think) both physically and mentally,"

                  Boasting about physical prowess is something teenagers tend to do. Well done on proving my point.

                  "I'm for the artists, inventors and a free society and against the media maffia, copyright trolls/abusers and people who want's to create a repressive society. Simple as that."

                  If you had a clue what copyright actually was I might list

                  • "Oh right, I disagree with your point of view so obviously I must be working for The Man."

                    There you go.

                    I wasn't boasting about physical prowess, just saying I'm probably more "grown up" than you but in years and mentally. Yelling "Grow up!" is something teenagers do or at least something people without other arguments do.

                    Let's just see the fact that you havn't argued against any of my points, just tried personal attacks again and again. So, it's quite clear that you don't know what you are talking about and

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by Viol8 ( 599362 )

                      "There you go."

                      Google "sarcasm".

                      "but in years and mentally. "

                      No mature adults equates file sharing with the future of mankind. That type of hyperbolic exaggeration is strictly the province of lunatics and squawking adolescents.

                      "Yelling "Grow up!" is something teenagers do or at least something people without other arguments do."

                      Actually its something parents do to kids. I've done it quite a few times. No reason not to use it on here when I see the same sort of rubbish being spouted.

                      "you can lead a horse to

  • Decisions, decisions... (Score:3, Funny)

    by sd4f ( 1891894 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @05:28AM (#42645489)
    Shooters party, pirate party and KAP, now i need to make a decision! Good thing we have preferential voting, looks like i'm going to have to number below the line for the table cloth vote.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It hurts knowing valid or invalid vote, the turkeys who get in get 'electoral funding money' of about $2.50 per vote (each house). So I will put the nutter parties first, in the hope some of the electoral funding does NOT come to the majors. I may even have to join, so if challenged, the kook party really does have that many members.

      The policy should be to decriminalize a tort, ie copyright, and criminalize shake down operations and computer trespass, privacy violations, transmission of information in bre

  • rms on pirate party (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pirate-party [gnu.org]

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by c0lo ( 1497653 )

      In my mind, any software that does not evolve for 5 years is either:
      a. complete - so that nobody is hurt by inclusion in a commercial software - the original still exists (anyone stupid enough to use it as sold by a party instead of taking it from the public domain is paying the stupidity tax)
      b. dead prematurely - as in "incomplete but with no maintainers" - in which case too small chances to be revived in open source.

      So, how's open source movement losing from a copyright reduced to 5 years?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rjr162 ( 69736 )

        I think RMS forgot all about the fact each year/change/update would be a new copyright since it is a new version, so the only copies going completely public would be the version from 5 years ago. So whatever would be used without the benefit of any return from the company would be 5 years or more old.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Andy_R ( 114137 )

      It's worth noting that this only applies to one particular Pirate Party.

      When we set up the Pirate Party UK, I exchanged mails with RMS on the length of copyright he would consider reasonable, and he was happy with our 10 year proposal.

      If the Australian Pirate Party go for 10 years not 5, then we can assume RMS won't object to that either.

      • I'm a big fan of RMS, but that article is possibly the stupidest thing he's ever written.

        Forcing people to put their code in escrow for enforced release when copyright expires is police-state coercion. The idea that such a law could possibly be enforceable is ludicrous.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by deimtee ( 762122 )
          It's very easy to make it self-enforce. Only recognize copyright on software that has its source code in escrow. Similar to the old USA system of registering copyright.

      • If the Australian Pirate Party go for 10 years not 5, then we can assume RMS won't object to that either.

        Current PPAU policy [pirateparty.org.au] is for 15 years, so I'm guessing RMS would be OK with it?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Troed ( 102527 )

      I believe both he and the Swedish Pirate Party have updated our views.

      http://falkvinge.net/2012/10/19/stallman-endorses-pirate-party-position-on-trademarks-patent-and-copyright-monopolies/ [falkvinge.net]

  • What a dumb name (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why not "The Computer Party"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bengie ( 1121981 )
      I'm sure they could make up something to make use of "The LAN Party"
      • There is Gamers 4 Croydon [gamers4croydon.org] that was a political party that was sitting in a few seats in the South Australian election.
        They were created to lobby for R18+ rating for video games. They did not get a lot of votes but raising the issue has finally introduced the rating in Australia.
    • Something like "Digital Freedom Party" would be good. The Pirate Party is a bit misleading.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      Because that's the party of Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon.

    • Agreed. Johnny Depp as a creepy old perv lusting after Keira Knightley is hardly a wholesome image.
      Heath Ledger's portrayal of Ned Kelly on the other hand... The Bushranger Party would have more local resonance if you're seeking icons of murderous thieving subversives.

  • And so it begins... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    No one likes Tony or Julia, but they vote Labor or LNP because "We have always done it that way." How do you convince people to do something different?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      No one likes Tony or Julia, but they vote Labor or LNP because "We have always done it that way." How do you convince people to do something different?

      Gord,

      A slab of VB for a mod point.

      This describes the voting situation in Australia perfectly. You've got large segments of the population that vote Labor or Liberal simply because it's what they've always done.

  • Just curious about the endgame? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Grayhand ( 2610049 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @07:01AM (#42645781)
    I try to stay out of these discussions and I'll keep the question neutral but I'm curious what people see as the goal of things like the Pirate Party? Defunding movies, music and software seems counterproductive so what is the solution? If it's a party then it has to have goals? I know the dream is the end of copyrights and the free exchange of all information but it's an unrealistic goal so what is the compromise since in sense the goal of politics is compromise? I figure if we're going to cover the subject yet again there should be more interesting discussion than devolving into the standard "Piracy, good", "Copyright, bad" posts. The goal should be discussing solutions or the whole thread becomes redundant. FYI I'm not trying to troll here it's a legitimate question and an opening to offer sensible options.

    • Re:Just curious about the endgame? (Score:5, Informative)

      by tick-tock-atona ( 1145909 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @07:34AM (#42645889)

      Here [pirateparty.org.au] is the current platform. In it, copyright is limited to 15 years.

      I'd encourage you to read the whole thing, and if you've got ideas to contribute, please jump on IRC or a mailing list:

      http://pirateparty.org.au/irc/ [pirateparty.org.au]

      http://lists.pirateparty.org.au/ [pirateparty.org.au]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Trepidity ( 597 )

      It varies based on the country. The German Pirate Party has turned into something of a civil-libertarian party with a focus on technological issues, vaguely like an EFF Party or something. They got a lot of younger people who in previous eras might've voted FDP, a libertarian-ish party that is now associated too much with rich businessmen to get much of the younger liberal vote. Also some ex-Greens moved over for various reasons.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Bengie ( 1121981 )
      Just a quick FYI, based on history, the fastest growing time in the USA for movies was when there was no copyrights.

      Copyrights were enforced on the East Coast but not the the West Coast, so all of the innovators of movie making, like Fox, Metro, Goldwyn, and Mayer(MGM), and many other big names, went to the West Coast and Hollywood came from it.

      Hollywood's roots are based in anti-copyright.

  • Good alternative to the Greens (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Quick Reply ( 688867 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @07:30AM (#42645877) Journal

    The Greens are rising in power because the major two are seen as pathetic, and voters are looking for the most sane party to fill this gap. Unfortunately the closest thing we have had to 'sane', is the Greens. While some of their policies are good, they are on a whole batshit crazy and is not acceptable option to most people, so they fall back onto the major two.

    With The Pirate Party, if you just get past the name and actually look at the policies, they are not that bad.

    Under two-party preferred system, their votes will probably be funnelled to the Greens, which would then be funnelled to Labor. At least it will be a start and show that the major two are falling in popularity.

    • Actually some of the sex parties policies were downright logical. The problem with them and the pirate party is they have stupid names, so a huge portion of people will overlook them immediately.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      they are on a whole batshit crazy

      In what way is this true, or do you just swallow everything the mainstream media ejaculates?

      • Read the Greens' website. It sounds like something written by a bright-eyed first year university student who just joined the local Socialist Alliance chapter. Probably because it was.

        • Hmmm, socialist alliance members have their own parliamentary candidates. My experience of them at uni - those that take 7 years to finish a 3 year degree - they seem far more 'loony left' than Dr Brown.

          Nevertheless that Lee Rhiannon from NSW seems out of step with Bandt, Milne and Hanson-Young. "St Bob" reprimanded her at least once for her extremism.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by drsmithy ( 35869 )

          Can you be a little more specific ?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Which policies are batshit crazy? This gets said a lot but nobody can name one.

  • I think a moderately-libertarian party with an IP focus and a "We don't give a shit about that either way" attitude toward divisive issues could do pretty well in the USA right now. With both parties polarizing toward the extreme, moderates really don't have to go. IP reform doesn't sell very well with our national attention span problem, so I'd work the "pirate" angle pretty heavily. Maybe have some signs printed up that say "Scurvey Crew Ahead," get a parrot and you'll be fielding a presidential candidate

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