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.

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

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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.

His journey throughout all of this probably started off as a humble employee, working at Frances broadcaster, TF1. He probably had no idea that one day, he’d be the centre of a major political debate that the whole world is watching at the time.

Then, the HADOPI law debate came up. Three strikes and you’re out for copyright infringement online. At the time, the proposal would have no judicial oversight whatsoever – not to mention being forced to pay your subscription fee even though you have been, well, banned from the internet. Your name would be added to a blacklist so you can’t subscribe with another provider and the amount of time you were disconnected, at the time, was still being determined.

Not surprisingly, the law was just about as controversial then as it is now. For Jérôme Bourreau-Guggenheim at the time, he wasn’t exactly too keen on the law either. So, while at work, he sent an e-mail to his member of parliament to express his personal opposition to the “three strikes” law. His member of parliament’s office, who also happened to be part of the governing party, UMP, then forwarded the e-mail to the minister of culture who then forwarded the e-mail to his employer, TF1. Bourreau-Guggenheim boss then hauled him into his office where he was showed a copy of his e-mail before he was fired for “strategic differences”

His story hit several major French newspapers. He went from just a side-line employee to a front-line borderline celebrity who is against the French three strikes law. The story has since caused political waves.

Now, it seems, a new development has happened in this case. French newspaper, Le Monde, is reporting (Google Translation) that Bourreau-Guggenheim is suing his former employer, TF1, for discrimination. His lawsuit is based on article 225-2 of the penal code which addresses “violations of human dignity”.

The punishment for such a violation is up to three years in prison and a 45,000 euro fine. That article specifically deals with an employment dismissal based on a political viewpoint.

Le Monde makes an additional interesting point:

By revealing the affair in its issue of May 7, Libération had quoted from the letter explicitly refers to mail sent to Ms. de Panafieu. Including this clarification: “This correspondence was received through the office of the Minister of Culture, which has posed address the same day the company TF1. A path to strong symbolic resonance, given the suspicions about the relationship between power and sarkozyste audiovisual group, whose main shareholder, Martin Bouygues, is the near the head of state.

Another part of the article says:

It is true that the case has already made much noise but it has needed to add: wrangling in the Assembly, where the former Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, has been strongly implicated by the opposition; sanction against the member of his Cabinet who had transferred to the TF1 mail received from Ms. de Panafieu (Le Monde, 12 May).

Now committed criminal in a long process, Mr. Bourreau Guggenheim-must adapt to circumstances. To live this matter without further destroying his career. Say they have had “some contact with elected representatives of the opposition, which (l ‘) were invited to participate in debates on Hadopi”, the former part of TF1 should also “reassure (the) future employers” when is invited to an interview. TF1 who denounced “positions (…) radical expressed publicly,” he defends himself on these two points: “I am loyal, I have nothing being published at TF1. And I am not an extremist free download.”

At this point in time, it’s not hard to see this as a no win situation for the UMP of France, not to mention TF1 who is neck deep in this political fiasco as well. It would appear that Bourreau-Guggenheim has a number of additional options should things go sour for him including referring to the European Court of Human Rights. Though one can only imagine how much additional political damage that would cause for the government who is not only intending on pushing through the three strikes law at all cost, but also changing around the French court system and giving judges only approximately 5 minutes to rule on each disconnection.

This case about a French employee fired for opposing the three strikes law, unfortunately for TF1 and the UMP, isn’t going to go away any time soon.

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 manifesto of the Pirate Party of Canada is in the works, the current members are trying to figure out how to bring awareness, and general internal organization is taking place, but all good things start somewhere. After a few years of discussions on the Pirate Party International website, there are signs that the Pirate Party of Canada is now forming. A website has been set up (including forums) and it’s not hard to see that they are in need of some helping hands.

In Sweden, the Pirate Party stands for privacy, a halt to online censorship, doing away with medical patents and legalizing file-sharing. No surprise that this movement has taken off elsewhere in the world.

We asked the Pirate Party of Canada what all was happening and were able to get a response.

“Your guess that there is some internal organizing going on is 100% accurate,” Daynes told ZeroPaid when asked if there was internal organization taking place, “at this moment in time that is one of our main concerns”

“however,” he added, “membership is still a pressing concern.”

There’s been plenty of issues happening in Canada that the Pirate Party could gain support from. The biggest reason one might join the Pirate Party is if Canadians are fed up with what has happened on the Copyright file. With the Liberals Bill C-60 and the Conservatives Bill C-61, it seems as though neither of the biggest parties haven’t, in practise, been too user friendly. Added to this is the recent comments by the current public safety minister Peter Van Loan during an episode of Search Engine. The minister suggested (direct link to MP3) said that users have no expectation of privacy online and that, in spite of the courts cited by Jesse Brown, suggested that real name, address and telephone number doesn’t count as personal information.

Added to this was recent comments made by the Liberal party which said that Canada needs to immediately reform copyright laws to “combat” the “scourge” of piracy and ratify WIPO. Those comments were followed up by follow-up comments which suggested that merely stating this merely marks interest on the copyright file.

While the Pirate Party of Canada is still a ways of from becoming an officially registered party, it won’t hurt the party to gain a few new interested individuals to help them out reach that goal of becoming an officially registered party in the future a little faster.

To help, you can join the Pirate Party of Canada forum.

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.

June 7th, 2009 could very well be the day many people who are familiar with the Pirate Party won’t forget. An unprecedented win which saw a member of the Pirate Party formally elected into the European parliament with another member to join him after the ratification of the Lisbon treaty. The leader suggested that the party has climbed to heights he did not dare to dream where they captured 7.1% of the popular vote.

Some hailed the day as, among other things, a victory for privacy, a victory for digital rights, a victory for forward looking ideas for this day and age or the confirming day that corporate interests have pushed too hard to further erode user rights. So, in that light, 7.1% was indeed a very high number and a resounding success for the party.

For some, it may come to a surprise that it is possible that the percentage of support could have been higher if it weren’t for voting irregularities. A report from The Local suggests that, among other things, voting information for smaller parties have been set aside at some polling stations.

Comments left on the Pirate Party’s website have reported similar cases during the election including on this item (Google translation)

This story seemed to have resonated under the radar and appears to have re-emerged in the article found on The Local:

However, these party-distributed ballots had a tendency to disappear or be placed in out-of-the-way places.

Birgitta Westerdahl, chair of the Salem election district south of Stockholm, told SR of a first-time voter who was unable to find a ballot for the Pirate Party.

He then received inaccurate information that it wasn’t possible to write-in the party name on a blank ballot sheet.

In the end, he ended up voting for another party.

Another point the article was bringing up was that for smaller parties, officials from that party have to distribute their ballots themselves to some polling stations.

Still, it’s unclear whether or not this will have a major impact in the public conscious unlike some voting fiasco’s seen in, say, the United States. Perhaps the reason is that there’s still that euphoria of an actual victory in the first place that might trump potential controversy that might otherwise arise from this. For some, it might even just be seen as a failed attempt by other parties to keep the party out of the European parliament.

For now, whether or not irregularities actually happened, many parties across Europe will have to get use to the presence of the party in Europe – especially those who are intent on restricting copyright laws or increasing surveillance on average people further.

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 news could only serve to push the deeply divided debate further into the limelight Germany. News is surfacing that points out that the controversial web censorship legislation in Germany has been passed by the German parliament. Already, a member of the Social Democrats, Jörg Taussig, defected from his party on this controversial issue to become a Pirate Party member – thus also marking the first time the Pirate Party managed to get a member into the German parliament in the first place.

Already, there have been protests on this very issue. An e-petition has been made to stop such legislation and gotten over 134,000 signatures.

The Pirate Party is against web censorship and made their opposition to web censorship a part of their election platform during the European elections. The German Pirate Party posted about the protests (Google Translation). They have a slogan about the censorship proposal saying, roughly translated to English, “Erase the Bocks Instead – Stop Web Censorship!”

The German Pirate Party argues that child pornography must be stopped, not hidden behind a bunch of stop signs. The argument appears to be based off of the fact that government mandated censorship can be circumvented through proxies. The currently proposed censorship legislation would put up stop signs if anyone were to access a banned website.

One thing is for certain, the way things are going in Germany, this issue is only going to get more people involved.
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.

Swedish news site, The Local discussed the issue, but if you want a link to a Google translation to the posting that sparked the controversy, you can read it here.

In the posting, Qarlsson suggested that a statistic shows that young men are more likely to be rapists. She then notes that a large number of Pirate Party supporters who are concerned about privacy are young men. She then made the unfortunate connection that there might be a connection there. Notably absent was the difference between privacy online and offline. About 162 comments later, she apologized for being unclear with her comment (Google Translation) and said that both men and women would be upset if their privacy was violated.

For a number of users, there were still tensions even after the apology though. One user wrote, “apology not accepted, you do not express yourself like that. As Joppa wrote “You are a disgrace to the Center Party and I hope that this leads to your position in doubt.”

“It counts as defamation with what you wrote, but some but thanks for your post soon so than men go and defame groups and then apologize for it and still get away with it.” The user added.

Another user wrote, “I think you should get a serious think about what you want to do with your life. It is not responsible to seize on a Parliamentary seat when you have such severe psychological problems that you have. Resign. Take a break. You hurt not only your party but the entire faith in democracy which, despite everything, still exist in this country.”

“So you accuse not Piratpartiet, but you still accusing the young men? We, young men take not away from rape? Or how should I interpret your post?” A third user writes.

What makes this a strange conflict that it’s pitting two groups against each other who sometimes fight for similar human rights. Both feminists and file-sharers don’t want to be targeted by malicious activity. Qarlsson does admit herself that women would find it equally distasteful to having their privacy violated. Surely women would find it just as troubling to finding their internet connections cut off based on baseless accusations. Still, what this is more likely to be was an incident where one particular individual making a comment that didn’t seem to be completely thought through – consequently receiving a backlash as a result given her status.

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.