Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Pirate Party Unites In Australia

Posted by kdawson on from the arrrr-no-worries dept.

bennyboy64 writes "iTnews reports that the Pirate Party has opened a branch office in Australia and is recruiting office bearers and supporters. The group updated the Australian website it registered last year and advertised for a president, treasurer, secretary, and supporting positions. A party spokesman, Rodney Serkowski, said the group was close to establishing a beachhead in Australia. He said that with 300 supporters it was on its way to signing the 500 it needed to become an official Australian political party. 'We are currently an online community, working together with the intention of becoming a registered party, and we're coming closer to reaching that goal,' Serkowski said. 'If we can get the required 500 members, and be registered by year's end, I think it is highly probable that we will contest the next Federal election in Australia.' At the weekend about two percent of Germans voted for the Pirate Party, although it needed five percent to gain a seat in the Bundestag."

15 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. In other news.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    During the elections on Germany the Pirate Party there could rake in 2% of all the votes: almost a million people voted for them! Kudos, and keep going!.

  2. Freedom is born where oppression reigns by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If the U.S. doesn't want its own Piratpartiet, the government had better consider that the reason these branch offices have popped up is precisely because of heavy-handed laws that attempt to usurp the inalienable rights of users to download content for free off the internet.

    Any action against Net Neutrality, for one, will be one step towards establishing a Pirate Party here at home. Any action that tries to legislate morality on the internet will be one step towards a viable Pirate Party third party. The only real chance legislators have in the U.S. of stopping the growth of the Pirate Party here is ironically to embrace the tenets of the Pirate Party and implement the freedom of information it espouses.

    Princess Leia once put it very succinctly, "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

    1. Re:Freedom is born where oppression reigns by cjfs · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The only real chance legislators have in the U.S. of stopping the growth of the Pirate Party here is ironically to embrace the tenets of the Pirate Party and implement the freedom of information it espouses.

      Which is exactly what the goal of the party should be. They'll never form a government, but by bringing attention to the issues they can do a world of good. When you see the major parties imitating your policy, you haven't obsoleted yourself, you've won.

    2. Re:Freedom is born where oppression reigns by cjfs · · Score: 4, Interesting

      ... inalienable rights of users to download content for free off the internet ...

      Notice how the article takes the same outlook, it goes from "change the landscape of Australian politics by advocating fairer copyright, freer culture and ensuring the protection of civil liberties, sending a strong message to Mr Conroy that his censorship scheme is not welcome in Australia" to six paragraphs on getting free music.

      The challenge is to inform the public that file sharing is only one part of one issue. Hopefully the AU pirate party can stay on message and educate people there's much more to be concerned about.

  3. Website link by bbqsrc · · Score: 5, Informative

    The website link is here. :)

    --
    Disagree != mod troll.
    1. Re:Website link by bbqsrc · · Score: 3, Informative

      Also, sorry to reply to myself, but incase the site goes down, irc://irc.piratpartiet.se/#PPAu That's our IRC.

      --
      Disagree != mod troll.
  4. Yarr by acehole · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I signed up as a supporter. If you're Australian and involved in IT so should you. Even if you're not but care about censorship and IP related issues, sign up. Dont let people whose policies are dictated by industries who only have how much profit they can squeeze out as their only lobbyists on such issues.

    Help fight for your own rights, dont rely on others to do the work for you. Its time, step up.

    Sign up! Sign up! Sign up!

    --
    Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
    1. Re:Yarr by Andy_R · · Score: 3, Informative

      ...and if you are not in Australia, sign up to your local party!

      The Pirate Party will only become a major force in politics if people are prepared to put in the time, effort and cash needed to make it work. Here in the Pirate Party UK, we are facing a huge challenge to raise enough money to put up a significant number of candidates in the next general election. We have 650 constituencies, each requiring a £500 deposit before we can give voters the chance to vote pirate.

      --
      A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
    2. Re:Yarr by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Couldn't you just pay with ten double-sided copies of 50GBP notes?

  5. Piratenpartei got 2.0% in german elections by bostei2008 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Pirate_Party

    This may not sound much, but it is actually pretty good for a new and totally unknown party with a scary name. Hopefully the aims of the party (internet Censorship, civil rights etc) will now get some public attention.

    1. Re:Piratenpartei got 2.0% in german elections by Arancaytar · · Score: 3, Informative

      Exactly - the PP pulled past the rightwing extremists with flying colors and taken on the title of the "biggest of the small parties". The news agencies moved them out of "Others" into their own column. To compare, the Greens got 1.5% when they first ran, and "save the Earth" sounds easier to convince people of than "copyright needs to be revised". This was a grand success! :D

  6. Could there be a more supid name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    For a political party?

    "What's the name of your organization?"
    "The Pirate Party."
    "Oh, aren't those the ones that believe in pirating other people's hard work?"
    "No uhh... the name is a uhh... shut up, Arrr!!!!"

  7. Yes, they are expending fast by saibot834 · · Score: 3, Informative

    German Pirate Party gets some attention, though it could be more. They have been successful this far, because they address topics that major parties ignore (internet cencorship, civil rights, privacy, government transparency, open access, copyright, patents, ...). They got 0.9% at European Parliament election in June and now they got 2% in federal elections. Their membership number is exploding (currently almost 10,000, graph).
    Even though some pirates hoped for a better result, 2% is absolutely astonishing. If their success continues (and polls show that PP has 13% of all first-time voters, some time is working for us), they may very well be in the Bundestag (parliament) in four years. By comparison, Green party had 1.5% in its first federal election in 1980 and since the following election, they are represented in the Bundestag with constantly over 5%.

  8. Re:Not 2 percent in Germany by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are two tables for the results of Berlin. The first one shows the results for the 'Erststimme' (first vote) which is used to elect a direct candidate for your district. Since there were no direct candidates from the pirate party for Berlin, the number of votes is 0. The second table shows the results for the 'Zweitstimme' (second vote), which is used to assign the seats in the 'Bundestag' proportionally to all parties that gained more than 5%. As you can see, the votes for the pirate party do appear in this table.
    I hope this helps. But mind you, the German election system is extremely complicated.

    Greetings from the Germany.

  9. Re:Great... by PeterBrett · · Score: 4, Informative

    I want a British pirate party now. We need one :/

    That's okay, because we've got one! Just passed 500 paid-up members, too.

    --
    Pirate Party UK