United States Pirate Party


The United States Pirate Party is an American political party founded in 2006 by Brent Allison and Alex English. The party's platform is aligned with the global Pirate movement, and supports reform of copyright laws to reflect open source and free culture values, government transparency, protection of privacy and civil liberties. The United States Pirate Party also advocates for evidence-based policy, egalitarianism, meritocracy and the hacker ethic as well as the rolling back of corporate personhood and corporate welfare. The USPP has also made a priority to advocate for changes in the copyright laws and removal of patents. It is the belief of the party that these restrictions greatly hinder the sharing and expansion of knowledge and resources.
The party's national organization has existed in multiple incarnations since its 2006 founding. Its most recent is the Pirate National Committee, formed in 2012 as a coalition of state parties. The PNC officially recognizes Pirate parties from 8 states, and tracks and assists in the growth of more state parties throughout the United States. The board of the USPP is the board of the PNC. The current Chair of the Pirate National Committee is Lindsay-Anne Gorski.

History

The Pirate Party was founded in June 2006 by University of Georgia graduate student Brent Allison in response to the success of the Swedish Piratpartiet. Its platform was focused primarily on copyright reform and freedom from Internet censorship. The party first attempted to register in Utah during the 2007/2008 election cycle and failed to collect the required number of Statements of Support. In 2011, the Massachusetts Pirate Party became the first legally recognized Pirate Party in the US. By 2011, the Pirate Party reported over 3000 members nationwide.
In 2012, a coalition of state Pirate parties formed the Pirate National Committee. By July of that year, the PNC drafted and adopted a new constitution, which outlined a broader ideology inspired by Rickard Falkvinge's Pirate Wheel.

Name

The Pirate Party defends their oft-criticized name in the preamble of the PNC's constitution:

Ideology

Factions within the Pirate Party include left-libertarians, classical liberals, anarchists, progressives, and radical centrists. Many Pirates explicitly decline to identify with any particular political ideology or philosophy. They are driven to "do what works" rather than being driven by a particular ideology.
The Pirate Party's platform originally centered on issues of copyright. "Like its international counterparts, the USPP's main practical concerns are digital intellectual property and privacy laws—specifically, the abolition of a 1998 digital U.S. copyright law, the reduction of copyrights to 14 years, and the expiration of patents that don't result in significant progress within four years."
In 2012, the party began an expansion of its platform, inspired by the Pirate Wheel. The party emphasizes the cultural values of the hacker ethic, open source and free culture, strong protection of individual civil liberties, government transparency, participatory governance, and evidence-based policy. They solidified these tenets by publishing a series of essays in January 2012 where they voiced their values using quotations from historical figures, including Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Albert Camus and Thomas Jefferson in order to highlight the timelessness, urgency, and consensual agreement on their positions on free culture.

PNC

Captain

Prior to 2012, the Chairperson of the party was elected every July by a membership vote, as established in the party constitution. After the 2012 formation of the PNC, the role's name was changed to Captain.
NameFromTo
Brent AllisonJune 6, 2006June 9, 2006
Joshua CowlesJune 9, 2006May 2007
Andrew NortonMay 2007September 2008
Glenn KerbeinSeptember 2008July 2009
Ryan MartinJuly 2009December 29, 2009
Bradley Hall December 29, 2009January 28, 2010
Brittany Phelps January 28, 2010July 15, 2011
Bradley HallJuly 15, 2011April, 2012
Travis McCreaApril, 2012November 14, 2012
Lindsay-Anne BrunnerNovember 14, 2012January 28, 2015
Andrew Norton January 28, 2015March 1, 2016
Joseph KleinMarch 1, 2016May 15, 2017
Lindsay-Anne GorskiMay 15, 2017January 28, 2019
Meg CochranJanuary 28, 2019incumbent

Norton stepped down mid-term to head up Pirate Parties International. Kerbein, as Operations Officer, stepped into the position for the rest of the term.
Martin was removed via a Vote of No Confidence on December 29, 2009. Hall was selected as Administrator pro-tempore for a 30-day period until elections could be held.
See
Norton resigned in order to have more time to devote to other interests.

Officers

StateFoundedPNC MemberNotes-
Arizona
California
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
MarylandWorking towards PNC membership.
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota2014
Missouri
New Hampshire
New YorkAugust 25, 2010-
Ohio
OklahomaJanuary 18, 2010The Pirate Party of Oklahoma was formed on January 18, 2010 with the signing of its constitution, and the filing of a motion of intent to form a political party with the Oklahoma Election Board. The founding chairman was Marcus Kessler. The party was named an official state chapter of the United States Pirate Party on January 19, 2010. The party mounted a signature drive to try to gain access to the Oklahoma ballot, but was unsuccessful. The party did not run any candidates for office in 2010.-
OregonNovember 9, 2010The Oregon Pirate Party was given official state party status on November 9, 2010.-
South Carolina
Texas
Utah
Washington
WisconsinJuly 4, 2012Registered with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.-