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Greek Pirate Party is getting ready to bring motion in the political life

06 January 2012 / 15:01:11  GRReporter
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When I asked what happens in this case, with electronic crimes, Anestis Samurkasidis responded with an example. "Some time ago in the country a brutal murder was committed with a screwdriver. No one however said that they were in favour of control over sales of screwdrivers, for the installation of chips on them, prohibiting their purchase by persons who do not have a number of certificates and no one requested that each screwdriver be accompanied by a camera. By this I mean that we protect the instrument, which is the computer. Its poor use is the other side of the issue and we are naturally against this. But the point is that currently the law condemns the "screwdriver", while it is the action that must be punished".

Is it however possible to practically separate the computer from its use? Anestis Samurkasidis stated that "the last of our principles states that the party favors the adoption of decisions by the entire society, each citizen individually and fights for everyone to have access to information. The aim is to take decisions based on this information, to create digital platforms that will allow people to express their opinion on any subject. This principle gives the solution to many questions. Unlike many political parties we don’t have ready solutions for everything. We offer this course of action that will allow us to find solutions."

Despite the preference for electronic voting, the statutes of the Greek pirates also provide for voting in the traditional way through ballot-papers and ballot boxes, "where the citizen and his anonymity should be protected".

Pirates believe that as in the other European countries also in Greece they will be supported by people aged 18-45 years, "i.e. those people who were the first to use a computer 25 years ago and today's young people whose lives are connected to computers".

It is typical for the pirate parties that their occurrence has managed to get many people, who were previously passive to vote in the elections. "We realized this in the messages that we received in two days. From the 3rd of January until today, our website has been visited by 20,265 people. Many of them write in their comments that they had had no intention of voting, but after reading the manifesto and the statutes they have decided to go and vote".

"We are starting the discussion for a change in the operational system of society. If we imagine it as a computer, then we provide the applications for it. It is on them that we all together will install the programs to make the adjustments. People have asked us what we will do about pensions. What could we as a new party do for a long-standing problem? Our answer is that we provide the method through which we will decide together what to do about this issue".

Greek pirates are preparing to participate in the elections for members of the European parliament, but if national elections are held soon, it is possible they will participate in them as well. "The members are the ones who will decide whether we will participate or not". Pirates discuss and take their decisions over the Internet. Only a few days the party had 50 members. "After this avalanche of visitors to our web page another 500-600 people have expressed their willingness to participate. When in a few weeks we go to the Supreme Court to submit an application for registration we will be at least 250 people. We want to have at least 10-20 thousand people, to take better decisions".

The Pirate Party is completely different from the familiar political forms because of another typical feature it has. It has no chairman and it is managed by a council of seven. In their articles of association it is provided that one of them assumes the leadership every four months on a rotating basis. "But his powers are very small. He just puts his signature, if needed somewhere and convenes a meeting of the management council once a month". All meetings are held over the Internet and the only exception is the annual Congress and some local gatherings. Pirates have their own server called mumble with an open source, which is, however encrypted. Thus they are confident that nobody can hear their conversations.

Party members are aged between 22-42 years and about three-quarters of them are students or are employed in the field of information and communication technologies.

Tags: politics pirate party principles reforming the law on copyright trade mark patents design protection
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