Call to Arms - current needs

[epriezka]

if there is anything i can do...

This is the slog time. An athlete puts in hours and hours of training and preparation, just for the chance of that brief moment of glory. We need to do the same. What can we all do?

• Read up about the subject. Get familiar with all sides of the issues, including arguments for and against, arguments from industry, government and political opponents. Read the material at our wiki page http://pirateparty.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Links_to_Useful_Research,_Newspaper_Articles_etc. and add to it, if you find something new. The better informed we all are, the more persuasive we will all be. We all seem to want a democratic party - that means we'll make quicker, better decisions as a party if everybody knows what they are talking about and have checked the facts.
• Get the name Pirate Party out to as broad an audience as possible. Leave comments on web news stories and articles. Write letters to newspapers about relevant stories. Keep it short and simple - the more people who read it, the better. Don't go into lots of detail about whether the UK party set up or not, just say you are working to support the goals of the Pirate Party, and highlight the three aims: to reform copyright and patent law; to promote the freedom to pass on ideas and culture; to ensure that an individual's privacy rights are protected. Refer to the party's URL.
• Don't wait for the party to form in order to organize social gatherings. The 'business' side of these gatherings is just to get a complete list of emails, phone numbers and addresses so you know who and where local supporters are. This will be vital come any election campaign in your region. Use these contact details so you can invite them to future meetings and send them news of what is happening. Tell the people who attend that you intend to co-ordinate for the party in that region and you are just starting the job of finding other people who are interested. Get them to spread the word and encourage friends to add their details to the list of local of supporters. (And please, don't anyone mention the Data Protection Act as a reason not to gather contact details. One of the stupid things about these laws is they don't make allowance for how any normal person lives their life, as if everybody should formally register with the government just to keep an address book...)

[cabalamat]

We all feel this tension. Wanting to spread the word quickly but having to wait for due process to complete.

Not much longer to wait; the election finishes tomorrow.

But we must not confuse the polity with our arms going off halfcock. As we found the party it is important that we present a united front and rally to one flag.

Yes.

We also need to be careful with the wording and presentation of anything distributed in the name of the Party. Our English must be perfect. Even down to the punctuation

Indeed -- we need to create a good impression.

One way of spreading the word is to engage our contacts in substantive discussion about our aims.

Yes. When Internet or digital rights issues crop up, either online or in face-to-face discussion, we must each take the opportunity to spread PPUK's viewpoint.

[JohnB]

TPB is a high-traffic website so it they linked to PPUK it would probably give us lots of traffic, awareness and new members.

This suggestion makes an enormous amount of sense, and will work much better if they are good enough to give us a direct link to PPUK, when serving UK visitors, rather than the international site.

TPB are a separate organisation, and if they link to us it does not mean we endorse them, however it can give us traffic and eyeballs from people who are potential supporters which is a good thing. I got a TPB t-shirt recently, because if people ask me about it then I've got an intro to talk about Pirate matters (when I can get a PPUK t-shirt I'll wear that sometimes, for similar reasons).

When I'm talking about PPUK, and I'm asked about TPB, I simply point out that we do not endorse them and are not directly affiliated, however it's an opportunity to talk about what TPB do, how it came about, and the people who use the site, and also to point out that there is legally downloadable material linked to from TPB and that there are artists who intentionally submit material themselves for indexing there. And it leads into talking about the formation of the European Pirate Party movements, including us.

I can also say (I think) that TPB would become entirely legal if Pirate Party proposals were enacted, as (so I understand) all the actual sharing is done by others and is non-commercial, TPB acting as a search/indexing engine and anything they earn (adverts, merch, etc) is from that, just like Google's search engine, on which you might also find links to copyrighted material, including torrents.

[miguel]

TPB acting as a search/indexing engine and anything they earn (adverts, merch, etc) is from that, just like Google's search engine, on which you might also find links to copyrighted material, including torrents.

Whenever anyone mentions that I have to link to this http://www.thepirategoogle.com/ so there's no doubt about it.

[cabalamat]

Whenever anyone mentions that I have to link to this http://www.thepirategoogle.com/ so there's no doubt about it.

Snap! I did one of them -- http://www.includipedia.com/torrent_search.html

[horizon86]

I'm ceratinly willing to campaign and raise awareness of the pirate party in my local area. I also work in IT support so although i'm no PhPBB expert if you have any general IT enquires i'd be more than willing to try and help.

[ohmygoditsjames]

Hi There,

I'm going into my third year of a london art university,

I'd love to help with design/ promotion/ artwork etc

please get in touch!

[JohnathanPhan]

This topic is out of date and no longer required.

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