Press Releases
  • AUCKLAND, 14 April 2011 The Pirate Party of New Zealand is disappointed that the Government used urgency to pass the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill after the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill. “Not only is the urgency process being abused,” party secretary Noel Zeng stated, “but our government is also exploiting the people of Christchurch by using their unfortunate situation to pass underhanded legislation.” Under this “three strikes bill,” if anyone in a household is accused of three acts of illegal filesharing, they could be fined $15000 or, if fines are found to be ineffective, the entire household could lose...5April 14, 2011

    Pirate Party Outraged over Passed Anti-Filesharing Law

    AUCKLAND, 14 April 2011 The Pirate Party of New Zealand is disappointed that the Government used urgency to pass the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill after the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill. “Not only is the urgency process being abused,” party secretary Noel Zeng stated, “but our government is also exploiting the people of Christchurch by using their unfortunate situation to pass underhanded legislation.” Under this “three strikes bill,” if anyone in a household is accused of three acts of illegal filesharing, they could be fined $15000 or, if fines are found to be ineffective, the entire household could lose…

  • The final results are out, including the 504 valid special and overseas votes which were not counted in the preliminary results. The Pirate Party Candidate, Hussain Al-saady, received 32 votes, representing 0.21% of all votes. This includes 0.17% of the ordinary votes, 0.27% of advance votes, and 0.79% of special votes. This result put him in 9th place, up one place from the preliminary count. The turnout for the by-election was only 15421 out of 42815 enrolled, or 36.0%, less than half of the turnout in this electorate in the 2008 general election. Of course, the achievement for us is...1March 17, 2011

    Botany by-election – Final Results

    The final results are out, including the 504 valid special and overseas votes which were not counted in the preliminary results. The Pirate Party Candidate, Hussain Al-saady, received 32 votes, representing 0.21% of all votes. This includes 0.17% of the ordinary votes, 0.27% of advance votes, and 0.79% of special votes. This result put him in 9th place, up one place from the preliminary count. The turnout for the by-election was only 15421 out of 42815 enrolled, or 36.0%, less than half of the turnout in this electorate in the 2008 general election. Of course, the achievement for us is…

Latest Headlines
  • This is a guest post from Richard Goode, brings up an interesting thought about what do we mean by Intellectual “Property”? ~Mathmo   Two women wearing the same dress is sometimes a criminal matter. Two blondes, one dress – a recipe for a catfight Drinks were thrown and blood was spilt when two blondes clashed in a bar about who looked best in a silver dress, a jury has been told. Victoria Clapham, 22, wore the dress on a night out in central Wellington late last year. It was given to her by her friend Matthew Vibert and his mother...

    Discussion Point: “Two women wearing the same dress”

    Posted on May 10, 2012 | 5 Comments
    This is a guest post from Richard Goode, brings up an interesting thought about what do we mean by Intellectual “Property”? ~Mathmo   Two women wearing the same dress is sometimes a criminal matter. Two blondes, one dress – a recipe for a catfight Drinks were thrown and blood was spilt when two blondes clashed in a bar about who looked best in a silver dress, a jury has been told. Victoria Clapham, 22, wore the dress on a night out in central Wellington late last year. It was given to her by her friend Matthew Vibert and his mother...

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  • “The Pirate Bay suggests it may look into serving their website from mid-air over international waters to avoid legal repurcussions. You can’t make this stuff up. The only thing more absurd will be whatever the MPAA/RIAA do to try and combat it.”

    The Internet Wars Have Just Begun!!

    Posted on April 26, 2012 | 4 Comments
    “The Pirate Bay suggests it may look into serving their website from mid-air over international waters to avoid legal repurcussions. You can’t make this stuff up. The only thing more absurd will be whatever the MPAA/RIAA do to try and combat it.”

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  • Copyleft has an undeserved bad name among people who advocate for copyright reform. We want to reduce copyright, and copyleft is based on copyright, and therefore we should reduce copyleft, or so the reasoning goes. This is, however, simplistic, and I think the best way to explain this is with the analogy of self-defence, which is a perfect parallel. Before I go any further, I’ll include a caveat. I acknowledge that the GPL does impose a condition in requiring disclosure of source. While it is entirely proper to impose conditions on the grant of (exclusive) monopoly rights, and I’m in...

    Copyleft is self-defence: Defend yourself

    Posted on April 25, 2012 | No Comments
    Copyleft has an undeserved bad name among people who advocate for copyright reform. We want to reduce copyright, and copyleft is based on copyright, and therefore we should reduce copyleft, or so the reasoning goes. This is, however, simplistic, and I think the best way to explain this is with the analogy of self-defence, which is a perfect parallel. Before I go any further, I’ll include a caveat. I acknowledge that the GPL does impose a condition in requiring disclosure of source. While it is entirely proper to impose conditions on the grant of (exclusive) monopoly rights, and I’m in...

    Continue Reading...

  • You haven’t made it until you get sued Since 2004 we have crowdsourced* the generation of the “Canadian Postal Code Geocoded Database.” When you make a query to geocoder containing for example this information “1435 Prince of Wales, Ottawa, ON K2C 1N5″, we then extract the postal code “K2C 1N5″ and insert it into the database that you may download for free on this website. This allows you to look up a postal code (eg K2C 1N5) on www.geocoder.ca, or www.openstreetmap.org or a number of other sites that use geocoder.ca data and technology. Since we do not have a postal...

    Can somebody else own the data you create?

    Posted on April 23, 2012 | No Comments
    You haven’t made it until you get sued Since 2004 we have crowdsourced* the generation of the “Canadian Postal Code Geocoded Database.” When you make a query to geocoder containing for example this information “1435 Prince of Wales, Ottawa, ON K2C 1N5″, we then extract the postal code “K2C 1N5″ and insert it into the database that you may download for free on this website. This allows you to look up a postal code (eg K2C 1N5) on www.geocoder.ca, or www.openstreetmap.org or a number of other sites that use geocoder.ca data and technology. Since we do not have a postal...

    Continue Reading...

  • Imagine a world without physical violence. People could only argue until red in the face. No matter how angry people got, noone could get hurt. Imagine a world where governments didn’t have nukes or armies, and they were forced to settle their differences verbally. The world is full of violence. The internet gives people a way to settle their differences without throwing rocks. Without throwing nuclear bombs. Outlawing ‘offensive’ language online is not the way to a safer, calmer world. We need the internet to argue and settle differences peacefully. Being ‘offended’ never hurt anyone and never will. Not liking...

    Keep the internet flaming

    Posted on April 23, 2012 | No Comments
    Imagine a world without physical violence. People could only argue until red in the face. No matter how angry people got, noone could get hurt. Imagine a world where governments didn’t have nukes or armies, and they were forced to settle their differences verbally. The world is full of violence. The internet gives people a way to settle their differences without throwing rocks. Without throwing nuclear bombs. Outlawing ‘offensive’ language online is not the way to a safer, calmer world. We need the internet to argue and settle differences peacefully. Being ‘offended’ never hurt anyone and never will. Not liking...

    Continue Reading...

  • The Pirate Party ran 2 candidates in Hamilton East and Wellington Central. In Hamilton East our Candidate Bruce Kingsbury won 0.42% of the vote with 137 votes, placing him 7th out of 8 candidates. In Wellington Central our Candidate Gynn Rickerby won 0.72% of the vote with 277 votes, placing him 7th out of 12 candidates. On average this was 0.59%, a 178% increase on the result in the Botany By-election 9 months ago, better than the Spanish Pirate Party’s result last weekend (0.41%) but not as good as the Catalonian Pirate Party’s result in the same election (0.63%). It...

    Great Result for the Pirate Party in our first General Election (0.59%)

    Posted on November 27, 2011 | No Comments
    The Pirate Party ran 2 candidates in Hamilton East and Wellington Central. In Hamilton East our Candidate Bruce Kingsbury won 0.42% of the vote with 137 votes, placing him 7th out of 8 candidates. In Wellington Central our Candidate Gynn Rickerby won 0.72% of the vote with 277 votes, placing him 7th out of 12 candidates. On average this was 0.59%, a 178% increase on the result in the Botany By-election 9 months ago, better than the Spanish Pirate Party’s result last weekend (0.41%) but not as good as the Catalonian Pirate Party’s result in the same election (0.63%). It...

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  • The elections are approaching, and while we might not be registered on time, we will still be able to stand at least 5 candidates in electorates. The conference will give us a chance as a party to decide where to stand candidates, and how to select candidates. We will also discuss plans for our election campaign. Another important event at the conference will be board elections. This will be the first time that elections are being held for the whole board, as previously elections were held for each position separately as required. Nominations are open until Aug 8, advance voting...

    Time for the First Ever Pirate Party Annual Conference, Aug 14.

    Posted on August 3, 2011 | No Comments
    The elections are approaching, and while we might not be registered on time, we will still be able to stand at least 5 candidates in electorates. The conference will give us a chance as a party to decide where to stand candidates, and how to select candidates. We will also discuss plans for our election campaign. Another important event at the conference will be board elections. This will be the first time that elections are being held for the whole board, as previously elections were held for each position separately as required. Nominations are open until Aug 8, advance voting...

    Continue Reading...

  • AUCKLAND, 23 June 2011 New Zealand Pirate Party co-leader Bruce Kingsbury today condemned the suggestion that software patents may be required in New Zealand law. The bill was reported back by the Select Committee on 30 March 2010, and the committee accepted the view of submitters that software development was an organic process, where new software invariably builds on prior software. “There is no ‘inventive step’ in software development, as would be required for patenting,” said Mr Kingsbury. The situation is slightly more complex for physical inventions that include a software component known as ‘embedded software’. For example, a modern...

    Pirate Party of New Zealand condemns pro-patent lobbyist spin on software patents

    Posted on June 23, 2011 | No Comments
    AUCKLAND, 23 June 2011 New Zealand Pirate Party co-leader Bruce Kingsbury today condemned the suggestion that software patents may be required in New Zealand law. The bill was reported back by the Select Committee on 30 March 2010, and the committee accepted the view of submitters that software development was an organic process, where new software invariably builds on prior software. “There is no ‘inventive step’ in software development, as would be required for patenting,” said Mr Kingsbury. The situation is slightly more complex for physical inventions that include a software component known as ‘embedded software’. For example, a modern...

    Continue Reading...

  • AUCKLAND, 14 April 2011 The Pirate Party of New Zealand is disappointed that the Government used urgency to pass the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill after the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill. “Not only is the urgency process being abused,” party secretary Noel Zeng stated, “but our government is also exploiting the people of Christchurch by using their unfortunate situation to pass underhanded legislation.” Under this “three strikes bill,” if anyone in a household is accused of three acts of illegal filesharing, they could be fined $15000 or, if fines are found to be ineffective, the entire household could lose...

    Pirate Party Outraged over Passed Anti-Filesharing Law

    Posted on April 14, 2011 | 5 Comments
    AUCKLAND, 14 April 2011 The Pirate Party of New Zealand is disappointed that the Government used urgency to pass the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill after the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill. “Not only is the urgency process being abused,” party secretary Noel Zeng stated, “but our government is also exploiting the people of Christchurch by using their unfortunate situation to pass underhanded legislation.” Under this “three strikes bill,” if anyone in a household is accused of three acts of illegal filesharing, they could be fined $15000 or, if fines are found to be ineffective, the entire household could lose...

    Continue Reading...

  • The final results are out, including the 504 valid special and overseas votes which were not counted in the preliminary results. The Pirate Party Candidate, Hussain Al-saady, received 32 votes, representing 0.21% of all votes. This includes 0.17% of the ordinary votes, 0.27% of advance votes, and 0.79% of special votes. This result put him in 9th place, up one place from the preliminary count. The turnout for the by-election was only 15421 out of 42815 enrolled, or 36.0%, less than half of the turnout in this electorate in the 2008 general election. Of course, the achievement for us is...

    Botany by-election – Final Results

    Posted on March 17, 2011 | 1 Comment
    The final results are out, including the 504 valid special and overseas votes which were not counted in the preliminary results. The Pirate Party Candidate, Hussain Al-saady, received 32 votes, representing 0.21% of all votes. This includes 0.17% of the ordinary votes, 0.27% of advance votes, and 0.79% of special votes. This result put him in 9th place, up one place from the preliminary count. The turnout for the by-election was only 15421 out of 42815 enrolled, or 36.0%, less than half of the turnout in this electorate in the 2008 general election. Of course, the achievement for us is...

    Continue Reading...

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