Who is interested in this? [Introductions Thread]

[ryan]

Welcome Candelina,

Looks like we're starting to get a little more momentum on the board!

I like your idea of everyone searching their contacts for interested people and forming little groups where possible! Don't forget to keep us informed about what your research group is up to.

And tell us where you are, just in case there are others nearby with similar interests!

Ryan
at McGill

[ryan]

Regarding Logos: I agree with Jeremy - the Canada skull is great, but not quite serious enough. The Canada leaf on the flag strikes a good balance between piracy, Canada, and legitimacy!!
I don't agree with PieKey. Just because we have one good official logo doesn't mean we shouldn't be creating others. The more creative people we have creating and sharing images, the more resources we'll have to draw from when creating posters, websites, etc. We can't have too many pirate party images.

Regarding Wiki: I really like the idea of getting a wiki rolling. But I don't like the add-filled pirateparty.wikia.com. I think this board is a great place to work and meet right now while we are trying to draw people in.

To everyone interested in getting involved: make sure to include your location and what you are good at. This way, pirates in your area or groups who need a particular task completed can contact you!

[caustin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08gfh_6sbQI

This is a video on copyright laws vs. civil liberties by the founder of the Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge. Anyone interested in the Pirate Party should give it a watch. I decided to post it here rather then give it it's own thread.

[Bersekr]

Hey All,

I've been following this stuff for sometime and decided to go out to search out a few threads on the matter.

I've seen a bit of activity here, all the websites are dead or inactive which tells me things are struggling. But I think if regional contacts are cultivated it might help things expand.

I'd like to propose we take a consensus of who is all active here and then make contact with Dr. Michael Geist about how we can move on to the next step.

[ryan]

I like your idea about contacting Professor Geist. Indeed, I like it so much that sent him an email a little over a week ago. I tried to ask for his casual feelings on the formation of a Canadian Pirate Party.

Here is the response:

Hi Ryan,

Speaking for myself, I'm against putting energy into a Canadian Pirate
Party. I understand the motivation, but I think that it is better to
try to get the existing party structure to shift. A pirate party is
too far outside the mainstream to have the big impact, at least in the
short-to-medium term.

MG

On 25-May-09, at 12:25 PM, Ryan wrote:

> Hello Professor,
>
> My name is Ryan. I'm about to start a master's at McGill's School
> of Information Studies.
>
> As I scheme with several other students about the launch of a Pirate
> Party of Canada Club at McGill, I wonder if you have opinions on the
> following question:
>
> Ought Canada to have a formal Pirate Party? ...


I'm not discouraged or especially surprised by his response. It is important that his voice remain credible and moderate in the mainstream IP discourse, and I don't think it would be wise for him to consort too keenly with the fringes of the the political spectrum. I don't think we should expect too much enthusiasm from any established heroes of the IP debate until we have proved that we take ourselves seriously and gather some real momentum.

I disagree with the idea that the Pirate Party is too far off the mainstream to have a significant impact. The Canadian Green Party provides a nice example of the kind of impact we might hope to have. The Green Party, almost unknown two elections ago, threatened to steal so many votes away from the centre-left that the Liberals adopted an unprecedented environmental platform. If a Pirate Party can produce a similar effect, even at a fraction of that scale, it would have made significant impact. I agree with the professor, that the big changes will happen within the mainstream parties, but I think that a well-crafted and enthusiastic Pirate Party movement has the capacity to force our worries about IP and Privacy into the mainstream.

I like the census idea. The forum is becoming more and more lively. It will be nice to learn who's interested, how much time they imagine committing, where people are, etc.

[Bersekr]

Yeah I'm sort of surprised by that too!

I can understand his point and where his focus lies, he's good at what he does


The advantage we have is we can start just by going grassroots with and 'informal association' and let it grow organically from there?

I think doing a roll call thread is in order, from there we can sorta group together by region / activity.

[cpt_chris]

i think it will be most important to get a functioning website first, then attract others with political experience and interests like ours in order to get a canadian pirate party going.

[ProprietaryRPM]

I can't vote yet, but I can help get info out to the Eastern Townships (Quebec). The Bloc usually wins this riding, but votes for the Pirate Party would potentially help with funding.

[txwikinger]

I would like to be a member too.

[txwikinger]

Is it enough to register a federal party, or is it necessary to also register provincial parties?

[ovid]

Hey all! I'm officially throwing my support behind the nascent Canadian Pirate Party, and would love to help in any way. I could definitely write promotional material or help with the text of the website. I could also help set up a BC chapter.

By the way, do any of you have contacts in the Marijuana Party? They're a pretty libertarian bunch, so our platforms should have substantial overlap.

@txwikinger
We should probably start out federally, given that the federal government seems to have the most control over copyright/privacy policy.

[cpt_chris]

i support the legalization of the sale and consumption of all soft drugs for responsible grown people and an end to arresting the sick and the innocent. the pirate party is like the marijuana movement in canada as they are large single issue movements run mostly by younger people. if a canadian pirate party is set up i assume most of its supporters as with the green party will support repealing these laws.

the demographic will likely prove to be mostly geeks and students who think differently. it would be great to extend the reach as much as possible, but in the end it is clear that conservatives and corporations will be the largest enemies of this movement as they are with the struggle of legalizing marijuana in canada (which is a fight nearing its victory in the americas).

keeping in touch with canada's smaller parties like the marijuana party could be a wise decision if a pirate party is registered federally.

an interesting thing about that issue is the greens, bloc, liberals and ndp now fight to reform marijuana laws to some extent. the members of the marijuana party and the high population of cannabis consumers in canada has led to a teaching of the mainstream parties. they now understand this issue that was once given little attention. hopefully the pirate movement can teach the mainstream parties of canada a thing or two about the internet.

[ryan]

I agree that we should get things up and running federally before we worry to much about provincial parties. Federal is more important for IP and Privacy and we keep things simple by getting the federal party up and running first.

[Acesolid]

[rob.s.brit]

Hey everyone, I just registered:

piratepartyofcanada dot com and dot ca (this is my first post so I can't type them out as URLs)

Let's get this show on the road!