Pirate Parties on Track to Join WIPO
By Ben Jones 4 August 2012
Copyright agencies were probably not too happy to hear that one of their bastions of domination – the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) – has proposed observer membership status to Pirate Parties International (PPI), the international Pirate Party organisation.
As observer members they’ll be able to participate in meetings, but not vote (that is reserved for member countries). Currently, the list of observer members (some 250+) mostly focuses on artist and ‘industry’ groups, with only a few public-interest groups, such as the EFF, IP Justice, and Union for the Public Domain in there.
“The Pirate Party movement is spreading rapidly around the globe with parties now in over 60 countries,” PPI Co-chairman Gregory Engels told TorrentFreak.
“I am glad that WIPO is interested in the dialog with this part of civil society that thinks that the time for a massive reform of the copyright systems has come.”
The vote will reportedly take place on the morning of October 6th. Check back then for the results.