The Pirate Party, the much previously reported political movement lobbying for radical reform of copyright laws, is trying to get a foothold in Canada.
As previously reported, The Pirate Party has been most prominent in Sweden, where they were vocal supporters of the four men behind rogue BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay as they were tried in court for their role in enabling mass copyright infringement. Media coverage of the trial and The Pirate Party's campaigning helped them win enough of the Swedish vote in this year's European elections to give them a seat in the European Parliament. The party has also enjoyed some success in Germany, and has launched here in the UK and plans to put forward candidates in next year's General Election.
In Canada the party is currently in the process of applying for federal approval so to be recognised as an official political organisation there. A spokesman for the party told TorrentFreak: "The goal is to gain at least one seat in Parliament. As soon as the party is officially registered with Elections Canada, we hope to gain a bit more of the mainstream media's attention; let Canadians know we are out there and build a community".
Canada's copyright laws, as we have previously reported, have not been hugely helpful for any content owners trying to fight online piracy through the courts. Judges there frequently say that current legislation isn't specific enough to rule that P2P file-sharing is actually illegal. There have been moves to change the laws to make them more useful for fighting file-sharing, though net firms and consumer rights groups are already lobbying against such changes, and a vocal Pirate Party is sure to add to that opposition.