Pirate Party

Pirate parties logo

Pirate Party is a label adopted by political parties in different countries. Pirate parties support civil rights, direct democracy and participation, reform of copyright and patent law, free sharing of knowledge (Open content), information privacy, transparency, and freedom of information. They advocate network neutrality and universal, unrestricted access to the Internet as indispensable conditions to some of this.^{[citation needed]}

History

The Swedish Piratpartiet, founded on 1 January 2006 under the leadership of Rickard Falkvinge, was the first pirate party. The party's name was derived from Piratbyrån, an organization opposed to intellectual property. Members of Piratbyrån had previously founded the BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay.^[1] Piratbyrån was an organization founded to oppose the lobbyism of the anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån. The "pirate" label, which had been used by the media and film industries in campaigns against copyright infringement, is therefore a reappropriation of the word.^[2][3]

Parties in other countries, such as the Pirate Party of Austria (founded in July 2006) and the Pirate Party Germany (September 2006), were inspired by the Swedish example. In October 2006, Pirate Parties International was founded as an umbrella organization. In the European Parliament election of 2009 the Swedish Pirate Party received 7.1 percent of the votes, winning two seats and achieving the first major success of a Pirate Party in an election. The German Pirate Party managed to win 8.9 percent of the votes in the Berlin state election, 2011.^[4] The Czech Pirate Party won the international race to get a pirate politician to national parliament when a joint pirate candidate, Libor Michálek, was elected in the 2012 senate election.^[5]

Historically, the ideals of the Pirate parties are partially based on groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Chaos Computer Club, representing the hacker culture and values centered around freedom of information and free exchange of knowledge.^{[citation needed]}

The Uppsala Declaration

At the 2009 conference of Pirate Parties International in Uppsala (Sweden), European Pirate parties agreed on a common declaration of the parties' goals for the upcoming election of the European Parliament.^[6][7] Central issues of the declaration are:

• reform of copyright, exemption of non-commercial activity from copyright regulation, reduction of the duration of copyright protections; banning of DRM technologies, opposition to media or hardware levies;
• reform of patent law, particularly stating that patents on life (including patents on seeds and on genes) and software should not be allowed;
• strengthening civil rights, transparent government, speedy and fair trial and freedom of speech; expansion of the right to anonymity in communication.

The Prague Declaration

At 2012 conference of Pirate Parties International in Prague (Czech Republic), European Pirate parties agreed to run in the elections to the European Parliament in the year 2014 with a common program as well as establish a European political party. The declaration^[8] has been followed by conferences in Potsdam and Barcelona to work on the structure of the legal body to come and the statutes for it.

International Organizations

  Elected posts won

  Officially registered

  Active, unregistered pirate party

  No pirate party

Pirate Parties International

Pirate Parties International (PPI) is the umbrella organization of the national Pirate Parties. Since 2006 the organization exists as a loose union^[9] of the national parties. Since October 2009, Pirate Parties International has the status of a non-governmental organization (Feitelijke vereniging) based in Belgium. The organization was officially founded at a conference from 16 to 18 April 2010 in Brussels, when the organization's statutes were adopted by the 22 national pirate parties represented at the event.^[10]

The Pirate Parties International Foundation helps to establish Pirate parties around the world. It operates forums and mailing lists for communication between the national parties. The Pirate Parties International is governed by a board, led by co-chairs Gregory Engels and Lola Voronina.

Pirates without Borders

Pirates Without Borders is an international association of pirates. Unlike Pirate Parties International (which accepts only parties as voting members and organizations as observing members), Pirates Without Borders accept individuals as members. The PWB see themselves as a basis for international projects. Through global cooperation, they strive to reveal the impact of multinational trade agreements on all people on earth, and foster freedom and democracy.^[11] PWB originates from an independent committee for the coordination of Pirate parties in German-speaking countries, known as DACHLuke (DACHL = Germany-Austria-Switzerland-Luxembour g).

Since the Pirate Parties International Conference 2011 on 12-13/03/2011, PWB is an "observing member" of Pirate Parties International. The previously independent project "pirate streaming" has become a part of Pirates without Borders since 03/05/2011.

Parti Pirate Francophone

In Parti Pirate Francophone, the French-speaking Pirate Parties are organized. Current members are the pirates parties in Belgium, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Canada and Switzerland.

National Pirate Parties

Mandates of national pirate parties
Sweden Piratpartiet	2 European parliament
Czech Republic Česká pirátská strana	1 national, 3 communal
Iceland Píratar	1 national
Germany Piratenpartei Deutschland	45 regional, 201 communal[12]
Spain Pirates de Catalunya	2 communal
Switzerland Piratenpartei Schweiz	2 communal
Austria Piratenpartei Österreichs	1 communal

Outside Sweden, pirate parties have been started in over 40 countries,^[13] inspired by the Swedish initiative.

References

External links

• Pirate Parties International
• Pirate Times

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