The CopyCat - the final furballs of 2013

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Pirates rise in European Parliament

The Pirate Party’s “rise” in Europe – having had two Swedish MEPs elected in 2009 and more recently having gained a substantial number of seats in the Berlin state parliament after polling 8.5% of the votes – has mostly been written off as a niche occurrence with the party having no realistic hope of making a change. But now it seems like the Greens/European Free Alliance, the 5th largest coalition of political groups in the European Parliament, has adopted the Pirate Party’s policies on copyright. The coalition, which has seen the most gains in recent elections on the continent, will now support copyright policies which include a reduction in the basic term of rights protection to five years, extendable to 20 years on registration, a new right to format shift, a ban on new blank media levies and a new right to share files. Counterfeiting and “profiting directly from other people’s work without paying them” will remain illegal. The party’s UK manifesto also contains provisions for individual privacy and free speech.

The UK’s Pirate Party leader Loz Kaye told The Inquirer: "With the recent election victory in Berlin and now the Green EU Block adopting key Pirate Party positions, the movement continues to grow in its influence. This is because of the strength of our ideas. There are real challenges to digital rights world wide - site blocking, three strikes laws and the global intellectual property law treaty ACTA - and people are looking to us to stand up to the industry lobbyists. It's vital that we work at an international level to combat these threats to the open web” adding "Every country with a Pirate Party presence is a country where digital rights, our right to a shared culture and civil liberties, are put firmly on the agenda. Here in the UK, we plan to follow up on our meeting with [the government's culture minister] Ed Vaizey to continue to point the government in the direction of digital inclusion, rather than crackdowns like the Digital Economy Act. The time of the big media lobbies having it all their own way is over".

http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/media/uploads/manifesto/ppuk.manifesto.print.pdf

Pirates board Berlin Parliament

The Pirate Party has secured 8.5% of the vote in elections for Berlin's state parliament, easily exceeding the 5% threshold needed to gain seats and it is thought to be line to have fifteen new representatives in power. It came fifth of all parties and the Pirates secured around 15% of the vote in the under 30 age group. It’s the most high-profile success for a Pirate Party since 2009, when the Swedish Pirate Party won a seat in the European Parliament following the original trial of the four Pirate Bay founders. Founded in 2006, the Pirate Party originally campaigned on file-sharing and data protection on the Internet, but has since branched out to tackle education and citizen rights. For the Berlin election, the party also called for free public transport and votes for over-14s, while campaigning against secretive privatisation deals.

“At the moment the Pirate Party of Germany does not have any paid employees,” Sebastian Nerz, chairman of the German Pirate Party, told TorrentFreak. “Everyone working for the party – including myself – is working in an honorary capacity" adding “In contrast, Members of Parliament are paid for their work. In addition they receive state money to pay for assistants and co-workers. This will enable those Pirates to work full-time for the party, thus giving us much more work force”. German polling analyst Holger Liljeberg commented that the Pirate Party was “in tune with the Berlin vibe with their relaxed campaign – they focus a lot on liberalism, freedom and self-determination.” He might be right, the UK Pirate Party only managed to attract 1,340 votes across nine seats, or 0.34 percent of the vote, in the last United Kingdom elections two years ago.

The centre-left Social Democrats with 29.5% of the vote and led by popular Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit will now form a coalition administration with one of the smaller parties. "Shipmates ahoy" ......... ???

The Guardian Monday 19th September 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/18/pirate-party-germany-berlin-election

Czech Pirates and Anti-Piracy Union draw up battle lines

Under the slogan “Linking is not a crime”, the Czech Pirate Party has launched two movie-downloading websites in protest against the prosecution of a 16-year-old boy from the northern Czech city of Liberec. The boy faces a 5 million euro (US$ 7.2 million) damages claim which has been brought by the Czech Anti-Piracy Union for posting links to copyright-protected works on his website. The first of the two websites, launched in early July, Piratskefilmy.cz. This site is reported to carry some 20,000 links to over 5,800 movies. The second Tipnafilm.cz, was launched in late July. It does not host any copyright infringing material but does furnish links to where it can be downloaded.

The good old days, when the Czech Anti-Piracy Union could call on
Lucky and Flo to sniff our polycarbonate, used in the manufacture
of counterfeit disks.  Hyperlinks smell the same, regardless of legal status

According to the current law in the Czech Republic, copying something for one’s own use and downloading it from the internet is not illegal -- but sharing copyright material, like a movie or a CD, is illegal.

Czech Pirate Party Chairman Ivan Bartoš has stated his party's objection to the police being run by "the propaganda of the Anti-Piracy Union" and to the harassment of "anybody who puts a video on his/her web page or Facebook page". He has also challenged the Anti-Piracy Union to "stop bullying the under-aged and to aim its preposterous claims at the Pirate Party.”  The Pirate Party adds that, although no one has contacted it so far regarding the two websites, it is preparing a team of lawyers to deal with any potential lawsuits.

The Czech Anti-Piracy Union has reportedly not yet released any statement regarding the two websites, saying that it didn't want to reveal its strategy.

Source: "Czech Pirate Party Launches Movie-Download Portals in Protest Against Prosecution of File-Sharing Teenager", 30 August 2011

Pirate Party General Assembly Announced

Readers interested in all aspects and all sides of copyright may find a frolic to Germany an amusing way to spend the pre-Ides of March weekend. The Pirate Party International has announced that its General Assembly will be taking place in Friedrichshafen in a few months.

The General Assembly meeting’s main events include:

• Electing a new board, apply here
• Discussions of amendments to the PPI statutes, submit proposals here
• Decisions on new members

There will also be an Open Space workshop: 

“Open Space Technology is a powerful tool that allows [sic] to handle the most complex matters with the ease of a coffee break, and will allow us to take a glance at the future of the PPI.

We'll open a space where you'll work with other pirates to identify and address the most important issues in your work, your organization and your community. Come prepared with your own burning questions and pressing needs... and be ready to address them in a dynamic, high-learning environment.”

Non-members are welcome to attend as guests and each member can register up to six official delegates.  If think it would be much more interesting to have a six-way split personality than just be yourself, you can apply for membership here.

If any 1709 readers attend the conference, we would love to hear from you after the event.

Details

Location: Messehalle Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen, Deutschland [As this is in the very southern part of Germany, attendees might have some trouble pulling their boats into town.]

Dates: 11 – 13 March 2011 (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)

Cost: Early Reg: 35 Euros, after 13th February 50 Euros

Timetable: http://int.piratenpartei.de/PPI_Conference_2011/timetable

More info: visit http://int.piratenpartei.de/PPI_Conference_2011 or contact [email protected]

Pirates sunk in Sweden

After a spectacular showing in the European elections in 2009, the Pirate Party has done woefully in national elections in Sweden taking just 0.7% of the vote, a 90% slump in a year, according to exit polls. They will not be awarded any seats having failed to reach the 4% threshold needed for seats. In the European elections they gained 2 MEPs. The chief Pirate, Rick Falkvinge, told Torrentfreak "The Swedish Pirate Party did its best election campaign ever. We had more media, more articles, more debates, more ... flyers than ever. Unfortunately, the wind was not in our sails this time, as it was with the European elections," adding "The other parties had put a collective blanket over the privacy, culture and knowledge issues, as they had absolutely nothing to gain by even mentioning the issues" and concluding with "If the wind is not in your sails, the sweat on your brow will still not steer the ship. I guess the most obvious example is how the appellate trial of The Pirate Bay will begin just nine days after the election."

http://torrentfreak.com/swedish-pirate-party-fails-to-enter-parliament-100919/

Police target file sharers in 14 European countries

The web is buzzing this morning with news that police in 14 European countries launched a coordinated series of raids on suspected file-sharing network operations yesterday (Tuesday 7th). Reports say that Belgian authorities spearheaded the investigation that led to the raids, although a substantial part of the police activity took place in Sweden, including a raid on Sweden's PRQ in Solna, the new web host of whistleblower site WikiLeaks. Raids also took place on sites in Stockholm, Malmo, Eskilstuna and at Umea University's campus in Sweden. TorrentFreak reports that other raids took place in The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Italy. Great Britain, Czech Republic and Hungary. The believed target of the raids is the file-sharing "Warez Scene" or the “Scene”, which appears to be a loosely-affiliated group thought to be behind many leaks of copyrighted material to the Internet and described as “ the network of individuals and servers at the top of the so-called ‘Piracy Pyramid’ “. In Sweden it is reported that four people are being questioned on suspicion of breaching copyright law. Servers and computers have also been seized.

PRQ’s Mikaelo Viberg spoke to reporters and said that armed with IP addresses, police officers turned up at PRQ’s premises “At 9:00 this morning, five policemen were here” adding “They were interested in who were using two IP addresses from 2009 and onwards. We have no records of our clients but we’re handing over the e-mail addresses for those behind the IPs. However, it’s rare that our clients have mail addresses that are traceable.”

The web was also creaking under a welter of rumours of conspiracy - the theory being that because of the PRQ action, the raids were in some way connected to WikiLeaks whose recent exposures have been rather embarrassing for the Government and military in the USA. Sweden’s Pirate Party (unsurprisingly) expressing concern saying it was “highly critical” of the raid but Swedish prosecutor Frederick Ingblad confirmed to local media that WikiLeaks was not a target of the operation.

http://torrentfreak.com/police-in-file-sharing-raids-across-europe-wikileaks-host-targeted-100907/

Pirate Party: serious threat or big joke?

Speaking at the IBC Informa International Copyright Law 2009 conference yesterday (programme here), I gave a brief presentation on "From Pirate Bay to Pirate Party" in which I outlined my thoughts on the evolution of an IP-hostile culture into a political movement. My feeling is that the sentiments that have galvanised many politically apathetic youngsters into forming organisations and employing the democratic process for their highly focused ends is something we should take extremely seriously, and that every assertion which the Pirate Party makes should be fully addressed and responded to.

Right: The major political parties are not addressing Pirate Party issues. Are they living in Cloud Cuckoo Land?

MAQS litigation lawyer Monique Wadsted, who has been involved in legal proceedings against The Pirate Bay over the past six years (which provided the subject of her talk), took a more optimistic view: the Swedish Pirate Party is not doing so well in recent opinion polls and its membership figures are less impressive when one considers that membership is free. Nonetheless, the Swedish Pirate Party already has two Members of the European Parliament and it is not beyond the bounds of reality to imagine in a world in which that number increases. The issues which it raises are not frivolous; they also address areas beyond file-sharing and copyright alone, as Pirate Party submissions on the patentability of computer programs and policies on data protection and surveillance demonstrate. They also call for things to which no rational voter could object, such as greater transparency in the workings of the European Union's various organs. Above all, the acceptance of file-sharing as a means of sharing information, just as one might lend a friend a newspaper or DVD, is something that appeals to those who believe they cannot or should not pay for what they want -- the young and the unwaged -- many of whom have grown up in an environment in which the simple equation that governs their computer use is 'internet = free'.

My PowerPoints, for what they're worth, are here.

Will Christian be thrown to the copyright lions?

The 1709 Blog makes no apologies for publishing the following item in full. Regardless of whether its reproduction is sanctioned as fair dealing, the likelihood of the author bringing an action for copyright infringement must be small. The item in question, published in The Financial Times, is authored by Christian Engström (right), the Pirate party’s member of the European parliament, and it goes like this:

"Copyright laws threaten our online freedom

If you search for Elvis Presley in Wikipedia, you will find a lot of text and a few pictures that have been cleared for distribution. But you will find no music and no film clips, due to copyright restrictions. What we think of as our common cultural heritage is not “ours” at all.

On MySpace and YouTube, creative people post audio and video remixes for others to enjoy, until they are replaced by take-down notices handed out by big film and record companies. Technology opens up possibilities; copyright law shuts them down.

This was never the intent. Copyright was meant to encourage culture, not restrict it. This is reason enough for reform. But the current regime has even more damaging effects. In order to uphold copyright laws, governments are beginning to restrict our right to communicate with each other in private, without being monitored.

File-sharing occurs whenever one individual sends a file to another. The only way to even try to limit this process is to monitor all communication between ordinary people. Despite the crackdown on Napster, Kazaa and other peer-to-peer services over the past decade, the volume of file-sharing has grown exponentially. Even if the authorities closed down all other possibilities, people could still send copyrighted files as attachments to e-mails or through private networks. If people start doing that, should we give the government the right to monitor all mail and all encrypted networks? Whenever there are ways of communicating in private, they will be used to share copyrighted material. If you want to stop people doing this, you must remove the right to communicate in private. There is no other option. Society has to make a choice.

The world is at a crossroads. The internet and new information technologies are so powerful that no matter what we do, society will change. But the direction has not been decided.

The technology could be used to create a Big Brother society beyond our nightmares, where governments and corporations monitor every detail of our lives. In the former East Germany, the government needed tens of thousands of employees to keep track of the citizens using typewriters, pencils and index cards. Today a computer can do the same thing a million times faster, at the push of a button. There are many politicians who want to push that button.

The same technology could instead be used to create a society that embraces spontaneity, collaboration and diversity. Where the citizens are no longer passive consumers being fed information and culture through one-way media, but are instead active participants collaborating on a journey into the future.

The internet it still in its infancy, but already we see fantastic things appearing as if by magic. Take Linux, the free computer operating system, or Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Witness the participatory culture of MySpace and YouTube, or the growth of the Pirate Bay, which makes the world’s culture easily available to anybody with an internet connection. But where technology opens up new possibilities, our intellectual property laws do their best to restrict them. Linux is held back by patents, the rest of the examples by copyright.

The public increasingly recognises the need for reform. That was why Piratpartiet – the Pirate party – won 7.1 per cent of the popular vote in Sweden in the European Union elections. This gave us a seat in the European parliament for the first time.

Our manifesto is to reform copyright laws and gradually abolish the patent system. We oppose mass surveillance and censorship on the net, as in the rest of society. We want to make the EU more democratic and transparent. This is our entire platform.

We intend to devote all our time and energy to protecting the fundamental civil liberties on the net and elsewhere. Seven per cent of Swedish voters agreed with us that it makes sense to put other political differences aside in order to ensure this.

Political decisions taken over the next five years are likely to set the course we take into the information society, and will affect the lives of millions for many years into the future. Will we let our fears lead us towards a dystopian Big Brother state, or will we have the courage and wisdom to choose an exciting future in a free and open society?

The information revolution is happening here and now. It is up to us to decide what future we want".

This feature is just under 750 words in length. The 1709 Blog will be pleased to publish in full (with the author's permission) the best courteous and reasoned response, in 750 words or fewer, received by close of play next Wednesday, 15 July.

The Pirate Party in Germany

If you've not been following socio-political developments in Germany, take a look at this guest piece by German legal scholar and IP blogger Axel Horns on the reasons for the popularity of the Pirate Party in Germany.