US Pirate Party's Data Protection Failure

One of the core tenants of the Pirate Party movement, is personal privacy. In fact, to quote Rick Falkvinge, “Five years ago, when I founded the Swedish and first Pirate Party, we set three pillars for our policy: shared culture, free knowledge, and fundamental privacy.”.But what do you do when a Pirate Party doesn't follow those three core principles? That's the question that now occupies the US Pirate Party.

UK ID Cards Are No More!

In the last ten years, governments have fallen over themselves to try and obtain more information about their citizens. Sometimes it's databases, or new regulations, or cameras, but the one thing they have in common is that they can be used to identify you, and track you. Today is a positive step then, as in the UK, it's the last day for the “UK Identity Card” - after midnight GMT tonight, they will no longer be valid for use at all.

UK Speedtraps Not For Safety

In the UK, speedtraps, GATSO's, speeding cameras - call them what you will - have been marketed as a way to reduce road deaths, by reducing speeds at accident blackspots, and thus increasing safety. However, a Magistrates Court in Grimbsby has charged someone with wilfully obstructing a policewoman in the execution of her duty for slowing people down. The crucial point? He was slowing them before a speedtrap.

Where Torrents Infringe

There's been a lot of action targeting torrent websites, especially in recent months. It seems that part of the problem is that people don't understand, a lot of the time, what's going on with sites. It's also clear from some filings, that the agents and courts don't either.

Jabba the Hut's Pirate Prohibition

It might not seem like a particular surprise, that the African nation of Tunisia – better known to many as Tatooine – has arrested pirates. However these aren't your 'Knock-off Nigel' types selling DVDs that are in prison, but Pirate Politicians, arrested for having a political view different from the ruling government.

Rick Stepping Down as Piratepartiet Leader

(This is a copy of a post first published at Ricks site, which I've reprinted here)

source

I spend a lot of my days on the intertubes, and often find myself discussing, and/or promoting the Pirate Party ideology, often ending in an suggestion that the person join their local party. Most of the time, they've heard of the Pirate Party, but maybe 20% of the time, they think it's Sweden only. Piratpartiet has (if you'll excuse the marketing talk) 'international brand awareness' in the techie group, but now it needs to embrace the other 90% of the electorate, because the issues are not just confined to those 10%, but affect everyone.

5 Years of Pirate Partying

Today marks the 5th birthday of the Swedish Pirate Party, Launched at 20:00 (8pm) on January 1st 2005, in five years it has spread globally, to parties in over 40 countries, with elected representatives in 4 countries at present, it's been an exhillerating first 5 years.

SuprNova Relaunches

One of the big names in early torrenting was Suprnova.org. What the Pirate Bay is now, Suprnova was then, and it's enforced closure was the catalyst for the popularity of Miniova, TPB, isoHunt, and a whole host of others. So now, in this recently released promo-video, suprnova, once more under the control of Sloncek, is relaunching as a video portal.