The Political Consequences of the TPB Raid

Six years ago, the Pirate Bay was raided by the Swedish police, taking down the torrent site and tracker, but such success was short lived. The site still lives on, and six years later, no sentences have been served, and nothing has changed as far as the site is concerned. There are other consequences though, that have had significant impact.

Oklahoma University's Patented Steak?

An interesting article on NPR yesterday showed some of the major problems with the US Patent system. Oklahoma State University (OSU) is planning to patent a new 'cut of beef'. The cut, dubbed 'Vegas Strip Steak' is from a part currently ground up and used for hamburgers

There's a slight problem though, in that at one point OSU's Steve Price completely undermines the whole 'patentability' of the steak. "If i told you, it would be a hint to where this muscle is, "he is quoted as saying by NPR. "A knowledgeable person would say, 'Aha!'"

[HoM] Rant Factor 9, Scotty

A quick one, but perhaps the funnier for it. What do you do when you don't bother to check basic facts, or guidelines? Well, if you're like one person, you go on a rant.

[LIVE] - Pirate Party Elections in Greece and Schleswig-Holstein

It seems like only yesterday it was the UK election, and now there's two; a national one in Greece, and a state election in Germany..

Going to try and give you the best coverage possible, from a pirate perspective. We've included a number of pannelists from around the Pirate Party, and between that and twitter, we should have you covered, if you don't speak German or Greek.

Fun starts at 2PM CEDT on Sunday May 6th 2012

Final official PPUK Local Election Results 2012

Yesterday were local UK elections and the UK Pirate Party did surprisingly well. While they didn’t win a seat, they did get a return in at least one ward that was surprising, the more so for being in a First Past the Post (FPTP) system. Meanwhile, up in Scotland, the Pirates didn’t do so well, despite using Single Transferable Vote, mainly because of the hot competition between the Labour and Scotish Nationalist parties, and the sheer weight of candidates.

LIVEBLOGGING: Uk Pirate Party Local Elections 2012

Because of the fun of the last liveblogging session, I'm going to try and liveblog the election. Mostly, it'll using on the 8 candidates put up by the UK Pirate Party, but also Steve Radford's (Liberal party) campaign, for Mayor of Liverpool - the man who got me started in politics.

Is Jamendo Violating Creative Commons?

There are more and more places to go to for music. There’s iTunes, for instance, but if you don’t want to spend a fortune, or have to deal with the craptastic kludge that is iTunes, there are other options. One of those, is Jamendo, a source for Creative Commons licensed music. They have a slightly problem now, in that they might be in violation of the Creative Commons licenses themselves.

The Pirate Bay Block: Control, Not Infringement

The BitTorrent Hydra

You might have heard around the net today, that the UK courts have ruled that major UK ISP’s have to block the Pirate Bay. But why should it be blocked? Is it an issue of infringement, as they claim, or is it more insidious, and an attempt to hold back some of the losses in distribution control.