The Pirate Party has come to Australia!
Many people will be turned off due to the name. For people who think that intellectual property laws are fine the way they are, they will probably think that the Pirate Party is a bunch of anti-establishment radicals. For those who understand the issue, there will still be many who won't get past the name, and will assume that it's a joke party, like Family First... Oh wait, what?
Anyway, I am looking past the name. The party stands for rolling back copyright and patent protections to what they were meant to be: A device "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." Copyright law was not intended to generate a steady income stream for the great-grandchildren of people who once implemented an idea. It was meant to be used as motivation for people to discover and produce things for the good of humankind.
Another main policy issue of the Pirate Party will be to fight for a Bill of Rights, similar to the one included in the U.S. Constitution. The main areas of focus will be on freedom of speech/expression and on the right to privacy, as well, I am sure, on explicitly stating something equivalent to the 9th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that rights not being listed in the Bill of Rights, does not mean that the People don't have the rights. The basic idea behind any free society is that the government's power derives from the people. We don't say "Here, take all of our freedom, except these bits we reserve for ourselves." We say "Take this bit of power to maintain social order. Here are some things you'd better not mess with, but don't think that you can control us in ways that we haven't explicitly authorised."
Anyway, these are the main issues of the Pirate Party, and into these categories fall issues like Internet censorship. They are not a single-issue party though, even if not all of their policies are well developed. Their platform seems to be fully compatible with mine, so it's for this reason that I have joined the party, and I am running for President of the party (as well as some other positions should I not be elected as President).
The election will be conducted online at 8pm (EST) on Wednesday 7th October. I would appreciate if you would join (there is no obligation) by Monday 5th October at 8pm so you can vote for me.
If you have any questions, post a comment and I'll get back to you soon.
Regards,
David Crafti
