29 May 2012

Ahoy mateys, the Pirate Party setting sail in Canberra

| johnboy
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pirate party logo

The other day at a party I was handed a membership application for The Pirate Party Australia so they’re recruiting in Canberra which I think is interesting.

For mine I don’t want to live in a world where movies can only be made by in advance crowd-sourcing and merchandising tie-ins, so I’m wary of the freetard mentality.

On the other hand while content creators have made great strides recently to make their wares available digitally, in a timely manner and at a sensible cost, we must acknowledge this would not have happened without the pressure of the pirates.

I’d certainly love to see them run here in Canberra come October.

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Update on numbers: 26 more members needed,
We’ve confirmed that we have until midnight tomorrow to make our submission by email, so there is still time to join.
https://join.pirateparty.org.au

tonkatuff82 said :

App signed and sent. Can’t wait to board ship

Welcome aboard, matey!

App signed and sent. Can’t wait to board ship

poetix said :

Thanks. With a sense of humour like that, you’ll be a great pollie. My parrot just died.

I’m sure it is just pining for the fjords.
Maybe if you put on your pirate costume, eye patch and offer it some rum, it’ll perk back up again.

HenryBG said :

I’m in.

Anything to give us a choice beyond the usual suspects.

Spread the word.
The pirates are coming.

c_c said :

Grail said :

The Pirate Party’s policies on Copyright relate to stupidly long terms (life + 70yrs) for Copyright, the transferability of Copyright (i.e.: Disney can buy the copyright for a product from the original author who then has no claim), and draconian copyright legislation like the DMCA.

Get stuffed. Artists are been bled dry as it is without you freetards complaining.

Artists aren’t bled dry by anybody – they are drip-fed by the large multinationals that own their IP. If they are even fed at all.

The price of CDs is essentially the same today as it was in 1987, 25 years ago.
And artists continue to be paid virtually zero per sale, except for a very small stable who benefit from all the multinationals’ marketing activities.

The notion of copyright might be sensible, but its application by the american companies that specialise in IP-squatting is REAL piracy.

pirate_taco said :

Time is running out for the Pirate Party to register as a political party in Canberra, and we still need more ACT registered members.

To see pirates on the ballot, join us before this Friday.
join.pirateparty.org.au

I’m in.

Anything to give us a choice beyond the usual suspects.

pirate_taco said :

poetix said :

I thought this was a spin-off from speak like a pirate day, and had purchased a parrot, a gallon of rum and an eyepatch. Since when do pirates have policies?

Pirates have had policies since 2006 when the Swedish Piratpartiet was formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_party
Pirate Party Australia has existed for around 4 years, but the ACT branch is much younger.

Thanks. With a sense of humour like that, you’ll be a great pollie. My parrot just died.

poetix said :

I thought this was a spin-off from speak like a pirate day, and had purchased a parrot, a gallon of rum and an eyepatch. Since when do pirates have policies?

Pirates have had policies since 2006 when the Swedish Piratpartiet was formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_party
Pirate Party Australia has existed for around 4 years, but the ACT branch is much younger.

I thought this was a spin-off from speak like a pirate day, and had purchased a parrot, a gallon of rum and an eyepatch. Since when do pirates have policies?

Here is an example of what we are trying to fix, illustrated in fry meme form.

http://qkme.me/3pul7v

Time is running out for the Pirate Party to register as a political party in Canberra, and we still need more ACT registered members.

To see pirates on the ballot, join us before this Friday.
join.pirateparty.org.au

fnaah said :

“I don’t know why they use “Pirate Party” as their name. It just encourages ignorance about what they really stand for.”

See also: Liberal Party.

+1

Myles Peterson12:14 pm 30 May 12

Welcome, folks.

Look forward to policies such as the use of open source software in government departments and schools. Propitiatory software companies have enjoyed a free-ride in Canberra at the expense of the taxpayer for far too long.

Grail said :

…draconian copyright legislation like the DMCA.

I also need to point out that it is the mechanisms built into the DMCA regarding webmasters and copyright infringement they have not undertaken, but none the less host, is precisely what will enable the RiotACT to have the company running WordPress.com (the hosted version of WordPress) take down that nutter who is publishing moderated comments.

Grail said :

The Pirate Party’s policies on Copyright relate to stupidly long terms (life + 70yrs) for Copyright, the transferability of Copyright (i.e.: Disney can buy the copyright for a product from the original author who then has no claim), and draconian copyright legislation like the DMCA.

Get stuffed. Artists are been bled dry as it is without you freetards complaining.

Grail said :

How many of us have ripped a Region 1 DVD so we can watch it at home without permanently altering the DVD player attached to the TV?

Never had to, I just get region free DVD players. They’re common enough. For computers, just have one drive for each region. Both are legal solutions.

Grail said :

How many of us have ripped CDs to play the recordings we’ve purchased on our personal music player (i.e.: iPod, Rio, Zune)? Doing that is a criminal offense under the Copyright Act.

Has been legal in Australia for a long time.

johnboy said :

By choosing the name they choose to take on the freetard association in my book..

Every time I hear freetard I can’t help but thinking of this video: Stallmans free software song

The gpl is a product of copyright, not a repudiation.

Grail said :

The Pirate Party’s policies on Copyright relate to stupidly long terms (life + 70yrs) for Copyright, the transferability of Copyright (i.e.: Disney can buy the copyright for a product from the original author who then has no claim), and draconian copyright legislation like the DMCA.

The other side of the coin is also happening in the UK where copyright exists for 50 years, meaning that some artists who are still performing such as Cliff Richard, have recorded songs in their younger years that are no longer covered by copyright.

Mysteryman said :

I don’t know why they use “Pirate Party” as their name. It just encourages ignorance about what they really stand for.

Because it sounds cool and gets them media attention.

If they were to get lucky, developed a bit of a following in the future and consistently get a decent share of the vote, they will be forever accused of being a one issue party who are somehow naughty if they express an opinion on anything not covered in the party name. Like the Greens do.

“I don’t know why they use “Pirate Party” as their name. It just encourages ignorance about what they really stand for.”

See also: Liberal Party.

By choosing the name they choose to take on the freetard association in my book.

For all that I’ll agree they do have some good policies, and I look forward to seeing them putting on a good show in Australia.

Grail said :

Wow, such hyperbole Johnboy!

Do you have any evidence to support your claim that under the Pirate Party’s policies, movies would only be made by advance crowd-funding and merchandising tie-ins? Do you have any evidence to support your claim that the Pirate Party are a group of “freetards”?

The Pirate Party’s policies on Copyright relate to stupidly long terms (life + 70yrs) for Copyright, the transferability of Copyright (i.e.: Disney can buy the copyright for a product from the original author who then has no claim), and draconian copyright legislation like the DMCA.

The Pirate Party Australia, in no way advocates the illegal duplication and distribution of copyrighted materials, or the breaking of any other laws, especially those of the high sea.

Copyright is an abstract concept, a monopoly constructed for the control of creative works created by statute, however, one which we recognise is necessary for the creator of a work that is intended to be used commercially, to assert a degree of control and recognition for a pre-determined time frame, however we disagree with the degree and length of control that the law currently allows which now acts to constrain, rather than foster innovation, and leads to the criminalisation of an entire generation who are sharing knowledge, culture and information freely and for no monetary gain, and a movement by proponents of copyright towards the erosion of civil liberties.

(from their FAQ page, if you had bothered to read it)

If you believe that Limewire should be liable for more money than exists on the planet due to facilitating Copyright infringement, go ahead and label the Pirate Party as “freetards”. Don’t come complaining to me when you put a Blu-Ray movie in your PS3 which then stops playing all your other Blu-Ray disks due to a key publishing error (did you know that Blu-Ray players keep a list of valid keys, and each Blu-Ray disk contains a revocation list?)

How many of us have ripped CDs to play the recordings we’ve purchased on our personal music player (i.e.: iPod, Rio, Zune)? Doing that is a criminal offense under the Copyright Act.

How many of us have removed the DRM from an ePub so we can read it on an old eInk reader that doesn’t support Adobe DRM?

How many of us have ripped a Region 1 DVD so we can watch it at home without permanently altering the DVD player attached to the TV?

These are the stupidities which the Pirate Party aims to address. They’re not advocating piracy in any way, shape or form.

THIS.

I don’t know why they use “Pirate Party” as their name. It just encourages ignorance about what they really stand for.

fnaah said :

Not here it isn’t. We’re allowed to format shift.

Check the US “Free Trade” agreement which circumvents Australian regulations on imports from the USA into Australia, but also requires Australia to respect and prosecute for US Copyright and Patent regulations, thus restrictions on format shifting when it involves circumventing technical copyright protection measures (i.e.: DRM such as CSS on DVDs).

As a result of the “Free Trade” agreement, we are subject to the USA’s DMCA. Exceptions to the FTA allow Australians to circumvent DRM, but forbid access to the tools for such circumvention.

Personally, I remove the DRM from encumbered media using Rei-Ki. I certainly don’t use any banned tools to do so.

“How many of us have ripped CDs to play the recordings we’ve purchased on our personal music player (i.e.: iPod, Rio, Zune)? Doing that is a criminal offense under the Copyright Act.”

Not here it isn’t. We’re allowed to format shift.

Wow, such hyperbole Johnboy!

Do you have any evidence to support your claim that under the Pirate Party’s policies, movies would only be made by advance crowd-funding and merchandising tie-ins? Do you have any evidence to support your claim that the Pirate Party are a group of “freetards”?

The Pirate Party’s policies on Copyright relate to stupidly long terms (life + 70yrs) for Copyright, the transferability of Copyright (i.e.: Disney can buy the copyright for a product from the original author who then has no claim), and draconian copyright legislation like the DMCA.

The Pirate Party Australia, in no way advocates the illegal duplication and distribution of copyrighted materials, or the breaking of any other laws, especially those of the high sea.

Copyright is an abstract concept, a monopoly constructed for the control of creative works created by statute, however, one which we recognise is necessary for the creator of a work that is intended to be used commercially, to assert a degree of control and recognition for a pre-determined time frame, however we disagree with the degree and length of control that the law currently allows which now acts to constrain, rather than foster innovation, and leads to the criminalisation of an entire generation who are sharing knowledge, culture and information freely and for no monetary gain, and a movement by proponents of copyright towards the erosion of civil liberties.

(from their FAQ page, if you had bothered to read it)

If you believe that Limewire should be liable for more money than exists on the planet due to facilitating Copyright infringement, go ahead and label the Pirate Party as “freetards”. Don’t come complaining to me when you put a Blu-Ray movie in your PS3 which then stops playing all your other Blu-Ray disks due to a key publishing error (did you know that Blu-Ray players keep a list of valid keys, and each Blu-Ray disk contains a revocation list?)

How many of us have ripped CDs to play the recordings we’ve purchased on our personal music player (i.e.: iPod, Rio, Zune)? Doing that is a criminal offense under the Copyright Act.

How many of us have removed the DRM from an ePub so we can read it on an old eInk reader that doesn’t support Adobe DRM?

How many of us have ripped a Region 1 DVD so we can watch it at home without permanently altering the DVD player attached to the TV?

These are the stupidities which the Pirate Party aims to address. They’re not advocating piracy in any way, shape or form.

I like their support for “Pony time” in parliament.

Forget Health, Education and the Economy. Free Movies!!!

I like their choice of font.

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