The artists behind the action, Simon Frew and Jade Pegler1 wanted to create a visual spectacle of censorship. “We plan to get as many volunteers as possible to walk around being censored.” said Mr Frew, a member of the Pirate Party Australia. “The easiest way to do this is to wear a gag, but we’d like to encourage people to come up with more creative ways to represent the tyranny of censorship.”

Mr. Frew continued “Despite assurances that everything being blocked will be ‘the worst of the worst’, the leaked Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist that is already in place has blocked out a dentist and a school canteen website as well as sites on euthanasia and abortion. This is especially concerning in light of the furore created by Bill Henson’s work being hysterically compared to child pornography by the likes of the Prime Minister.”

“Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has repeatedly boasted of the plan to block graffiti sites on the basis that it is an illegal activity. This is a legitimate form of expression that goes back to at least Roman times and has always remained an avenue for dissent by sectors of society otherwise dispossessed. Will this extend to famous artists such as Banksy whose works are almost exclusively installed on the street?” he asked.

“We are going to get our volunteers to participate in distributed street theatre. We got the idea from flashmob events by groups like Improv Everywhere and happenings first put on by John Cage and Allan Kaprow in the 50’s. We have simple instructions that participants follow, namely walk around the city being censored. The plan is to have two meeting points organised for a start and finish, the rest will be up to the participants themselves.”

Rodney Serkowski, Pirate Party Australia Secretary commented “We fully support this event, and hope that other community organisations taking action against the Internet censorship proposal will follow suit, lending a hand to make the event a success. It’s a fun, nonintrusive way to get the message out, and one that everyone can participate in. If people aren’t comfortable walking around gagged, just come along to hand out flyers, and talk about the issue.”

“Some people initially may not be opposed to a ‘clean feed’, however usually when they read and understand the implications of the government’s censorship proposals, the reaction is not positive towards what the government is attempting. This is what the current campaign is lacking. This action helps to attract the attention of the wider community, and distribute informational material in a fun way, to a wide spectrum of people within the community.”

The action will officially start at 5:30pm, Thursday April 1. The initial meeting will be at Hyde Park North, near the fountain and will conclude in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay.

Go to http://gagthefilter.com/ for more details.

To register as an official Pirate Party branch in South Australia with Electoral Commission SA
(ECSA), the party needs to increase its local membership to at least 150. Members must sign and
send in their application forms, along with their $20.00 Founders Fee, which will cover the cost of incorporation, registration, and other ongoing costs.

With the assistance of founding members the Pirate Party will be one step closer to providing
South Australians with the option to vote ʻPirateʼ in the upcoming State election. The Pirate Party
fights for a fairer and more balanced copyright; encourage innovation and access to culture,
information and knowledge, greater government transparency and the protection of our civil
liberties.

South Australia is a key state for Pirate Party policy regarding censorship, especially the
lack of an R18+ video game rating and the recently passed legislation banning the promotion of
R18+ movies. The state was also the first to introduce unjust anti-association laws.

As South Australia is the first state coming up for election in 2010 it will also be the first to launch a local Pirate Party branch. Although this election wonʼt occur until early next year, an effective campaign forces us to achieve our required membership numbers this December 2009.

The first public SA Chapter meeting will be held Thursday 17th December 6pm at the Union Cinema, Level 5 Union House, Adelaide University.

Those interested in our policies can make a contribution by:
• Join! Become a founding member of the Pirate Party Australia by registering at http://
pirateparty.org.au/join
• Publicise! Anyone can help increase awareness and encourage membership. For the Pirate
Party to gain public support, it needs as much exposure of its policies and goals to the citizens of
Australia. Everyone can play a crucial role by informing their friends, co-workers, family, and
other like-minded individuals about the party.
• Get involved! We need pro-active members to assist with our SA campaign. To get involved
contact the SA Pirate Party Coordinators via our website below and attend the meeting.

The Pirate Party Australia is calling for founding members following the confirmation of its constitution and election of its first office holders.

Under Australian Electoral Law, the party must have 500 paid members to be recognized at a Federal Level, along with a compliant constitution and elected office holders. The latter two stages were undertaken with the support and consultation of the interim membership of the party.

The Party said in a statement that this “small but significant step” takes the Party “one step closer to providing Australian electors with the option of voting ‘Pirate’ at the next Federal election, to fight for a fairer and more balanced copyright, greater innovation and access to culture, information and knowledge, greater government transparency and the protection of our civil liberties.”

David Crafti, President of Pirate Party Australia added “With the current government attempting to implement an internet censorship regime, continuing secretive ACTA negotiations and an increasingly belligerent war on sharing, here and across the globe – it is now more important than ever that we work to protect our civil liberties, and our democracy.”

Those interested in joining the Pirate Party can obtain an application form here (pdf), and payment can be made by direct deposit, cheque, or Paypal.

Disclosure, I am an interim member of the Party, and will be signing up as a foundation member today.

The Pirate Party of Australia has been getting its act together of late, with a draft constitution published and a call for office bearers as part of the path towards registration as an official party with the Australian Election Commission (AEC.)

With registration possibly on for later this year or early next year, the party has finally gained some well earned media attention, but not all of it has been positive. (Disclosure at this point, I’m a preliminary member of the party.) Renai LeMay in ZDNet Australia, a fully owned subsidiary of the CBS writes today that the Pirate Party doesn’t stand a chance in hell of getting anyone elected at the 2010 Australian election.

He’s wrong, although in saying that the maths do make it a long shot. That aside though, it’s not impossible either, and without knowing much about those pushing the party forward, presuming their smart enough to understand the system, the odds of getting a Pirate Party member up in the Senate aren’t as long as many might naturally assume.

The following analysis is offered in the context that I’m not an expert on Australia politics, but as someone with some past experience as a previous member of the major Australian political party (four years clean), three times a State and Federal staffer, and regular campaign volunteer (including some senior positions in campaigns) over 12 years of State and Federal elections in three states. I have in my past written submissions for redistributions, and played with more numbers than I care to remember as I crunched data for in one case an electorate the size of Portugal.

The race to 14.3%

The Australian Senate works on a proportional representation that includes use of preferences; that is, even if you vote for candidate A, if he isn’t near the top, his votes get allocated to others. In the House of Representatives the system is clear cut, because under Australian electoral law you have to number every box in order of preference, so you determine the preference. However the Senate is different, because you have the option of voting “above the line” or “below the line.” Below the line the voter allocates preferences, above the line the party or candidate allocates the preferences. Most people vote above the line in the Senate because in some years, and in some states, the ballot paper has been known to exceed over a meter in length.

There are two scenarios going into the next election: a half senate or full senate election. A full senate election would only take place if supply was blocked in the Senate. So far, despite some saber rattling on all sides, this hasn’t happened and is unlikely. In a double dissolution election, the quota reduces to roughly half that of a normal half senate election (senators serve six year terms,) and a double dissolution election would be ideal for getting a Pirate Party candidate up.

Preferences

Lets presume a normal half senate election in 2010 or early 2011 (it must be held by 16 April 2011.) Renai LeMay writes that “If [minor party candidates] Steve Fielding and Nick Xenophon can make it into the Senate, the argument goes, surely anybody can” then goes on to note that “Unfortunately for the Pirate Party, it’s not that easy.”

Actually, it can be if you know how to work the system.

Lets take for example the election of Family First Senator Stephen Fielding for a Victorian Senate seat in the 2004 election. According to the ABC archives, Fielding received a grand total of 56,376 votes, or x0.1317 of one quota, from roughly 2.3 million votes. At the end of the distribution of preferences (count 285), Fielding ended up with 540,012 votes or x1.2615 of a quota, ahead of the Australian Greens who despite initially polling 263,481 votes or x0.6155 of a quota, ended up after preferences with 314,729 votes or x0.7352.

In case you didn’t get those figures: a guy with 56,376 votes got elected over another candidate who received 263,481 votes.

Preference swaps

Renai LeMay is right to one extent: the appeal of doing preference swaps with the Pirate Party will be less appealing at this election until it has proven itself at the ballot box. But likewise I think that underestimates the potential appeal of preferences the Pirate Party will offer.

It probably is a slight misnomer to say that the Pirate Party will appeal primarily to younger voters (after all, I’m 34 and I’m joining) but if the support in Australia follows what has happened in Europe, the voters will skew young. Young voters are a holy grail when it comes to Australian politics, because they’re the hardest to reach, and the least likely to follow traditional two party voting patterns.

The aim of the game isn’t so much about the Pirate Party selling itself to other parties, but what they might think they’d get out of a preference swap. You can rule the Australian Labor Party (ALP) out immediately, given one of the two party platforms at the moment is opposition of the ALP’s Chinese style censorship regime, but looking beyond Labor the party has the potential of swaps with both the Liberal Party and Australian Greens, both who oppose censorship and would be looking for preferences from Pirate Party voters.

The variable here is the type of candidate the Pirate Party puts up. The problem with single issue parties (well, the Pirate Party has two issues in Australia) is outside of those issues you hit resistance because if you’re elected you have to vote one way or the other. The way out is to commit to only support the Government of the day in return for the policies of the party being implemented; that’s actually not an unreasonable stance, and has been done before in the Australian Senate.

Lets presume the candidates can straddle. Then you have an appealing block of votes that might appeal to both the Australian Greens and the Liberal Party (as both the major third party in Australia, and the main second party). I’d actually think that Liberal preferences are a strong possibility, maybe not in every state, but those states where the Liberal Party still believes in small government. Greens I’d think would play anyway because they’d want the votes to get their candidates over the line, and on the fundamental issues of the Pirate Party, they mostly agree.

Add to that any range of independent and small party candidates. There’s not a lot of people in Australia who back the censorship stance of the ALP, so you’d think you could at least somewhere down the chart swap preferences there as well with other minor party candidates.

Then we have a potential Steve Fielding in the making.

Realistically Pirate Party preferences would more likely end up electing a Liberal or Green Senator in most states, but if there’s the strong possibility in even one or two states that the flow could work the opposite way, that’s all the party needs on its first election outing, and to actually get one or two senators up who will fight for the cause.

The path forward

As mentioned, I haven’t been in contact with the people driving the party forward, although I’m here willing and able to help where I can. I should note that despite the links to The Pirate Bay, the Pirate Party isn’t anti-copyright at all…which will surprise some people. Indeed, the party is pro-copyright, to a point. This idea that copyright extends for 70 years post the death of the author is absurd, and the party believes that copyright should expire over a reasonable period. In Europe, that’s 5 years, although the Australian Pirate Party was looking at 11-13 years (I’m not sure if they ended up supporting the longer term though.)

Getting a Senator up is like climbing Everest, but it’s not impossible even the first time out. Renai LeMay generalizes when he say’s it’s impossible, but he should look at the stats before saying that it’s impossible. Raw stats don’t lie, and the Pirate Party in Australia does have a chance, even if it’s a long shot.

If you’d like to join the Pirate Party of Australia, click here.

A German MP from the ruling Social Democrats (SDP) has resigned from the party and joined the Pirate Party in response to new censorship laws in the country.

Jörg Tauss was one of only four members of the Bundestag to vote against the censorship legislation. The German laws, unlike those from other totalitarian regimes like Iran, China and Australia, are focused strictly on child pornography, however there are deep concerns in Germany that once implemented the laws could easily be extended to other areas.

While Tauss has become the first member of the Pirate Party in the German Parliament, he has indicated that he won’t be standing for reelection in September. Germany’s election system makes it difficult for stand alone candidates to be elected or re-elected.

Which ever way we turn we are seeing the hand of technology and the Web effecting change in ways we might not have considered even five years ago. Communities are being built on Facebook that have been responsible for both corporate and government policies. News as it is happening is coming at us as fast as Twitter or Friendfeed can get it to us – usually within seconds of it being written.

Technology is returning the power of information to the people rather than consolidated corporations, of government agencies is some restrictive countries, who have for many years claimed sole ownership. We are seeing a world where technology and the human based power of the Web are saying that we have a voice in how, where and when we chose to get our news and information.

Out on the fringes though we are seeing the beginnings of yet another change, and maybe an ever more powerful one. What we are seeing is a shift in the politics of government, not just in policies but in who is taking part in making those policies in the first place.

As with all major groundswells of change this one was laughed of as being just a silly idea that would go nowhere. Then the Swedish Pirate Party won 2 (second one will come after the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified) seats in the European Parliament, which for a party that was only found a short three years ago, 2006, is pretty incredible.

Now we see that Switzerland will also be fielding a Pirate Party (Parti Pirate Suisse) of their own in an upcoming election. These two countries are not alone as there are affiliate parties popping up all around the world.

Don’t mistake this just as a bunch of young rabble rousers looking to shake up their countries politics just so they can change the laws and keep getting copyrighted goods for free. At its root this “Pirate Party” movement is more about the equality of technology for everyone. It is about telling the old guard that technology is just the money making plaything of the rich and powerful in order to maintain their grip on that money and power.

As Rick Falkvinge, Sweden’s leader of the country’s Pirate Party, said when asked about the win

“Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it,” Falkvinge said. “This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities’ mass-surveillance,” he added.

Source: Torrent Freak

We have a generation of young people very quickly coming up to the age where people start thinking about becoming politically active. These young people aren’t just happy with sticking with the old way of doing things, they want to make changes to how their world is governed and their place in that world.

Previously to the incredible rise of the Web and now Social Media it was difficult to become involved and actually see changes being made within one’s lifetime. Now though this is no longer the case. An example of this is that the Pirate Party has been active for less time that the Green Party (those government parties based around environmental issues) and yet has achieved more. In Sweden alone the party was responsible for an increase in voter turnout – something that no other party can claim.

The turnout at the elections is 43 percent, a little higher than the at the 2004 elections. This would mean that roughly 200,000 Swedes have voted for the Pirate Party. This is a huge increase compared to the national elections of 2006 where the party got 34,918 votes.

Source: Torrent Freak

Just as the world of old media has, and continues to, change so will our governments. As our use of technology and everything Web related becomes more ingrained in our society the bigger the chance of the way we are governed. As our children grow and discover the power that they really have over their place in society and the growing power of their voices because of technology and the Web the bigger the change will be.

I would wager that even as soon as ten years from now a technology based government powered by the voices of our children will be more of the norm rather than just a one off called the Pirate Party. We’ll see who will be doing the laughing then.

[a big hat tip to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing]

The Pirate Party has won a victory in the Swedish elections, getting over 200,000 votes or 7.1 percent of the the 43 percent of Swedes who voted, guaranteeing them at least one seat in the European Parlaiment.

The numbers above are preliminary as of the time of publication, but the Pirate Party is well on it’s way to victory with an overwhelming surge in popularty since the party was founded in 2006.

From Torrentfreak:

When we asked Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge about the outcome, he told TorrentFreak: “We’ve felt the wind blow in our sails. We’ve seen the polls prior to the election. But to stand here, today, and see the figures coming up on that screen” What do you want me to say? I’ll say anything”

“Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it,” Falkvinge said. “This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities’ mass-surveillance,” he added.

As TorrentFreak points out, the figures are even more remarkable among men aged 18-29, where The Pirate Party polls a staggering 55%. If an election was to take place today, The Pirate Party would poll higher than the Greens, resulting in over 19 seats in the Swedish Parliament.

The Party, founded in 2006 aims to reform copyright laws, not abolish them. Their platform includes all non-commercial copying and use being completely free, and the encouragement of file sharing and p2p networking. They don’t however believe that copyright should be abolished, instead reformed so that copyright remains in place for a maximum of 5 years, as opposed to the death plus 70 years as is usually the case today.

Pirate Party’s have been setup or are currently being setup throughout the world. Here’s the links for the United States, United Kingdom (currently offline), and Australia if you’re interested in joining.