In Massachusetts, tiny Pirate Party champions Internet freedom

By Jon Brodkin

Six years after the Pirate Party first appeared on the US political scene, the Internet freedom fighters haven't gained much of a foothold in American politics. But in Massachusetts, a small group is trying to drum up support for the party's platforms of defending privacy, reforming copyright laws, abolishing patents, and opposing laws that restrict sharing of content on the Internet.

Formed in 2010 and approved as an official political designation by the state in February 2011, the Massachusetts Pirate Party will host its first conference on Saturday, March 10 in Cambridge's Democracy Center. "The primary goal is to bring together different people of Pirate persuasion," Party "Captain" James O'Keefe told Ars.

But it's more than that. One telling session is titled "How to Run for Office"—that's right, the Pirates want candidates and votes. While there are only 20 registered "Pirates" in all of Massachusetts, at least one member is set to run for state representative, and O'Keefe is hoping for several candidates in this year's elections.


The party takes its name from the Pirate Party in Sweden, which surged in popularity after a 2006 raid on facilities owned by the Pirate Bay website. Swedish Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge "put it rather well when he said we would be branded [as pirates] anyway so we might as well take the name as our own and use it as we see fit, not as the entertainment giants see fit," O'Keefe said. "It has a playful characteristic to it, which is good in this day and age of major political parties that are not in any way playful and are much more interested in scoring points. We set ourselves apart as folks who want to get things done as well as not taking ourselves incredibly seriously, although the issues we fight for are very serious."

O'Keefe, who tests computer software and is raising a family, is a former member of the Green-Rainbow Party and ran for state treasurer of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2006, receiving 8 percent and 16 percent of the vote in his two runs.

In the November 2012 Massachusetts elections, Pirate Party member JP Hollembaek plans to run for state representative in the 16th Middlesex District. Hollembaek, a US Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, told Ars he's filling out the election paperwork and working with a campaign agency. "I joined the Pirate Party when it started here in Massachusetts, and I've been doing some Occupy activities as well," he said. "As such, I support the Pirate Party platform of 'personal privacy and public transparency', and I am very focused on the infrastructure and income inequality issues that Occupy has brought up."
As US Pirates struggle, Massachusetts members wave the flag

The Pirate Party of Massachusetts is affiliated with the US Pirate Party. The national party's website refers to "the closure of the United States Pirate Party" in 2011, but is establishing a temporary Pirate National Committee to get the party back on track and facilitate cooperation between the state parties. In addition to Massachusetts, there are also state-based organizations in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington state.

The Pirate Party had just 20 registered voters in all of Massachusetts as of February 15, with most in Middlesex County, the state elections division told Ars. Actual interest in the party is a bit higher, with more than 100 people on the e-mail list and "several multiples of that" following the group on Twitter and Facebook, O'Keefe said. He's hoping for at least 100 attendees at the conference Saturday.

The Pirates joined the fight against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), PIPA (Protect IP Act), and ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), with O'Keefe saying "we're not going to be able to defend our civil liberties if proposals like SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA are implemented."


Massachusetts Pirate Party organizer James O'Keefe

More broadly, O'Keefe says the Party believes "copyright itself is way too long," lasting for the life of the creator plus 70 years. The Pirate Party opposed the Megaupload shutdown, calling it "a violation of national sovereignty" and "a shocking revelation of the collusion between a private industry and our government."

When asked if he's a "pirate" in the sense that copyright industries would use the term, O'Keefe said, "Our belief is that people want to be able to support the artists they like." But copyright owners have often failed to provide legitimate ways of purchasing content that are also convenient, he said. "People are willing to pay and they're even wiling to pay the entertainment companies. To go and brand people pirates for their own failings to us is completely wrong."

The Pirate Party believes "people should be able to share our culture, that our culture shouldn't be locked down, people shouldn't go to jail, people shouldn't be hit with astronomical lawyers bills or fines because they shared something," he said. O'Keefe criticizes the use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to take down websites, noting that "we've seen entertainment companies try to take down things they don't even have a copyright to."

The Pirate Party conference—advertised with the tagline "Politics: share, remix, reboot"—has an agenda that's more reminiscent of a tech policy conference than a political party gathering. Aside from the "How to run for office" session hosted by O'Keefe, there will be sessions on Internet safety, the fair use of copyrighted material, and a talk about patents. David House, an MIT researcher who helped build support for "WikiLeaker" Bradley Manning, will talk about the challenges of being a digital activist. Other speakers will tackle topics from transparency in government to how artists can make a living in the digital economy.

"We often hear from entertainment companies that when people share copywritten work they are stealing from others," O'Keefe said. "While we don't characterize sharing as stealing, we do think the Internet makes it possible for creators and artists to be able to share their work and still make a living, oftentimes a better living than they would get under the entertainment companies."