The Pirate Party UK has just launched its 2010 election manifesto in an attempt to better outline some of its positions and just what it aims to do if it manages to gain itself some power.

This will forever be my go to image for piracy

While prospect of a Swedish Pirate Party was something looked at a little snidely when it first appeared four years ago, the UK’s own Pirate Party has since grown up, and it looks to be making a serious effort this year. Of course, as with any of the various Pirate Parties that have been formed, the thing that most will be interested in is just what kind of policy they’re hoping to bring into play, and on that front, it’s always nice to peruse the manifesto and see what they’re all about. Fortunately, given the world’s gradually sliding attention spans, this manifesto is relatively short…

According to the posting on the PirateParty.org.uk, there are three core policies,

“Reform copyright and patent law. We want to legalise non-commercial file sharing and reduce the excessive length of copyright protection, while ensureing that when creative works are sold, it’s the artists who benefit, not monopoly rights holders. We want a patent system that doesn’t stifle innovation or make life saving drugs so expensive that patients die.

End the excessive surveillance, profiling, tracking and monitoring of innocent people by Government and big business.

Ensure that everyone has real freedom of speech and real freedom to enjoy and participate in our shared culture.”

If nothing else, we’ll be curious to see just how the party intends to go about managing to make file sharing legal without putting a massive dent in the pockets of those who’d generally handle the publication and dissemination of media… While they attest that,

‘We are treated like criminals when we share entertainment digitally, even though this is just the modern equivalent of lending a book or DVD to a friend,”

the fact is that lending something to a friend is fundamentally a little different, in that it doesn’t result in their being an additional copy of that media floating around without anyone having paid for it… Still, it’s interesting to note that the UK’s Pirate Party hasn’t sold itself more on what is, almost undeniably, a very cool nautical theme.