The Pirate Ship

No Safe Harbor, released January 24th 2012, is a collection of political essays, texts and discussions that help explain and educate about Pirate Party positions. While some have been published before, many others are original to the book.

Contributors range from first-time writers being published for the first time, leading academics, to Pirate Party officials, and even international organizations like the United Nations.

Adding color to the book are cartoons by artist and free culture activist Nina Paley, creator of the animated film Sita Sings the Blues.

Topics covered include notes on the 4th Amendment, the history of copyright, biopatents, and corporate personhood.

The book is released under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY-NC-SA) and sharing of it is strongly encouraged. To further that, the book is available in a number of DRM-free formats, free of charge. In addition a paperback edition can be purchased through Amazon.com for $9.99

"For anyone concerned with our rights today, but unsure where to start, this book is an invaluable guide," says Assistant Editor and contributor Andrew Norton. "Education on these very important topics, and their immense potential for harm, has been sadly overlooked in recent years. We felt it was time to correct that."

Further information, including the book and press resources can be downloaded from www.nosafeharbor.com

About the US Pirate Party
The US Pirate Party was founded in 2006. Its aim is to bring transparency and accountability to government, while restoring personal liberties and privacy that have been discarded in a panic since 2001. It also seeks to bring copyrights and patents back to their Constitutional mandated purpose of promoting the progress of science and the useful arts.
The Pirate Party is currently recognized in Massachusetts and Florida.
Efforts to gain recognition in the entire country is underway.

Contact:
press [at] nosafeharbor.com
+1 352-658-3824
Twitter: @nosafeharbor

Loz Kaye - Pirate Party UK Leader

Loz Kaye - Pirate Party UK Leader

Andrew Crossley of ACS:law has been suspended for two years and ordered to pay £76,000 in costs after admitting six charges at a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing on Monday.

I have been consistently and strongly critical of ACS Law's legal practice and the way that they have conducted their business, sending thousands of letters demanding settlement payments for alleged copyright infringement. The firm's methods have been denounced by the Pirate Party repeatedly and were referred to as "resembling extortion" by the party in 2010.

In the face of continued attempts from government and the content industries to regulate and control the internet through excessive legislation and extreme enforcement this result can only be seen as a positive step.

Loz Kaye
Party Leader
Pirate Party UK
@lozkaye

Contact:
press@pirateparty.org.uk
+44 (0) 161 987 7880

On January 19th, right after the international blackout strike followed the day before by more than 60.000 websites against the new anti-piracy laws proposed in the United States, the Department of Justice executed a court order through which they shut down the services of Megaupload and charged seven persons, five of which , including the founders and some employees, have already been arrested.

The Pirate Parties defend the free exchange of information, and considering the arguments exposed in the indictment and the press release submitted by the United States Department of Justice, we claim that the big majority of the accusations have no legal basis or are blatant U.S. government interference in other countries.

Though we may not agree completely with the practices of Megaupload in regard to the management of reported files, we believe that it has never been the responsability of an archive locker as Megaupload to ensure the correctness of the material that people upload, but to diligently respond as required by law to any complaint regarding the illegality of the content.

Furthermore, we are worried as we observe some of the statements in the warrant, like the one stating that the absence of a search engine would be reliable indication of criminal intent.

We also consider that the loses the cultural industries say they have endured because of the activity of Megaupload are unreal and biased, as shown by different studies by the Harvard and London Business Schools or the governments of Canada, The Netherlands and Switzerland.

Numerous studies have denied in recent years that a download equates to a lost sale. This has not prevented the cultural industries and the media, controlled up to 70% by only 7 multinationals, from promoting the creation of laws such as SOPA, PIPA or Sinde-Wert (Spain) by the constant pressure exerted and even writing the drafts of some of them.

This indictment has been carried out in collaboration with different authorities on four continents, showing that even without SOPA, PIPA and other anti-piracy laws there is no limit to the wants of the content industries. But they seek to further streamline procedures, even if they have to resort to violating privacy and hindering technological development on the internet.

In this particular case, there are thousands of affected citizens who have lost their own work and creations hosted on Megaupload. The number of people and data that have been affected by this closure is uncalculable: we just witnessed the indiscriminate dumping of a significant part of human knowledge by simple court order.

In short, with this proof has been delivered that whenever music and film producers strive to toughen antipiracy laws, they do so only because they desire to continue profiteering from the work of others (artists). Today we have seen that there is a no need for new legislation to close pages that contain copyrighted material. However, new laws proposed from the United States (SOPA, PIPA, Sinde-Wert) go one step further and allow the shutdown of websites that, be they in compliance with the law or not, are not to their liking.

Loz Kaye – Pirate Party UK Leader:

The Pirate Party UK and I are alarmed at the US's continued efforts to enforce its excessive and unpopular copyright legislation outside of the USA.

US prosecutors shut down one of the world’s largest sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and six others with violating piracy laws. Of the seven accused of running an "international organized criminal enterprise", four are in custody after being arrested in New Zealand. US Federal Agencies and local Law Enforcement Agencies acted in unison to obtain bank records and raid server farms across the globe. None of the individuals arrested or indicted were residents of or lived in the USA. The seven each face almost 60 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Megaupload is an online Hong Kong–based company established in 2005 that ran a one-click hosting online service. Megaupload.com has stated that it is diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material, regularly taking down material that was claimed to be infringing.

The indictment raises the absurd claim that the company cost copyright holders more than £320 million in lost revenue - as has been demonstrated consistently, there is no real evidence to support these numbers. According to the industry's own figures they are posting year-on-year profits, much of which comes from the very digital sector laws such as SOPA threatens. This provocative act comes one day after websites around the globe shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programmes.

US authorities claim that the timing of this move was in no way designed to coincide with the current popular backlash against excessive 'anti-piracy' legislation being pushed in the USA, such as SOPA and PIPA. I see it as a shot across the bow of a growing popular movement.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/January/12-crm-074.html

Loz Kaye
Party Leader
Pirate Party UK
@lozkaye

campaigns@pirateparty.org.uk

Contact:
press@pirateparty.org.uk
+44 (0) 161 987 7880

On January 18, many websites went voluntarily on strike [1] to demonstrate against the threat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) bills, pending US legislation that would restrict freedom of speech, negatively impact economies, and degrade internet security. Among others Wikipedia [2], Reddit, Mozilla, and Free Software Foundation participated. Many organizations, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have expressed grave concerns over the bills [3].

Regardless of whether its purpose is legitimate or whether it will work; the legislation is not compatible with democratic values. It promotes censorship by giving the US Government and corporations the power to block access to - and take down - websites that they consider to be infringing on their copyright monopoly, including search engines or blogs which link to such sites. This would be done by ordering Internet Service Providers to censor access to the Internet and by cutting funds to the infringing websites by forcing the advertisers and payment services to cancel their accounts [4].

These laws would make social networks, search engines, and all websites providing space for discussion and information exchange impossible to run without massive surveillance of all users and the censorship of everything they publish. A link placed by a user in the comment section of an article in a regular Internet magazine could result in the magazine going bankrupt and the owners being charged with a crime. This would not only cripple innovation and entrepreneurship, it would be a flagrant violation of the fundamental human right to free speech. The bill's supporters refuse to acknowledge the anti-democratic aspects of the bill as a problem; instead pointing-out that the proposed filtering mechanisms have been proven to work in countries like China, Iran, and Syria [5] - nations infamous for their official suppression of free speech and expression.

Pirate Parties joined the protest and opposed these bills on the grounds that they will erode the rights of every internet user around the world. Pirate Parties object generally to any legislation that would toughen intellectual property law, but these acts go beyond file-sharing - they harm everyone's ability to participate and interact online, both personally and commercially.

Pirate Parties who went black out on the 18th:
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Catalonia
Czech Republic
Canada
France
Germany and Young Pirates Germany
Greece
Italy
Kazakhstan
Luxembourg
Massachusetts and Georgia
Morocco
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
The Netherlands
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Pirate Parties International (you can see the strike screen here )

Links:
[1] Strike Against SOPA
[2] English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout
[3] List Of Those Expressing Concern With SOPA & PIPA
[4] PIPA/SOPA Breaks The Internet
[5] It Worked For China, Why Not The United States?

In cooperation with Pirate Parties International

On January 18, many websites will voluntarily go on strike [1] to demonstrate against the threat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) bills, pending US legislation that would restrict freedom of speech, negatively impact economies, and degrade internet security. Participation in the strike has been confirmed by Wikipedia [2], Reddit, Mozilla, and Free Software Foundation, among others. Many organizations, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have expressed grave concerns over the bills [3].

Regardless of whether its purpose is legitimate or whether it will work; the legislation is not compatible with democratic values. It promotes censorship by giving the US Government and corporations the power to block access to - and take down - websites that they consider to be infringing on their copyright monopoly, including search engines or blogs which link to such sites. This would be done by ordering Internet Service Providers to censor access to the Internet and by cutting funds to the infringing websites by forcing the advertisers and payment services to cancel their accounts [4].

These laws would make social networks, search engines, and all websites providing space for discussion and information exchange impossible to run without massive surveillance of all users and the censorship of everything they publish. A link placed by a user in the comment section of an article in a regular Internet magazine could result in the magazine going bankrupt and the owners being charged with a crime. This would not only cripple innovation and entrepreneurship, it would be a flagrant violation of the fundamental human right to free speech. The bill's supporters refuse to acknowledge the anti-democratic aspects of the bill as a problem; instead pointing-out that the proposed filtering mechanisms have been proven to work in countries like China, Iran, and Syria [5] - nations infamous for their official suppression of free speech and expression.

Pirate Parties are joining the protest and oppose these bills on the grounds that they will erode the rights of every internet user around the world. Pirate Parties object generally to any legislation that would toughen intellectual property law, but these acts go beyond file-sharing - they harm everyone's ability to participate and interact on-line, both personally  and commercially.

Pirate Parties urge other websites to join the strike on the 18th.

Pirate Parties who will black out on the 18th:

The following Pirate Parties support it:

[1] Strike Against SOPA: http://sopastrike.com/
[2] English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
[3] List Of Those Expressing Concern With SOPA & PIPA: https://www.cdt.org/report/list-organizations-and-individuals-opposing-sopa
[4] PIPA/SOPA Breaks The Internet: http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/
[5] It Worked For China, Why Not The United States?: http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/it-worked-china-why-not-united-states

By supporting the baseless US extradition case against Richard O'Dwyer today at Westminster Magistrates Court the judge Judge Quentin Purdy has failed to inject the much needed shot of rationality into the insanity of the UK-US extradition arrangements we had all hoped for. The Sheffield student is accused of infringing copyright by setting up the popular UK-based website TV Shack.

TV shack provided a catalogue of links to other sites, with no illegal material available from it at any time. As the server was based in the UK, Richard's lawyer has pointed out that there is simply no valid reason to send a young British citizen to face a court in the US.

In May last year Richard was arrested at the behest of US authorities and taken to Wandsworth prison before being released on £3000 bail. He still faces the frightening prospect of a 5 year prison sentence in an foreign jail for providing a service no different to those of US search giants like Google.

Richard's plight continues to highlight how attempts to enforce copyright law have become absurd in the extreme. The fact that a link, a simple pointer to somewhere else, could be deemed a breach of copyright is bizarre. If attempts to extradite to Richard are successful it would put anyone who hosts or runs a website at risk for simply sharing a link to a video, some music, a photograph or other media.

The case has rightly brought UK-US extradition into sharp focus. Since the 2003 Extradition Act came in to force, British citizens have been wrenched from their lives in the UK and extradited to the US on the flimsiest of evidence. The US continues to claim jurisdiction over cases that have little connection to the country itself- as in Richard's instance. Despite Parliament voting in December to tighten up these abuses, the Government is yet to act to guarantee British justice on British soil.

This outcome is a failure on the part of our British justice system to act in a sensible and reasonable way. This case is the perfect example of what enforcing copyright is; excessive, overblown and aimed at easy targets innocent or not whilst ignoring the human.

So, this is what protecting your copyright has come to mean. Accepting unacceptable human collateral like Richard O'Dwyer.

My thoughts are with Richard and his family at this time, I only hope that common sense prevails and this travesty of justice can be rectified before it does irreparable harm to Richard and his family.

Loz Kaye
Party Leader
Pirate Party UK
@lozkaye

campaigns@pirateparty.org.uk

The Judgement - http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/us-v-odwyer-ruling.pdf

Tim Dobson- Pirate Party UK Education Spokesperson:

I'm very pleased with Michael Gove's announcement on scrapping the existing 'Information and Communication Technology' (ICT) curriculum. I think this is a great step forward for young people and technology, and has the potential to increase interest in what is a vital area of skills for British youth.

With the launch of codeyear and the Guardian's campaign to address issues with digital literacy, it is good to see the government giving this part of the curriculum the attention it both needs and deserves. Indeed this initiative comes at a great time and with the Raspberry Pi - an affordable British learning computer for exciting young techies - becoming available soon.

With all that said, I am still somewhat nervous about some of the details of this announcement. The omission of a reference to open source software and solutions is disheartening, especially whilst referring to "an open-source world" and a changing and open curriculum. I hope that the Department for Education is aware of the potential positive benefits of looking at open alternatives to proprietary 'solutions'.

I do welcome the premise and direction. Mr Gove is exactly right when he asks us to: "Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum. Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations using an MIT tool called Scratch."

As someone who now works in the technology sector but who suffered from poor ICT tuition at school, I hope that the government is able to deliver on these proposals; it is something that students in the UK deserve, that the economy of the UK will benefit from and something that has been ignored for too long. I have been campaigning for changes like these since 2009, they are very welcome and I am keen to see how they are implemented and developed.

Tim Dobson
Education Spokesperson
Pirate Party UK
@tdobson
Pirate Party UK

Contact:
press@pirateparty.org.uk
+44 (0) 161 987 7880

Happy New Year.

This time is always a period to look back over the year that has gone, and see what it means for the year to come. At times, it seemed like there was almost too much news in 2011. So many certainties seemed to fall away, perhaps the scariest part of the last 12 months, yet also it shows the future can be different. It is that determination and optimism that characterises the Pirate movement for me.

These days, one of the chief problems that any new movement faces is surviving the first flash of excitement. People's attention spans, particularly online, can be short. During 2011 Pirate Party UK has come the other side of that period stronger in my opinion.

We had a successful first conference- I am sure all of us who heard Rick Falkvinge speak were hugely inspired. More people than ever before had the opportunity to vote Pirate thanks to the work of the Scottish teams. We had our best ever election result in local elections in Bury. The policy consultation process saw hundreds of contributions. Local, national and international media carried our message. Behind the scenes, the Party is on a much more secure organisational footing- not the stuff of headlines, but crucial for the next steps ahead.

Berlin

Abroad, I think we have all been excited by the achievements of the German Pirate Party, in particular the breakthrough in the Berlin vote. This truly shows what is possible. Like so much else in 2011, few would have predicted it at the beginning of the year.

However, in the UK because of our electoral system we know we have to work at least 10 times as hard. 2011 did not see the kind of democratic change so many of us hoped for, whatever our personal views on AV. But it is no good dwelling on that. We need to be planning how to gain influence, and get elected in 2012 as things are. Our views are too important to be left on the sideline complaining, we need to effect change.

Civil liberties, the riots and freedom

We have been very good at commenting on the big issues- civil liberties, riots, media ownership, Internet freedom, IP reform, privacy, the role of the US. I am passionate about all of these things. But they require patient work and for real change we will need a lot more people on board, and break out of the echo chamber we can too easily fall in to.

For 2012 where we have the possibility to make a mark is in local elections. And we can make a positive mark. As opposed to condemning, we have a lot to offer in ideas and as candidates. Schools need our approach to make education fit for the 21st century. Local democracy needs to be revitalised by transparency. Open data can empower communities to take control of every day issues like traffic crossings and council spending. Our libraries should become beacons of the kind of free culture we support.

It might be that you don't think typical local politics gripes like pot holes are as vital as ACTA. But if we aspire to be a movement that is open to citizen power, then we need to be open to all issues. If we aspire to be representative politicians, then we need to be able to see outside of our own immediate concerns.

From what we have learnt in 2011, I know we can apply in 2012 to move us on in gaining influence. Here at the beginning of 2012 the lesson from 2011 is, don't rule anything out. Scary, maybe. But exciting, yes.

Happy New Year.

Loz

Pirate Party Leader

@lozkaye
campaigns@pirateparty.org.uk

On the first of January 2012 many works will enter into the public domain in many jurisdictions; that means you can remix those works freely, usually even without citing the original author (although we think if you do appreciate their work, it's good sports to name them) without getting sued. Thus the first of January each year has been established not only as New Year's Eve, but also as Public Domain Day since some years.

If you are eager to remix some of these works, we suggest to lookup the copyright expiry date for works in your jurisdiction, e.g. at Wikipedia. As of today a lot of countries are basing the copyright term expiry date by the year the author died, you may then lookup who died in the respective year, e.g. 1941.

We all whish you a happy new year (given you are using the Gregorian calendar). The video embedded below has been created by the Pirate Party of Australia where all works by authors that died in 1941 will become public domain.

Details on the authors of the remixed works can be found on Vimeo.com where the video was originally published.