There are dozens of Pirate parties around the world and although run by different people, most have something in common – the proud use of the word ‘Pirate’ in their name. But for Taiwan’s Pirate Party the term is causing all kinds of problems. The High Administrative Court has just ruled that the Party cannot use the word ‘Pirate’ to describe themselves, since citizens will confuse the Party’s aims with those of sea-based criminals.

From Argentina to Venezuala through Uruguay back up to Bosnia and Herzegovina via Nepal, Pirate parties are appearing all around the world.

From their Scandinavian roots in the Antipiratbyran movement from which the Pirate Bay was born, today Pirate policies are being spread using dozens of languages. Currently there are parties in at least 29 different countries and although subject to local variations there is one constant – the use of the word ‘Pirate’ in the party name.

But for the Taiwan Pirate Party the term is proving problematic. Its woes began earlier this year when local founder Tai Cheh logged an application to form the Party with the now standard ‘Pirate’ prefix. The application was rejected by the Ministry of the Interior as “improper” on the grounds that the word ‘pirate’ has “bad connotations”.

Tai, an associate psychology professor, immediately complained.

“It is a matter of free speech,” he said. “When parents name a child, should the government interfere and say: ‘Don’t name the child this way because it sounds bad’?”

A subsequent appeal by Tai to the Executive Yuan’s Administrative Appeals Commission was rejected in February, leading the professor to announce the filing of a lawsuit with the Tapai Administrative Court. The Court’s decision is now in and it’s bad news for the Party.

In its ruling, the High Administrative Court agreed with the Ministry of the Interior’s stance that the use of the word ‘Pirate’ did not accurately describe the true aims of the Party.

The MOI said that the term “pirate” could mislead members of the public into voting for people they believed to be real, sea-based pirates. The country’s Criminal Code outlaws acts of piracy, the MOI added.

Tai says that the English usage of the word “pirate” is associated with those who object to restrictive copyright and correspondingly his aim is to bring reform to Taiwan’s copyright and patent systems, not to form a criminal gang.

Of course, the word was originally used to describe people who engaged in crime at sea, but was later applied to those who snubbed their noses at restrictive licensing, such as in the case of ‘pirate’ radio operators.

In the history of the very first Pirate Party in Sweden, founder Rick Falkvinge says that using the term ‘pirate’ was a natural choice. In 2001, the copyright enforcement group Antipiratbyrån — (the Anti-Piracy Bureau) was formed, only to be countered two years later by Piratbyrån (the Piracy Bureau).

“Choosing that name, they wanted to signal that they were the progressives, and the antis were the regressives. These activists were the first to talk back to the copyright lobby, and immediately catapulted into media everywhere,” says Falkvinge. “Inspired by the talkback culture of Piratbyrån, a small subgroup of their activists set up a BitTorrent tracker as an experiment in the fall of 2003. They named it The Pirate Bay.”

In 2005, when copyright law was toughened again in Sweden, Falkvinge says it was time to take the war to the politicians, and threaten to take their jobs.

“It’s important to understand that at this point in Sweden, pirate policies were already established by the Piratbyrån. When the time came to politicize the issues, it was not a matter of founding a new party and start contemplating its name. It was a matter of founding The Pirate Party.”

Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom and the Pirate movement’s founder Rick Falkvinge presented their views on copyright reform to the European Parliament this week. The Pirates want to bust the myth that their ideas only center around legalizing file-sharing and offer what they see as sensible alternatives to draconian legislation such as ACTA and SOPA.

“Today’s copyright legislation is out of balance, and out of tune with the times. It has turned an entire generation of young people into criminals in the eyes of the law, in a futile attempt at stopping technological development.”

These are the first words of a new book that two Pirate Party icons shared with all members of the European Parliament this week. In a time where copyright laws increasingly violate basic human rights, Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom and Rick Falkvinge want to break this trend.

Instead of merely pointing out what is wrong with current proposals such as ACTA, they’re going a step further by offering alternatives.

“We feel that there are many people who know that the Pirate Party is unhappy with copyright legislation as it stands today, but who are unaware that we have a constructive proposal as to how it should be reformed. We are not just complaining,” Christian Engstrom told us.

In the early years the Pirate Party was often jokingly characterized as a bunch of spotty nerds who simply want free stuff. While this perception has changed somewhat in recent years, especially when Christian Engstrom joined the European Parliament, there is still a need to clarify the Party’s position.

“We wanted to explain why this issue is about preserving fundamental rights on the internet, and not just about getting free films or pop music,” says Engstrom.

“The battle over ACTA has made many politicians aware of the fact that freedom on the internet is an issue that citizens (a.k.a. voters) care about, but most mainstream politicians are not very familiar with the issue.”

The book gives a broad overview of how the current copyright monopoly is starting to degrade free speech and people’s privacy. Internet censorship proposals have become commonplace and alleged pirates are punished without due process, all without any clear evidence that more stringent measures actually cause a decline in piracy.

Therefore, one of the key issues of the book is to offer alternatives. The Pirate Party doesn’t want to abolish copyright, they want to reform it. For example, the moral rights of authors would remain unchanged, but all non-commercial copying would be legalized. In addition, DRM woud be banned entirely.

“I am hoping that the book will be helpful in that respect, and that the timing is quite good right now. If we manage to stop ACTA, the natural question becomes ‘okay, so what should we do instead?’ Then we have a realistic and sensible answer,” Engstrom told us.

Those who are interested in reading the book can download it for free in several formats. A paper version is also available on the self-publishing platform Lulu.

#1

The popularity of the Pirate Party in Germany is soaring to unprecedented heights. In a recent poll the Party received 13% of the total vote, which makes it the third largest party in the country for the first time. In neighboring Austria, citizens are also warming to the Pirate Party agenda. With 7% of the total vote, the Austrian Pirate Party has a serious shot at entering the national parliament.

Founded in September 2006, the German Pirate Party has already booked several successes in its relatively short existence.

The Party currently has dozens of members in elected offices across Germany, which is more than in all other countries combined. Most notable is the unprecedented win in the elections for the Berlin state parliament last summer, where the Pirates got 9 percent of the vote.

Continuing this success the Party is now conquering the rest of Germany. For the first time in its history the Pirate Party is now virtually the third largest party in Germany, achieving 13% of the total vote in a recent poll.

The Pirate Party surpassed the Green Party, which peaked at 11%.

In common with all other Pirate Parties across the world, the German Pirate Party’s policy focuses around three pillars; shared culture, free knowledge, and fundamental privacy. Based on recent poll results, these key points appeal to a wide audience.

While the results of the polls are promising, there is still a long way to go. The next federal elections are held late 2013, more than a year away.

The success of the German Pirates is mimicked by their neighbors in Austria, where the local Pirate Party got 7% of all votes in a recent poll.

Illustrating that the Pirates are not a fringe group, 22% of the respondents said they could see themselves voting for the Party in the coming elections.

The coming months will be crucial for both parties, as they have to keep the momentum going towards the new elections. Being in the spotlight is great for as long as there’s good news to sell.

Times can change quickly as we’ve seen in Sweden, where support for the local Pirate Party plunged a year after the European elections, resulting in a failed election bid in 2010.

Time will tell whether Europe is ready for the Pirates now.