Party of the Week: Pirate Party of Austria

This week's Pirate Party of the Week is the Pirate Party of Austria.

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Will the Pirate Party of Austria participate in any upcoming elections? Please tell us about your expectations for the elections.

We will try to participate in the upcoming municipal elections in Vienna. While we hope the best, we are not sure what to expect, as there are many organisational problems and only very few pirates by comparison who are willing to solve them.

We had our first municipal election in Bregenz earlier this year and got 1,6%. If we can reach that percentage in the other elections it would be already a success and - of course - raise awareness for our cause.

What are the core topics of the Pirate Party of Austria? Are there topics that are unique to the Pirate Party of Austria , something that distinguishes them from other Pirate Parties?

Our core topics are:

• Privacy/Data Protection,
• Reform of the copyright law
• Free Knowledge/Education
• Reform of the patent law

The topics are sorted by current (media) popularity. Privacy is a big issue at the moment, while the problems with patent laws are mostly ignored.

However, we also address issues outside these official core topics, whenever we feel it is necessary (and in the spirit of the pirate movement) like other violations of civil rights (besides privacy infringement), transparency, corruption or open source software.

Other than that there are no unique topics - on national level - but as the member count is rising, so is the demand for new topics. We currently try to find a good way to establish new topics and hope, that the liquid feedback software of the german pirates will be helpful in that cause.

Tell us more about the inner structure of PP-Austria.

Since the end of the last year, more and more state organisations have been founded, allowing us to work on two levels:

• national level
• state level

The national level consists mainly of the seven board members, who have to ensure that the party can and will work to achieve its objectives. That means managing the member and financial organization, solving technical issues, motivating pirates to do something, meeting with pirates from different states, especially when there is a crisis, but also to strengthen relations between state organizations and board members. Last but not least the board members have to organise the national elections.

The state organisations try to raise awareness for the pirate party in their respective state. They do so by handing out flyers, organising events and of course try to get on the ballot in state elections.

Besides the two levels, there are "Taskforces", who deal with different issues. Some help the board members, like the technical Taskforce or the administrative Taskforce. Other are responsible for writing press releases, newsletters or for collecting all available info to an issue like e.g. INDECT. There are also taskforces which jump into action just once a year, like the one which organises the general assembly or the one that organises the "Freedom not Fear"-day.

If you think 5 years ahead, what will be different compared to today's situation?

Hopefully we will have achieved over 4% in the National Council Elections to gain seats in the Austrian Parliament.

Peoples attention will be drawn to our topics, which in turn forces the other parties to adapt these to their programs.

How do you manage to keep your financial balance? Do you have any special fund-raising methods? How can people support PP-Austria?

Our membership fee is 15 Euro per half year (although, despite our automated reminder mail there are only ~60% who are actually paying).

The only special fund raising method we have so far is getting a special board rank (Wooden-, Bronze-, Silver- or Gold Pirate) by paying between 3 and 20 Euro/Month.

We usually ask the members who come to our regular meeting, how much they would donate for a certain expense.

People can support us either by donating to our bank account:
IBAN: AT732025604500152105
BIC: SPSPAT21

or by donating to our paypal account:
www.piraten.in/paypal

Donations are most appreciated, as we need as much as we can get for the election campaigns and awareness raising events regarding ACTA or the "Freedom not Fear"-day.

How many members does PP-Austria have at the moment? Can foreigners become members of PP-Austria?

Currently (15th June 2010) we have 530 members. Our members counter can be found at on our homepage: www.piratenpartei.at

Foreigners can of course become members of our party. We are happy about every new member that shares our belief in a free society, no matter where he or she comes from.

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• Pirate Party of Austria Website: https://www.piratenpartei.at/
• Pirate Party of Austria on Twitter: http://twitter.com/piratenparteiat
• Pirate Party of Austria on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PiratenparteiAT