Pirate Parties International

Pirate Parties International (PPI) is a not-for-profit international non-governmental organisation with its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.[1] Formed in 2010, it serves as a worldwide organisation for Pirate Parties, currently representing members from 42 countries. The Pirate Parties are political incarnations of the freedom of expression movement, trying to achieve their goals by the means of the established political system rather than through activism. In 2017 PPI had been granted special consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.[2]

For the general concept, see Pirate Party.
Pirate Parties International
AbbreviationPPI
Formation18 April 2010 (2010-04-18)
TypeInternational nongovernmental organisation
Legal statusAssociation
PurposePolitical
HeadquartersBrussels, Belgium
Membership
Pirate parties and affiliated associations
Chairperson
Bailey Lamon
Vice-Chairperson
Gregory Engels
Main organ
General Assembly
Websitewww.pp-international.net
  Elected in EU Parliament
  Elected nationally
  Elected locally
  Registered for elections
  Registered in some states
  Unregistered but active
  Status unknown
  Ordinary members
  Observer members in some states
  Resigned
  Removed due to dissolution or disbanding

Aims

The PPI statutes[3] give its purposes as:

to help establish, to support and promote, and to maintain communication and co-operation between pirate parties around the world.

The PPI advocate on the international level for the promotion of the goals its Members share such as protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the digital age, consumer and authors rights oriented reform of copyright and related rights, support of information privacy, transparency and free access to information.

The name "Pirates" itself is a reappropriation of the title that was given to internet users by the representatives of the music and film industry, and does not refer to any illegal activity.

History

The first Pirate party was the Swedish Piratpartiet, founded on 1 January 2006. Other parties and groups were formed in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. In 2007, representatives of these parties met in Vienna, Austria to form an alliance and plan for the 2009 European Parliament elections.[4] Further conferences were held in 2008 in Berlin and Uppsala, the latter leading to the "Uppsala Declaration" of a basic platform for the elections.[5]

In September 2008, Andrew Norton (United States) was appointed as coordinator of the PPI collective. In August 2009 he stepped down[6] and passed the function of coordinator over to the "coreteam" led by Pat Mächler and Samir Allioui.[7]

In 2009, the original Pirate Party won 7.1% of the vote[8] in Sweden's European Parliament elections and won two of Sweden's twenty MEP seats, inspired by a surge in membership following the trial and conviction of three members of the ideologically aligned Pirate Bay a year earlier.[9]

On 18 April 2010, the Pirate Parties International was formally founded in Brussels at the PPI Conference from April 16 to 18.[1]

The Uppsala Declaration

At the 2009 conference of Pirate Parties International in Uppsala (Sweden), European Pirate parties agreed on a common declaration of the parties' goals for the upcoming election of the European Parliament.[10][11] Central issues of the declaration are:

  • reform of copyright, exemption of non-commercial activity from copyright regulation, reduction of the duration of copyright protections; banning of DRM technologies, opposition to media or hardware levies;
  • reform of patent law, particularly stating that patents on life (including patents on seeds and on genes) and software should not be allowed;
  • strengthening civil rights, transparent government, speedy and fair trial, freedom of speech and expansion of the right to anonymity in communication.

The Prague Declaration

At 2012 conference of Pirate Parties International in Prague (Czech Republic), European Pirate parties agreed to run in the elections to the European Parliament in the year 2014 with a common program as well as establish a European political party. The declaration[12] has been followed by conferences in Potsdam and Barcelona to work on the structure of the legal body to come and the statutes for it.

Resignations

In February 2015, Pirate Party Australia resigned from PPI due to serious disagreement with the direction and management of the organisation.[13] In the same month, Pirate Party UK also resigned[14] and in March the Belgian Pirate Party suspended its membership within PPI.[15]

On 20 April 2015, the Pirate Party of Iceland voted overwhelmingly to leave PPI.[16] A member of the executive, Arnaldur Sigurðarson, reported a 96.56% vote in favour of leaving, adding: “PPI has been pretty much useless when it comes to its objectives which should be to encourage international cooperation between Pirate Parties.”

In May 2015, the Pirate Party of Sweden resolved with a significant majority to leave PPI, cancelling their observer status.[17]

In July 2016, the Pirate Party of Canada officially withdrew from Pirate Parties International citing ongoing troubles with the organization as well as a failure to adequately provide any accomplishments over its history.

Structure

The PPI is governed by a board, formerly led by two co-chairs,[18] and since Warsaw conference of 2015 by a chair and a vice-chair. Policy, governance, and applications for membership are the responsibility of the PPI General Assembly which must convene at least once per year.[19] By the current rules, board members are elected for a two-year term, half of the board being elected every year.

PPI Board
Year Co-Chairs (chair & vice-chair from 2015 onwards) General Secretary Treasurer Member of the board Alternates
2010/2011 Grégory Engels,

Jerry Weyer

 Joachim Mönch Nicolas Sahlqvist Aleksandar Blagojevic,

Jakub Michálek,
Bogomil Shopov

 –
2011/2012 Samir Allioui,

Marcel Kolaja
(receded)

 Lola Voronina Pat Mächler Finlay Archibald
(receded),

Paul da Silva
(receded),
Thomas Gaul

 –
2012/2013 Grégory Engels,

Lola Voronina

 Travis McCrea Ed Geraghty Nuno Cardoso,

Jelena Jovanović,
Denis Simonet

 Brendan Molloy,

Thomas Gaul,
Alessandra Minoni,
Andrew Norton
(receded)

2013/2014 Grégory Engels,

Vojtěch Pikal

 Thomas Gaul Marc Tholl Nuno Cardoso,

Azat Gabrakhmanov,
Denis Simonet

 Jelena Jovanović,

Paul Bossu,
Radosław Pietroń,
Yasin Aydin

2014/2015 Maša Čorak,

Koen de Voegt

 Thomas Gaul Sebastian Krone Grégory Engels,

Anders Kleppe,
Stathis Leivaditis

 Marco Confalonieri,

Yasin Aidin,
Min Chiaki,
Chemseddine Ben Jemaa

July 2015 – July 2016 Andrew Reitemeyer (chair)

Patrick Schiffer (vice-chair)

 Henrique Peer Karla Medrano Min Chiaki,

Chemseddine Ben Jemaa,
Dr. Richard Hill,

 Anders Kleppe,

Nikolay Voronov,
Koen De Voegt,
Grégory Engels

July 2016 – November 2017 Guillaume Saouli (chair)

Bailey Lamon (vice-chair)

 Thomas Gaul Keith L. Goldstein Andrew Reitemeyer,

Raymond Johansen,
Koen De Voegt

 Nikolay Voronov,

Patrick Schiffer,
Adam Wolf,
Grégory Engels

December 2017 – November 2018 Guillaume Saouli (chair)

Bailey Lamon (vice-chair)

 Keith L. Goldstein Thomas Gaul Koen De Voegt,

Raymond Johansen,
Nikolay Voronov

 Adam Wolf,

Etienne Evellin,
Daniel Dantas Prazeres,
Grégory Engels

November 2018 – December 2019 Guillaume Saouli (chair)

Bailey Lamon (vice-chair)

 Keith L. Goldstein Michal Gill Etienne Evellin,

Raymond Johansen,
Ladislav Koubek

 Daniel Dantas Prazeres,

Grégory Engels,
Kitty Hundal,
Cédric Levieux

since December 2019 Bailey Lamon (chair)

Grégory Engels (vice-chair)

 Keith L. Goldstein Daniel Dantas Prazeres Cédric Levieux,

Thomas Gaul,
Michal Gill,
Linda B. Tørkle,
Giuseppe Calandra

 Sebastian Krone,

Carlos Polo,
Svein Mork Dahl,
Cristina Diana Bargu[20]

PPI Conferences
International Pirate Party Meetings
Name Date of Meeting Location Host Party
International Conference 2007 8-10/6/2007 Vienna, Austria
International Conference 1/2008 26-27/1/2008 Berlin, Germany
International Conference 2/2008 27-29/6/2008 Uppsala, Sweden
PPI Conference 2010 (Founding Conference) 16-18/4/2010 Brussels, Belgium Pirate Party Belgium
PPI Conference 2011 12-13/3/2011 Friedrichshafen, Germany Pirate Party Germany
PPI Conference 2012 14-15/4/2012 Prague, Czech Republic Czech Pirate Party
Pirate Summer Conference 9-10/6/2012 Aarau, Switzerland Pirate Party Aargau
PPI Conference 2013 20-21/4/2013 Kazan, Russia Pirate Party of Russia
PPI Conference 2014 12-13/4/2014 Paris, France, on OpenSpace Conference Pirate Party of France
PPI Conference 2015 4-5/7/2015 Warsaw, Poland, on OpenSpace Conference Pirate Party of Poland
PPI Conference 2016 23-24/7/2016 Berlin, Germany Pirate Party of Berlin
PPI Conference 2017 25-23/11/2017 Geneva, Switzerland Pirate Party of Switzerland
PPI Conference 2018 3-4/11/2018, online continuation on 10/11/2018 Munich, Germany Pirate Party Germany, Pirate Party Bavaria
PPI Conference 2019 7-8/12/2019 online By video conference only

Pirate Party movement worldwide

See Pirate Party and List of Pirate Parties for an overview of all Pirate Parties around the world.

References
  1. "The Pirate International is born". Presseurop. 2010-04-20. Archived from the original on 2011-01-02. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
  2. https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/ecosoc6843.doc.htm
  3. "Pirate Parties International Statutes" (PDF). Pirate Parties International. 2010-04-18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  4. Ben Jones (2007-06-09). "Pirates Gather at First International Pirate Party Conference". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  5. "The Uppsala Declaration or European Pirate Parties Declaration of a basic platform for the European Parliamentary Election of 2009". Piratpartiet. 2008-07-02. Archived from the original on 2010-09-08. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  6. Norton, Andrew (2009-08-02). "Signing off". pp.int.general (Mailing list). Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  7. "Patrick Mächler steps down - Jerry Weyer Steps up!". 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  8. "Swedish pirates capture EU seat". BBC News. BBC. 2008-06-08. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
  9. Will Smale (2010-04-27). "Election: Can Pirate Party UK emulate Sweden success?". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
  10. "European Pirate Platform 2009". Pirate Party (Sweden). Archived from the original on 2010-09-08. Retrieved 2012-04-05.
  11. "Uppsala-Deklaration". Piratenwiki (in German and English). Pirate Party Germany. 2010-07-29. Retrieved 2012-04-05.
  12. The Prague Declaration
  13. "Pirate Party Australia resigns from PPI". 2015-02-11. Retrieved 2015-02-11.
  14. "PPUK leaves PPI". 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2015-02-25.
  15. "PPBE suspends their PPI membership". 2015-03-04. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  16. "Icelandic Pirates: PPIS Vote to Leave PPI and Birgitta only Politician to increase in Trust". 2015-04-20. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
  17. "Motion P01: Proposition ang. att lämna observatörsmedlemskapet i PPI". 2015-05-10. Retrieved 2015-05-10.
  18. Pirate Parties International Statutes, Article XIII.
  19. Pirate Parties International Statutes, Articles IX - XI.
  20. "Resigned on 22nd of February 2020". Retrieved 2020-03-13.
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