We interviewed Jake Daynes, a spokesperson for the Pirate Party of Canada recently and we had some interesting responses to our questions.

ZeroPaid: What is the Pirate Party and how has it grown since the launch?

Jake Daynes: The Pirate Party of Canada is the Canadian counterpart of the international Pirate Party movement, which has gained seats in Sweden and Germany. We are fighting for fair copyright, patent reform, net neutrality, and government transparency. Our goals can be found here.

ZeroPaid: We’ve heard about a Pirate Party distribution platform that is being launched. What is the distribution platform exactly? Has it been officially launched? Are there any partners involved in this project?

Jake Daynes: Right now I don’t want to say much, but I can say that it utilizes a very “pirate-y” distribution method. Right now it has been started up, though we have not made it live, and we have several partners in this, such as Musicians United Against Censorship, Electronica Artist/DJ: Frozen Ice Cube [Author's note: The latest music is currently here due to recent technical issues] , and Fading Ways Music.

ZeroPaid:What sort of artists are you looking for? Is it genre specific or location specific or can anyone around the world with any musical style join in? Is it moderated and if so, how long does it take for something to be posted?

Jake Daynes: No, we are not genre specific, we are looking for anybody and everybody! We do have a slight moderation system, which is mainly me going through every track, just to make sure it isn’t a copyright violation, but it shouldn’t take more than 24 hours to get something posted, once the project is live.

ZeroPaid: For artists, what kind of reach does this platform provide (like, how many people are accessing it)? Do you expect this number of people to grow?

Jake Daynes: This platform is access to a global stage, with Pirate Party support in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Sweden, Germany, and the US, we have access to millions of people that are all looking for new music to listen to!

ZeroPaid: I’ve noticed on your home page that you have a sufficient number of members, but you seem to have a second bar for people sending in forms. Are you able to officially register as a political party yet or do you have to have that number of forms handed in before that happens?

Jake Daynes: Right now we are asking everybody to send in their forms, as we need to have a minimum of 250 to register with Elections Canada, though those that sign up are still counted as full members, as membership is free!

ZeroPaid: It’s been talked about plenty of times that the Pirate Bay had a major influence on the success of the Swedish Pirate Party. The only big things like that happening around in Canada seem to have been copyright reform legislation which is already on the back burner because of the copyright consultations. Would you say that the Pirate Party’s growth is attributed to a reaction to major copyright related events or is it more of an ongoing growth for the Canadian Pirate Party?

Jake Daynes: Actually, few people know it, but Canada has it’s own Pirate Bay right here in Richmond, B.C.: isoHUNT, which is run by Gary Fung just south of Vancouver. Copyright is a global issue that is affecting everybody, and even though the copyright consultations are putting reform on the back burner as you put it, the PPoC is continuing to grow, with members and chapters all across the country.

ZeroPaid: There have been a number of countries that have Pirate Parties officially registered, but all these countries seem to be in Europe. Is it the goal of the Pirate Party of Canada to be the first non-European country to be an official political party?

Jake Daynes: Yes, currently the PPoC is looking to become the first non-European party to be officially registered.

ZeroPaid: There are rumours that there could, on a remote chance, be an election in the Fall. If that happens, is there a chance that the Pirate Party could be in that election?

Jake Daynes: Sadly no, because of current election legislation, the PPoC would have to have been a registered party 60 days before the writ of an election, though we will continue to push our issues, and hope that the voice of fair copyright is heard by current parties.

ZeroPaid: There are a number of people out there who might suggest that the party doesn’t stand much of a chance with the First Past the Post system along with the established parties. Having said that though, is it the goal for the party to win seats or is it more about sending a message to government that said Canadians are concerned with certain issues in the copyright, privacy and technology related fields of policy making?

Jake Daynes: Yes, it is in fact very difficult for a new party to break into the First Past the Post system, take, for example, the Green Party, garnering 13% of the popular vote last election and still not gaining a seat. Our goal is indeed to gain seats, though one important point is that our message is heard, because lets face it, we as a party prove that Canadians are concerned, and some even passionate about these issues.

ZeroPaid: Do you have anything further to add?

Jake Daynes: I, Jake Daynes, would just like to add that if anybody is interested in the Party, my personal email is JakeDaynes@PirateParty.ca, and I would be happy to discuss them with you. If you would like to debate the Party’s views, our forums are very lively.

ZeroPaid: Thank you very much for your time.

Jake Daynes: Thank you Drew

We would like to thank Jake Daynes for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk to us.

The Pirate Party of Canada was started somewhere between the end of June and July 2nd. It’s been seeking membership since the launch and has grown to roughly 500 members in the span of two months. Pirate Party of Canada’s official website home page.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

The political momentum in Europe has favoured the Pirate Party throughout Europe. The question is, can the French Pirate Party become the third country to elect a pirate party member into office on a level of government. Already, the French Three Strikes law has caused significant political controversy, one flash point being that one man was fired from his day job for simply voicing his opinion about the law; a case that since sparked a lawsuit.

With the momentum from the German and Swedish counterparts mixed with the controversy of HADOPI, there is reason for optimism.

The French Pirate Party has issued a press release (Google translation) saying that “every vote counts”. From the press release:

On the occasion of the by-election of the 10th district of Yvelines, following the resignation of Christine Boutin from his post as Deputy, the Pirate Party presents its first candidate in a French election

23 years old, studying computer engineering specialty at the University of Orsay, a former adviser to the district centerville Rambouillet, supplemented by

33, Game Designer, member of the team coordinating the Pirate Party International commissioned by the Pirate Party in France.

Long awaited, this nomination is a strong signal across Europe in favor of free access to culture and information, respect the privacy of citizens and rewriting the code of intellectual property, patents and respond to copyright. This election takes place precisely in the period of voting in the web laws and precedes the opening of debate on the future law Loppsi: this application is the voice of citizens who wish to denounce the social choice account we require that the current government.

The LOPPSI 2 legislation was another major point of controversy. We reported on the new legislation back in May when it first hit French newspapers. The legislation basically would allow police to basically upload malware to a users computer.

There’s plenty of reasons to find the Pirate Party of France particularly appealing after HADOPI and LOPPSI 2. What we don’t know is his odds in actually winning that particular seat. Since it’s a new party, it’s difficult to tell whether or not the new rise in popularity for the party across Europe would boost his presence enough to contend with established parties. We will certainly know around the 20th whether or not 3 times is a charm.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

If the international movement of the Pirate Party wanted something to celebrate over today, consider the latest news out of Germany to be the news story to do it. Reports are surfacing (Google Translation) that during several municipal elections held across Germany, the Pirate Party have earned a sufficient number of votes to be on several city councils throughout Germany.

The victory followed up a strong campaign throughout Germany where users were encouraged to place Pirate Party posters and wave Pirate Party flags on the streets and (naturally) while on the water as well. We would visit the German Pirate Party website for more information, but the site seems to be either slow or timing out altogether as of this writing. Sweden was the first country to elect a Pirate Party member, now Germany has become the second country to have, through an election, elected members of the Pirate Party.

Currently, in many other parts of the world including numerous countries in Europe, the Pirate Party is trying to gain enough support to register their party so they can participate in elections as well. Membership in several countries can be attributed to the fact that the copyright industry has been pushing for a so-called “three strikes and your out” regime in spite of the fact that the European Parliament recognizes internet access as a fundamental right. Some countries have seen a push to use privacy invasive technology such as data retention to target alleged copyright infringement. Many responded by turning to the Pirate Party after politicians became more interested in listening to the copyright industry lobbyists instead of their own constituents.

Specific details on how successful the German Pirate Party has been in Germany hasn’t surfaced with the news yet, but there’s little doubt that things like the final percentage of the vote and exactly how many seats officially won will soon follow.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Should an ISP block website because of a complaint by a corporation or an organization of corporations? This could be one question that could draw a line in the sand between the copyright industry and supporters of free speech in Europe.

Earlier this year, the European Union blocked the three strikes law by declaring internet access as a fundamental right. Since then, the copyright industry has been scrambling to find some sort of quick cheap fix to stop all forms of file-sharing on the internet by, among other things, implementing three strikes, censorship, throttling and anything else they can get other people to throw at file-sharing. Since the political way by implementing things like the three strikes law seemed to not be quick enough, the industry went after ISPs. Eircom in Ireland was one of those ISPs.

Starting September 1st, as a part of a settlement between the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and Eircom, the ISP has agreed to start blocking The Pirate Bay.

Just days afterwards, the Irish Pirate Party issued a statement saying that they are “deeply concerned by news that eircom is to block access from its subscribers to thepiratebay.org.”

“The Party,” the statement continued, “which is opposed to censorship and stands for the protection of individual privacy, finds this action wholly disturbing and believes it should not go ahead.”

“The Pirate Party believes that this block will set a precedent not only for further monitoring of Internet users, censorship and general debilitation of Internet services in Ireland, but also for similar action against other Irish companies providing Internet services, such as BT Ireland, Smart Telecom, Perlico and UPC (two of which have already been similarly threatened), severely damaging competition in this sector and curtailing efficient broadband rollout.”

It should be noted that as of the 20th, other Irish ISPs did vow to keep fighting IRMA which wants to force ISPs to implement three strikes and blocking internet websites such as The Pirate Bay. Given that the Telecoms package had the final say on disconnections by saying that internet access is a fundamental right, it’s not hard to conclude that Irish ISPs disconnecting users is not only bad publicity, but illegal by European law as well. From an observational standpoint, a lawsuit to force an ISP to break European law seems to be some sort of legal twilight zone – one can only imagine what is going on behind the scenes of these ISPs that are still fighting.

The Irish Pirate Party also noted that backup copies of The Pirate Bay have been distributed online as well and questions whether blocking the site would be even remotely effective in the first place.

In addition, the Irish Pirate Party quoted sections of Irish copyright laws IRMA used to go after ISPs and pointed out that “Neither the Pirate Bay, nor Eircom, store any copyrighted materials on any of their servers or within their service infrastructure. Also since the law specifically refers to singular works this section of the law cannot be used against an entire site or service.”

Unfortunately, as it has been proven in past cases, what local laws say hardly matters since the copyright industry tends to interpret copyright laws their way and enforces their interpretation of the laws as they see fit. In the past, this point was particularly prevalent when the copyright industry persuaded Swedish lawmakers to break local Swedish law when the websites server farms were raided by police back in 2006. The move by anti-piracy efforts backed by the US earned lawsuits from local businesses who were taken offline thanks to the server farm raid. Accusations of illegal activity by officials in 2006 during the raid ran fast and furious.

The kind of debate over whether or not ISPs are allowed to enforce their own three strikes policy or are allowed to arbitrarily block websites at the copyright industry bidding doesn’t appear to be exclusive to Ireland given that this kind of debate is already happening in the UK when a key political figure did a “u-turn” on the governments stance on three strikes after spending a short vacation with an American billionaire from the copyright industry and, by extension, in the Netherlands where MiniNova was ordered to remove all links to trackers containing allegedly copyright infringing material.

While it seems that the copyright industry is trying to find every back door they possibly can to try and find ways of defying the will of the European Union, this effort could ultimately backfire as it further legitimizes the stance of the Pirate Party in many European countries. It gives very real relevance to the concerns of the party for potential new voters who have already voted in one to two members of the party into the European Union. If the copyright industry doesn’t see it, surely policymakers should given that it’s their jobs on the line, not the industry’s.

Whether this particular issue between Eircom and IRMA becomes a key political point remains to be seen, but at the very least, it’s shaping up to be another controversial point in the European copyright debate.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

It seems that the movement of the pirate party keeps sailing on. Less than a week ago, we reported on the Pirate Party becoming an officially registered party in the UK. Now, it seems that the Finnish Pirate Party has accomplished the same goal of becoming an officially recognized party.

According to the Finnish Pirate Party website, the Finnish Pirate Party managed to get the necessary 5000 signatures to become an official political party (Google translated)

More from the posting:

The party can now participate in the Finnish parliamentary and municipal as well as European parliamentary elections. Its current primary objective is to get representatives in the Finnish parliament in the 2011 election. Its current primary objective is to get representatives in the Finnish parliament in the 2011 election. Piraattipuolue is the 8th officially registered pirate party internationally. The Pirate Party is the 8th officially registered pirate party internationally.

The party seeks to strengthen the protection of privacy and freedom of speech, to reform the current copyright legislation by legalizing non-commercial file-sharing and drastically cutting the duration of copyright, and to abolish pharmaceutical and software patents. The party seeks to strengthen the protection of privacy and freedom of speech, to reform the current copyright legislation by legalizing non-commercial file-sharing and drastically cutting the duration of copyright, and to abolish pharmaceutical and software patents.

This is great news for the Pirate Party movement. With two more countries now having their own pirate party in less than a week, the momentum seems to be in party’s favour. The question is, how many more countries can the pirate party movement become officially registered?

Pirate Party Finland home page (Finnish)

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

A member of the Pirate Party of Canada has written in to inform us that the Canadian Pirate Party has recently undergone a makeover of the original website. It even has a brand new domain at PirateParty.ca.

Already, back on July 2nd, just a little over a month ago, we reported on the formation of the party as it looked for members to help spread the word of the party. Just days later, after getting major recognition online, it caught the attention of the Green Party of Canada who commented that the Pirate Party of Canada was not necessary given that Canada has the Green Party. Members of the Pirate Party responded saying that, among other things, this is an excellent sign for the Pirate Party for getting such recognition.

The new website is a far cry from the old website as it no longer has just a row of links and a logo on the home page. There’s a blog, a more integrated navigation bar and, interestingly enough, a picture of a pirate ship that seems to resemble the former logo of ThePirateBay.

The Canadian Pirate Party is still seeking more membership. Their goal is to become the first Pirate Party outside of Europe to have a formally registered political party. As of this writing, the membership is currently just shy of 30% of the needed signatures to become a formally registered party. It will be interesting how well the party spreads its word online as well as how membership will rise now that a Fall session of classes are coming up in the coming weeks in Canada given that the traditional age group for people voting for the Pirate Party has been around the 18-30 years of age. There’s plenty of opportunity for growth given that the Canadian mainstream parties seem to have still been trying to grasp the full potential of the internet to garner support in Canada.

What also bodes well for the user rights movement in general is that there’s the additional momentum of the Pirate Party. If, after the Copyright consultation, the government somehow decides, against the will of Canada, to table another Bill C-61 with three strikes and a restriction of Fair Dealings, for example, there’ll be increased motivation to vote for the Pirate Party.

Certainly interesting times for the party. It further highlights the growing movement of the party given that just yesterday, the UK Pirate Party, became formally registered as a political party.

Pirate Party homepage
Pirate Party member signup page

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Much to the delight of free speech and copyright reform advocates everywhere, the Pirate Party UK (PPUK) has announced that it’s officially registered as a political party in that country and proves the Pirate Party’s growing international support.

“In recent years we have seen an unprecedented onslaught on the rights of the individual,” says the PPUK. “We are treated like criminals when we share entertainment digitally, even though this is just the modern equivalent of lending a book or a DVD to a friend. We look on helpless as our culture and heritage, so important for binding our society together, is eroded and privatised.”

The news comes on the heels of its wildly successful Pirate Party cousin in Sweden who recently managed to win 2 seats in the EU Parliament, and now boasts some 50,096 members making it the country’s 3rd largest.

PPUK main focus is to shape laws to “match the realities of life in the 21st century.”

Its 3 core policies are as follows:

1. The reform of Copyright and Patent Laws
2. The protection of our Right to Privacy
3. The protection of our Right to Freedom of Speech

It says it will remain neutral on all other issues outside of these three concerns.

“The internet has turned our world into a global village,” it adds. “Ideas can be shared at incredible speed, and at negligible cost. The benefits are plain to see, but as a result, many vested interests are threatened.”

“The old guard works hard to preserve their power and their privilege, so we must work hard for our freedom. The Pirate Party offers an alternative to the last century’s struggles between political left and political right. We are open to anyone and everyone who wants to live in a fair and open society.”

So why does the UK really need a Pirate Party? PPUK leader Andrew Robinson points out the fact that there are some 7 million file-sharers in the country and that the govt plans to fine them £50,000 ($82,520 USD) for copyright infringement is “ridiculous” given there’s no proof that its harming the creative content industry.

To buttress his point I might add that numerous studies have shown that file-sharing actually increases music consumption.

In fact, one of the music industry’s own economists says that revenue is actually up 4.7% since 2007.

Robinson would like to seer an exemption in copyright laws that allows for non-commercial use of people’s works.

“Our copyright law is horribly outdated and its skewed one way because all the lobbying is on the side of big businesses,” he says in an interview with PCPro. “This ties into our thoughts on patents. They’ve moved away from a way of encouraging invention to being a way for companies to lay claim to large areas of innovation.”

The European Anti-Piracy Association (AEPOC) is alarmed by the Pirate Party’s message, which it calls it “criminal at its core,” and says its success should serve as a “wake-up call for national governments and the European Commission to take a clear position on piracy matters.”

So it’s up to individuals to make sure that their voice is properly represented in the fight and demand meaningful copyright law reform.

Why is it so important? Christian Engström, newly elected member of the Swedish Pirate Party to the European Parliament, argues that it’s because copyright laws as they currently exist are slowly restricting our ability to communicate with one another online, and that furthermore, is eroding any sense of a “common cultural heritage.”

“Technology opens up possibilities; copyright law shuts them down,” he said in a op-ed posted last month.

“This was never the intent. Copyright was meant to encourage culture, not restrict it. This is reason enough for reform. But the current regime has even more damaging effects. In order to uphold copyright laws, governments are beginning to restrict our right to communicate with each other in private, without being monitored,” he continued.

The digital age has heralded an unprecedented era in which content can be transmitted to anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds and enrichen the lives of those with few physical alternatives.

Unfortunately, copyright laws were written largely in an analog world and have yet to adapt to the current realities of our time.

Let’s hope the UK’s new Pirate Party will help change that.

We have to do it one country at a time.

Stay tuned.

DOWNLOAD AND POST A PPUK POSTER TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

jared@zeropaid.com

The European Anti-Piracy Association (AEPOC) met in Brussels, Belgium a few days ago and the main topic of discussion was apparently the recent success of the Swedish Pirate Party in winning 2 seats to the European Parliament.

“This should act as a wake-up call for national governments and the European Commission to take a clear position on piracy matters,” said AEPOC’s President Jean Grenier.

It’s particularly alarmed about the Pirate Party’s questioning of the concept of intellectual property and copyright, and calls for the general removal of patent protections.

The AEPOC is correct on the latter part, but the Pirate Party isn’t questioning the concept of copyright laws so much as it seeks to reform them.

For the Pirate Party clearly states that it only has three issues on its agenda:

1. Reform of copyright law – All non-commercial copying and use should be completely free. The monopoly for the copyright holder to exploit an aesthetic work commercially should be limited to five years after publication. We also want a complete ban on DRM technologies, and on contract clauses that aim to restrict the consumers’ legal rights in this area.
2. An abolished patent system.
3. Respect for the right to privacy.

Content has become a commodity bought and sold by corporations and current copyright laws only reinforce this relationship. It’s gone far beyond compensating artists for their work and the Pirate Party merely wants to realign this this “unacceptable” balance of control.

“Millions of classical songs, movies and books are held hostages in the vaults of huge media corps, not wanted enough by their focus groups to re-publish but potentially too profitable to release,” reads the Pirate Party’s Declaration of Principles. “We want to free our cultural heritage and make them accessible to all, before time withers away the celluloid of the old movie reels.”

This is the real crux of the disagreement between the AEPOC and the Pirate Party. The AEPOC ignores the fact that some of what they claim to own in many ways belongs to society instead. At what point does the music of Louis Armstrong or the movies of Charlie Chaplin become public property? Both have been dead for decades so renumeration is obviously not an issue.

“Copyright was meant to encourage culture, not restrict it. This is reason enough for reform,” said Chris Engstrom, deputy leader of the Pirate party last month. “But the current regime has even more damaging effects. In order to uphold copyright laws, governments are beginning to restrict our right to communicate with each other in private, without being monitored.”

It’s this message of reform that the AEPOC even dares to call “criminal at its core.” Since when did trying to balance the needs of artists and society become “criminal” action?

“This is particularly relevant with regard to the younger members of our society who are susceptible to the message of the Pirate Party, a message which appears romantic, yet is criminal at its core,” added Grenier.

The AEPOC blames the conviction of the Swedish BitTorrent tracker site the Pirate Bay for the facilitation of copyright infringement as the impetus for the Pirate Party’s success for which it says “upset users” cast “sympathetic votes.” An astonishing 19% of voters under 30yo are said to have voted for the Pirate Party.

Left from the discussion is the fact that many saw the trial as a sham. It pitted multi-billion dollar entertainment conglomerates against 4 people who never shared anything nor made any profit from the site. Worse still, the trial was presided over by a judge actively involved in many of the same anti-piracy groups as their lead attorney.

With the odds stacked against them from the beginning of course people were a little “upset.” However, it was over the perception that they didn’t receive a fair trial, and not simply over loss of the site.

Moreover, the only message that’s “criminal” is the one threatening teens for illegal file-sharing while doing all it can to make sure they don’t get their day in court.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

[Hat Tip]

“Let it not be done in silence!” Said one Blog poster by the name of Henrik Alexandersson. He offered a list of what is currently at stake:

• Enhanced cooperation between the EU and USA “in the field of freedom, security and justice”.
• National anti-terrorist center in all EU states, who will report to Brussels.
• All EU states must share their intelligence with all other member states.
• More and more effective, “data-mining”.
• Real time access to data on, for example, citizens’ travel, banking, mobile positions, internet use, and to fingerprint and portraits.
• Streamlined monitoring by active collection of citizens’ electronic footprints.
• EU standards of supervision.
• EU harmonization to remove legal barriers to surveillance and interception.
• Analysis at European level of material from national surveillance and mass interception.
• An expanded EU bureaucracy for monitoring, interception and analysis, known as SITC.

“As Emma raised through non-aligned Sweden,” Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish Pirate Party commented on his blog, “it feels almost obscene to the Swedish capital city synonymous with a package whose purpose is to introduce a Bodström Samhälle beyond what was previously seen, and the elimination of legal civil rights protection for it.”

The Swedish Pirate Party website also notes that the protests will happen from July 15-17 at Humlegården, Stockholm.

While on the surface, it appears to just be “stopping the terrorists”, we should note that, in Europe, there’s been multiple attempts to use systems supposedly set in place to stop terrorism for the commercial interests of the copyright industry. Austrian newspapers wanted to use data retention to enforce copyright for one. For another, German publishers wanted to add RapidShare to the national blacklists. While it doesn’t appear that file-sharing related activities are even close to being in the Stockholm Program, it’s hard to deny that surveillance to enforce copyright is indirectly one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to this.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Their membership isn’t exactly hitting tens of thousands yet. Their manifesto hasn’t even been completed. They haven’t really been around for more than 6 months in its current incarnation. They have yet to participate in an election at all. You’d think that they wouldn’t really be making any sort of movement on their issues at all, but already, they are making waves in the media and are catching the attention of other political parties. If they are this successful already, imagine what would happen by the time they make it to the point of participating in a national election.

Earlier, in an interview with Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, there were comments that there isn’t a need for a Pirate Party because there’s the Green Party who has similar stances on issues with copyright and patents. While it seems to be looking like the two parties might have their differences, we also noted that the Pirate Party of Sweden has already chosen to sit with the Green Party in the European election.

The Pirate Party is well aware of the video interview and we asked for their thoughts on the subject.

“The fact that the Green Party has already noticed us and is talking about copyright law is a huge early success for the Pirate Party.” Dusty Phillips, member of the Pirate Party of Canada responded. He then said, “Even if the Green Party had the same stance as us on privacy, digital rights, copyright, and patent law [...], they were not talking about these issues in the last election; no party was.”

“The Green Party is both a model and an inspiration for us: two decades ago, environmental issues were not a part of any political platform. Now they are a major player in most political debates. We hope to follow a similar path in bringing another distinct set of very important issues to the voter’s attention.” Phillips added.

Jake Daynes, whom we spoke to earlier when the Pirate Party of Canada was forming, commented, “we feel that our two parties could help and support each other greatly.”

As for being similar to the Green Party on copyright issues, he seems to agree with our note about similarities between them and the Green Party on the international stage while finding an additional example, “We would also like to note the fact that our Swedish counterparts have opted to sit next to the Green Party in the EU, on the basis of similar interest as well as that an Austrian MEP representing the Green Party participated in the first Pirate Party International event.”

There’s been some talk already about how the current political system doesn’t allow very many parties to directly participate in policy making. Daynes commented, “In terms of Proportional Representation, we are very much in support of the idea, and realize that with the help of a PR voting system, both the Green Party and the PPoC would stand a much better chance to erect change inside our government.”

When it comes to patents, Daynes offered an example on how the Pirate Party and the Green Party of Canada could work together. He referred us to a story about how Toyota took out numerous patents on the Hybrid car to stall the competition.

Daynes then said, “we have not taken a solid stance on issues aside from our main platform, we are very open to helping other parties pursue their goals, as long as they do not contradict our purpose, or go against the democratic and constitutional rights of Canadian Citizens.”

He conceded that as of right now, the party is not in any position to help others out yet though appreciates the common stances the two parties have on several core issues.

“Right now we are busy concentrating on getting ourselves established and sorted,” he added, “and would be amenable to collaborating on projects after we have got ourselves sorted.”

The party certainly has a long way to go, but in a short period of time, they’ve accomplished quite a lot. We would like to thank the Pirate Party of Canada for responding to us.

Pirate Party of Canada home page

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.