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IPFS News Link • Political Parties

Ahoy, matey: Pirate Party seeks candidates to run for office

• hosted.ap.org, By STEVE LeBLANC and BOB SALSBERG

Still on the fringes of the political spectrum in the U.S. and most other places, the movement that claims chapters in nearly 70 countries has registered a handful of successes, including in Iceland where the party won several seats in parliamentary elections last fall.

On Saturday, the 5-year-old Pirate Party of Massachusetts plans to hold its annual conference in Boston to discuss issues ranging from personal privacy and "open culture" to increased government transparency.

The party's national platform calls for the abolition of patents - which it argues stifles innovation and prevents researchers from freely sharing ideas - and for limiting how long copyrights can stay in effect, saying there needs to be new models to compensate artists and others for their intellectual and creative work.