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PPC Platform
Founded in 2009 and officially registered in 2010, the Pirate Party of Canada strives to reform Canadian information laws to meet the needs of the new century.
- Copyright Law:
- Reinforce and protect fair dealing.
- Decriminalize non-commercial file sharing, and prohibit statutory damages for non-commercial sharing.
- Allow content creators to explicitly dedicate material to the public domain.
- Reform crown copyright to ensure open access to Canadians.
- Patent Law:
- Reduce patent terms to 5 years, and require a higher standard of originality.
- Eliminate patents on genes, organisms, software, and business models.
- Reallocate funds saved in health care due to patent reform to public pharmaceutical research, the results of which are to be made publicly available.
- Privacy:
- Enforce the same privacy laws on electronic communication as the traditional postal service.
- Strengthen the powers of Privacy Commissioner.
- Fight bills and regulation that violate your right to personal privacy.
- Neutrality:
- Reform the CRTC to prevent abuses by limiting the telecom industry executives to a minority, and include consumer advocates on the board.
- Fund undersea cables to Europe and Asia rather than relying on American bandwidth and thus being subject to American regulation, including wiretap laws.
- Ensure unfettered access to telecom infrastructure for independent service providers, in order to foster broader competition.
- Open Government & Open Access:
- Create a combined approach of proactive release of information to the public while easing access by request.
- Expedite freedom of information requests and reduce costs by sharing information digitally.
- Lower or eliminate the cost of filing of FOI requests.
- Increase the power and scope of the PSIC, and establish an anonymous online dropbox system.
- Whistleblower & Journalist Protection:
- Introduce legislation to provide or reinforce protection for journalists and whistleblowers, to encourage the exposure of corruption.
- Protecting Canadians’ Charter Rights:
- The Pirate Party will stand up against violations of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, particularly infringement of freedom of expression and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
About PPC
Founded in 2009 and officially registered in 2010, the Pirate Party of Canada strives to reform Canadian information laws to meet the needs of the new century.
Canada has been a world leader in human rights, and this is a chance for Canada to once again lead the way with a modern lawful society, where all citizens are granted the respect they deserve, and their right to privacy is protected.
As technology has changed the Copyright Act has changed, allowing consumers of creative works to use them in new ways. The way we use creative content now is not the same as it was before the photocopier or the VCR. The balance within the change in copyright has been to encourage the creation, development and dissemination of culture. As Canada looks forward we must balance society’s demand for access and dissemination with the proper encouragement to create. We argue for a society where culture and knowledge are free and accessible to all on equal terms. Today’s copyright system promotes widespread and systematic abuse that actively limits both the range and access to culture.
Copyright is also used to control government documents, slowing their dissemination and generally impeding the the efficient use of publicly funded documents. Canada should be striving towards open government, where information flows freely between government and it’s citizens. Increasing the flow of communication between the government and the citizens will increase the transparency and accountability of government in turn making the government better serve Canadians.
Our goal is to change Canadian and global legislation concerning the evolving information society, which is characterized by openness and diversity. We will reach this goal by increasing respect for our fellow citizens and their privacy, making government more accessible to it’s citizens as well as the reformation of intellectual property law. The Pirate Party of Canada’s values are based on three fundamental principles:
- Personal privacy must be protected,
- Culture must be set free through copyright and patent reform,
- Government must be open.
PPC FAQ’s
Copyright & Access to Culture
What’s wrong? The internet is the most important development in the free exchange of ideas since the invention of the printing press, yet copyright laws remain in the 18th century, preventing the internet from living up to its full potential as a medium for the exchange of art and information.
What can we do about it? We want to adjust copyright to meet the needs of artists first, consumers second, and big business third. We’ll shorten copyright terms and reduce their scope to prohibit commercial copying only. Doing so will return to the original purpose of copyright: to protect the ability of an artist to make a living rather than to grant exclusive “ownership” of an idea for life. Ideas are too valuable to treat as commodities, and are at their best when shared.
Privacy
What’s wrong? Modern technology makes it trivially easy to track and monitor all aspects of your life, and the regulations that should protect you from unwanted surveillance are inadequate to the needs of the 21st century.
What can we do about it? We want to extend privacy laws to provide the same protections to all of our digital data that already exist today for non-digital items such as conventional mail. Furthermore, we will strengthen prohibitions on information collected for one stated purpose by one organization being shared with and used by another, even between government departments. Dystopic societies arise not just from the volume of data collected, but the way in which that data is combined and used.
Patent Law
What’s wrong? Patents are intended to encourage innovation by granting the owner a temporary monopoly on the use of a particular work in order to give them a chance to bring the product to market before it is snapped up by competitors. However, today patent law is used as a tool for big businesses to crowd out competition, undermining both the purpose and the common interest of patent law.
What can we do about it? We want to shorten patent terms, increase the onus of originality required for granting a patent, and completely eliminate patents in the following areas: software, pharmaceuticals, business models, genes, and life forms. By doing so, we’ll ensure that patent law meets the purpose of enhancing competition while protecting those working to bring an original product to market.
Net Neutrality
What’s wrong? In recent years, several Canadian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have started slowing down certain types of data sent to and received from the Internet by their private customers, supposedly in order to prevent overloading their networks. However, there is little evidence available which proves that this is actually the case and that ISPs are not simply degrading performance to prevent competition. For example, a telephone company could reduce the quality of Skype calls over their DSL lines.
What can we do about it? We want to enact legislation requiring all internet service providers to offer the same level of service for all applications and Internet services, without discrimination. In other words, we want to ensure that customers get exactly the service they pay for, without exceptions or special limitations on specific services like P2P applications.
Open Government & Open Access
What’s wrong? In the course of its daily operations, the Canadian government collects and produces large amounts of valuable data. Unfortunately this information is rarely accessible to the public, even though it has been paid for with your money.
What can we do about it? We see it as our goal to ensure that the government works for its citizens and not vice-versa. The government’s actions and the data it produces must be made publicly available to Canadians wherever possible, using standardized, open and vendor-neutral data formats. We also want to ensure that all research funded by taxpayer money is made available to the public, thereby ensuring the principles of open access. This will help maintain Canada’s cultural and scientific heritage by ensuring equal access to these values for everyone in our society.
PPC Information
Short-form Name: Pirate Party
Party Leader: Mr. Mikkel Paulson
National Headquarters:
165 – 43 Samson Boulevard
Laval QC H7X 3R8
Tel: 1-877-850-7722
Fax: 1-800-360-2194
Web site: www.pirateparty.ca
Eligible: 2010-04-12
Registered: 2010-11-06
Chief Agent: The Pirate Party of Canada Fund
c/o Mr. Stephane Bakhos
165 – 43 Samson Boulevard
Laval QC H7X 3R8
Tel: 1-877-850-7722
Fax: 1-800-360-2194
Auditor: Gilbert Bastings, B.A.A., C.A. Inc.
c/o Mr. Gilbert Bastings, CA
4899 – 5th Avenue
Montréal QC H1Y 2S1
Tel: 514-597-1679
Fax: 514-597-1586
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