Are you a joke party?

No. We have a serious platform of intellectual property law reform and protection of privacy rights and freedom of speech.

Are you a single issue party?

No. We don't have fully developed policies on all issues, however we do have policies on intellectual property and civil liberties. We are specifically avoiding making policies that could fracture our member base, which is why you won't see us with an education policy, even while our members tend to be highly educated. We feel that intellectual property and civil liberties are broad enough topics, which encompass such issues as internet censorship and three strikes legislation.

What are your main policy areas?
We aim to protect civil liberties and promote culture and innovation, primarily through:

• Decriminalisation of non-commercial copyright infringement
• Protection of freedom of speech rights
• Protection of privacy rights
• Opposition to internet censorship
• Support for an R18+ rating for games
• Reforming the life + 70 years copyright length
• Providing parents with the tools to run their own families.

Why don't you think that intellectual property should be treated the same as real property?

Real property is something that you can touch. In simple terms, if one person possesses it, another person cannot possess it at the same time. Intellectual property is information. If a person makes a copy of a song, the person who owns the original is not deprived of the song.

Why are you against copyright?

We are not against copyright as a concept. We are against the current implementation of copyright. In the natural world, there is no protection that allows a person to claim a monopoly on an idea. Society has created the notion of copyright in order to promote creativity. The creativity that is promoted is not solely for the financial gain of those who produce new ideas; it is for the benefit of the society's culture. Copyright typically lasts for 70 years past the death of the author. We see this as ridiculous. Also, the length of copyright has been changed several times so that almost nothing has fallen out of copyright for the last several decades.

Why “Pirate” Party? Aren’t pirates swashbuckling miscreants and thieves? Does this mean you support copyright infringement?

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.

We recognise the iniquity of those seeking to prevent the development of free culture via immoral and questionable means, whilst portraying and labelling those that share information privately, and for no monetary gain, as nothing more than villainous, degenerate ‘pirates’. We seek to halt and de-construct the digital feudalism which now pervades the market, the reform of legislation that is currently manipulated to protect obsolete business models and feudalistic copyright controls.

In response to this, the party has adopted the very term employed by associations and copyright maximalists, intended to demonise and promote further and more strict criminalisation of file sharing and free culture distribution, and used it to identify ourselves as a means of drawing attention to the fallacious nature of the label. It is true that we sail on the gales of creative destruction, however, we do so in the hope of aiding the creation of an open and democratic information society and founding of a cultural commons.

I download movies and music from time to time. Does that make me a criminal?

Yes. Unfortunately, the government considers you a criminal. That is the main reason we are here. We don't think you should be considered a criminal, so one of our main policies is to decriminalise non-commercial copyright infringement.

Do you support abolishing intellectual property entirely?

No. We believe that the original goals of intellectual property protections, which are to promote creativity and invention, are reasonable. We don't believe that prosecuting non-commercial file sharers for copying a song from the 1940s is reasonable, however.

Do you think that commercial copyright infringement or patent infringement is ok?

No. Our position is that companies should pay for the use of copyrighted works and patented designs.

Are you a recognised political party? What is your stand on X? Can I join?

Currently we are not an officially registered political party within Australia, but ultimately the goal is to become an officially registered party with the AEC, with the means to exert real political pressure to effect change of intellectual property legislation and expand public understanding of the issues surrounding them within the Australian jurisdiction. In order to attain official registered party status, we must firstly acquire 500 exclusive members, and present a written constitution defining party aims and structure. The construction of our constitution is still in progress.

The party, at this point in time, does not intend to develop policy or have official views on any issue or event outside of its primary focus of intellectual property rights and by extension, privacy issues related to current laws. The benefit of this is two fold. First, it allows the party to focus and create a solid, unified policy on these issues, without being disrupted or being misrepresented because of any other issue, and second, the freeing of culture and sharing of knowledge is something that cannot be placed at either end of the political spectrum. A believer in laissez-faire markets may agree with a socialist on the subject of free culture and copyright. To begin limiting and casting official party opinions on other political issues discredits and takes away focus from the fundamental issue on which the party was founded. This of course, does not preclude members from their individual opinions on issues outside of the parties defined scope, in fact it is encouraged, as we seek to bring together different perspectives in our policy formulation.

You can now become a Founding Member of the Pirate Party Australia, just go here and follow the steps.

Can I donate?

If you wish to donate a little you can do so, by clicking the donate button to your left. If you wish to help, sign up to the forums and contribute, write an essay, link a story, help with the policy and platform formulation and make these issues a talking point. Your time and effort is donation enough at this time.