As the good ship PBW leaves shore for the relaxed lifestyle in the carribean on a long lost deserted island (that has a distillery) a distress call is received from the land down under by the newly formed Pirate party.
Captain Deb, never shy of a squarking battle, instructs the crew to "TURN SHARP LEFT YE VARMINTS AND HEAD THATAWAY. WE ARE GOING TO HELP THE PIRATE PARTY
The crew, being generally pi..ed as nutes, think that there is going to be a party on board for Pirates. Now most of the crew, being hard of hearing, usually get the wrong end of the stick so it was of no surprise to the Captain that the crew all go down into the grogmeisters cellar and get stuck into the rum barrels. A few of the crew, who shall remain nameless like Pooter and girly whirly, are hear gurggling as they dived into the barrels but hey, who cares, its one for yerself and yerself for one! - mmm, think I got that mixed up a bit.
Anyway, the Captain, flies (she is a bird after all) down into the galley, whipping everyone with the battery powered feather dusters and instructing them to get back onto the deck coz of the new mission. The squarks and feathers are flying all over the show.
Below is an extract from today's main newspaper
Hey Captain - I think the term Pirate is a little different here!
Aussie Pirate Party plans election onslaughtASHER MOSES
September 30, 2009 - 11:58AM Be the first to comment
A Pirate Party demonstration in Sweden. Photo: Jon Aslund
After winning 7.1 per cent of Swedish votes in this year's European Parliament elections, The Pirate Party has opened up a branch in Australia and plans to contest the next federal election.
The party, which will campaign on a platform of anti-internet censorship and the decriminalisation of non-commercial file sharing, has already signed up 550 members, enough for it to register as a party with the Australian Electoral Commission.
It plans to hold internal elections for leadership positions - president, general secretary, treasurer and their deputies - on October 7.
But party spokesman Brendan Molloy was quick to point out that free file sharing was only one aspect of the overall mission, which was to "bolster our nation's Democratic conventions".
"We've here to actively change the landscape of Australian politics forever, by advocating freer copyright and protection of our civil liberties, especially against [Communications Minister Stephen] Conroy's censorship regime, which is not welcome in Australia," he said.
"We also have a strong stance for the reform of the patent system to be much fairer, especially in regards to pharmaceuticals and software."
In the European Parliament elections in June, the Pirate Party won 7.1 per cent of Swedish votes, allowing its leader, Christian Engstroem, to take one of Sweden's 18 seats in the European Parliament.
The group gained significant traction in Sweden following this year's introduction of laws that criminalised file sharing and the sentencing of four Swedes to a year in jail for running illegal download site The Pirate Bay.
In the recent German elections, The Pirate Party won 2 per cent of the vote, short of the 5 per cent required to gain a seat in the German Parliament. Spiegel Online reported that the party won as much as 13 per cent of votes for first-time male voters.
Further, in the German city council elections held in August, the group gained seats in the Munster and Aachen councils.
The party has branches in 35 countries and they all co-operate via a collective called Pirate Party International.
The Australian branch is headed by a University of Sydney law student, Rodney Sarkowsky. He was not available for comment but told ITNews he would contest the next federal election provided he was permitted to register as a political party.
The party argues that file sharing should be legalised and, far from being detrimental to artists, was one of their best means of advertising their music.
It is worried by recent revelations that Conroy is considering legislation that would have persistent file sharers disconnected from the internet.
"Our policies are all geared towards copyright reform, patent reform, anti-censorship, non-commercial file sharing, policy in regards to having Digital Rights Management abolished and policy supporting the right to privacy of every Australian," Molloy said.
Despite its clear overseas success, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft does not appear to be alarmed by the presence of the Pirate Party in Australia.
"It will be interesting to see if a party advocating illegal activity is able to contest the election," a spokeswoman said.
"If they are able, perhaps they could do a preference deal with the Shoplifting Party."
Online activist group GetUp campaigns on similar issues to the Pirate Party and has obtained more than 115,000 signatures for its petition opposing Conroy's internet censorship policy.
GetUp chief executive officer Simon Sheikh said his organisation might decide to work with the Pirate Party on campaigns but could not support any individual party directly "because we're a non-partisan organisation".
"In saying that, we believe in intellectual property reform and we believe in protecting Australia's internet from Senator Conroy's censorship agenda," he said.
A spokesman for Conroy did not respond to calls requesting comment.
Laz
