While the Pirate Bay sale has dominated headlines recently, it wasn't that long ago where the focus was on the Pirate Bay trial. The founders of the controversial peer-to-peer sharing website were convicted of copyright infringement, which factored into their decision to sell the website they created.

The Pirate Bay fiasco made an impact on European politics as well. The Sweden Pirate Party, whose main issue is copyright reform, secured at least one seat in the European Parliament with 7.13% of the vote back in June. Now the success of that movement has jumped across the pond and inspired a new movement and a new political party: The Pirate Party of Canada. Yes, a movement has been in the works since late last month to make the Pirate Party and official, registered political entity, and they are more than halfway towards their goal. And like its Swedish counterpart, it has a very simple platform, which I have included below:

Started in 2009, the Pirate Party of Canada strives to reform Canadian copyright laws, reform the patent system, and protect every Canadian’s right to privacy. It is our current goal to complete the registration process to become an official federal party. We are in favour of : - Copyright Reform - Reform of the patents system - Better respect of privacy - Net Neutrality - Open Government









In order for the Pirate Party to become official in Canada, it needs 250 people to sign a declaration of membership to the party. Yes, that's all the Pirate Party needs to have the ability to accept donations and run on the ballot.

We think it's inevitable that the Pirate Party gets its 250 signatures. Whether it will have the same type of success as its European counterpart remains to be seen. It needs a lot more work to be taken seriously, starting with a more detailed party platform. People are passionate about copyright reform though.

I would watch this movement if I were you.

[via Hacker News]