The success last year of the Swedish Pirate Party in the European Parliament elections was considered a bit of a fluke by some. However when the votes were in, Christian Engström and Amelia Andersdotter were elected MEPs after the party collected over 7% of the vote.

While Ms Andersdotter isn’t seated yet (as one of the new MEP’s created when the Lisbon Treaty passed in November 2009), Mr Engström has been working up a frenzy in office, covering topics like an Internet Bill of Rights and privacy.

The Party may be lambasted in many places – including one flat-out lie in the UK House of Commons during a debate that led to the passage of the Digital Economy Act – but it seems their detractors are a vocal minority, rather than the majority, if itsyourparliament.eu is anything to go by.

They list Mr Engström as the most popular MEP (120 for, and 9 against or 93%) with a clear lead over his nearest rivals, British Liberal Democrat George Lyon (25 for and 5 against, or 83%), and Jill Evans of the Welsh party Plaid Cymru (22 for, 4 against or 84%).

Mr Engström is playing down this show of popularity. “It feels great,” he told Freakbits, “..but to be honest it doesn’t necessarily mean that I am in fact the most liked. Just that my supporters know their way around the internet better, and are familiar with political resources like itsyourparliament.eu”

“But that’s pretty great too,” he added with a smile.

Christian also holds another record – the Greenest voting record. Hit votes are 100% in compliance with Green Party policy, beating not only the Swedish MEPs from the Green Party, but even the European Parliament’s Green group leaders.

He notes on his blog that’s it’s not that the party has turned into the Green Party, but “It just means that I have done exactly what the Pirate Party promised before the election. I put all my energy on information policy, and follow the group I am with in all matters outside our election platform.”

This integrity and honesty is certain to be a key point in their campaign for September’s election.

Photo by tobias.bjorkgren

Article from: FreakBits

There are worries in the American media today that the Democratic party will lose the seat it’s had for decades in Massachusetts. The seat, held by Ted Kennedy from 1962-2009 and by his older brother John (yes, THAT John Kennedy) from 1953-1960 (when he became president) is now up for election, and the Republicans are looking to take it. There are a number of challengers though, and one of them is Ken Takusagawa who is running of the platform of the book “Free Culture”

American politics is complex, and money-based. A successful senate campaign can easily cost $10 Million. It’s out of reach of many, and even getting a state party established in the US is hard – just ask the US Pirate Party. Thus, many people will resort to cheap ‘grass-roots’ independent campaigns, using the write-in method. This method may be cheap, but also means that people have to know about you to vote for you, you’re not printed on the ballot.

Takusagawa is reticent to do interviews, stating on his website

I will not do media interviews. I am not the eloquent one. I am not politically “savvy”. This campaign is possible only because someone else has clearly written down what I believe in (and Lessig himself is, as of 2008, unwilling to run for Congress).

He also will not accept private communications, preferring public comments which can be responded to likewise, in the interests of government transparency. However, he doesn’t expect to win, but just to draw attention to the problems.

If you are in Massachusetts, and want to vote for Mr Takusagawa today, then the following should be written in the appropriate section fo the ballot.

Name: Ken Takusagawa
Address: 274 Cambridge St. #3, Boston, MA

We’ll update you on how he does.

Article from: FreakBits

Let’s put this in perspective.

$30 million dollars is enough to provide a college education for up to 1,500 students who might otherwise not be able to afford it. It is enough to provide housing for 6,000 homeless people for up to a year. It is enough to buy 5.4 million starving children each a happy meal from McDonalds. If put into the economy, it is enough to stimulate an extra 10,000 jobs.

Instead, the money is being used to help out an industry which is showing absolutely no signs of being hurt by the recession. Tax dollars paid from the hard earned money of millions of working class Americans going, not to build roads or pay firefighters, but to subsidize already rich and powerful film and music executives.

If you are American and reading this, you paid for it. You still don’t have health care, but those sneaky pirates won’t be stealing pennies from the jars of the rich and famous anymore. Actually, that is not exactly the truth. They still will be. This pile of money isn’t aimed at ending piracy altogether. Just making it a little harder to do. If it even does that much, which is a big ‘if’.

In the end, this reporter believes all we will be left with is 30 million reasons to elect new Congressman.

Article from: FreakBits

FreakBits had a chance to have an unofficial sit-down with some of the guys behind the whole deal, hoping we could dispel some of the rumors and maybe give readers a clearer picture of what they are actually trying to accomplish.

What this reporter found when he ventured, totally unprotected, into the official IRC chat room of the PPAU was not a bunch of ‘open slather’ downloaders who have no aim or direction. In contrast with the insinuations in the original article, it is a well spoken group of concerned Australians who are in the beginning stages of what may turn out to be an influential force in the future of politics down under.

The first goal of the fledgling political party was nearly met; obtaining 500 members in order to qualify for registration with the Australian Electorial Commission. The announcement was made last Monday and the party reports that already over 1400 inquiries have been made since then.

The platform of the group is not, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, to abolish copyright laws completely. The aim is to decriminalize file sharing meant for private use and non-profit. Not to get rid of the laws, but to reform them. Another thing that was misrepresented was the fact that preventing censorship and Internet filtering is also a huge part of their platform.

Similar groups have had success in other parts of the world. The Swedish party recently won a seat in the EU Parliament with over 200,000 votes.

Going on record, the Pirate Party stated that they would gladly have sat down with the Sydney Herald to explain better their views had the request been made. None such was ever received. Speaking from personal experience, they were more than glad to chat it up with FreakBits.

For more information or to join the cause (they do accept non-Australian members) check out their website. Stay tuned for more from Freakbits as their story unfolds.

Article from: FreakBits

Lembit Öpik is the Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire.

Ian Lucas is the Labour MP for Wrexham and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Lembit Öpik asked Ian Lucas the following questions, which received answers yesterday;

Q: What is the most recent assessment of the effectiveness of (a) bandwidth capping and (b) temporary internet account suspension in preventing illegal music file sharing?

A: Both measures are options which could be used to combat unlawful file-sharing of music files. The effectiveness of (a) bandwidth capping would depend on the level of the cap imposed and the aim would be to impose such a level as to severely restrict such activity without unduly impacting on other legitimate internet activities. Temporary account suspension (b) would block all file-sharing. However it would also prevent access to all internet functions and as such is a serious step which would only be used against the most serious infringers.

Q: What is the most recent assessment of the likely effect on internet accounts which have been used to unlawfully file share copyrighted material of the threat of temporary account suspension?

A: The suspension of an internet account is a possible option that might be employed against those subscribers who have been identified as persistently file-sharing material in breach of copyright. There is a mass of industry survey evidence which shows that most subscribers would cease file-sharing activity if they received warning letters backed up with the threat of further enforcement action. Enforcement action in the form of account suspension represents a real, effective and credible deterrent. However it would also block legitimate internet activities and as such is a serious step which would only be used against the most serious infringers.

Q: What is the most recent assessment of the likely costs to internet service providers of compliance with the obligations set out in the Digital Britain report to reduce unlawful file sharing on their networks?

A: The most recent assessment of the likely costs to internet service providers was contained in the Government’s consultation on P2P file-sharing issued on 16 June 2009. The impact assessment calculated the likely costs to ISPs to be between £290-500 million over a 10 year period. This was set against likely benefits in the region of £1.2-1.4 billion.

Q: What is the most recent assessment of the likely effect on consumers of a reduction in the level of unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing on the internet?

A: File-sharing is an activity which requires large amounts of internet bandwidth. Many ISPs already employ traffic management techniques to limit bandwidth-hungry applications at peak times to optimise the performance of their networks.

Any significant reduction in unlawful file-sharing activity could therefore improve average broadband speeds.

A reduction in unlawful file-sharing will be the result of enforcement, education and new commercial deals. We would therefore expect a greater number legal content offers to become available to consumers thereby increasing choice.

/END

Article from: FreakBits

It seems that Sweden’s Left Party may have had an eye on some of the more popular elements of the Pirate Party’s politics.

One of the sections in the Left’s new manifesto is entitled “The right to be private” and mirrors almost identically the policies of Sweden’s Pirates.

The Left Party is also advocating the nullification of both the FRA and IPRED legislations, and wishes to limit the right of the state to spy on its citizens.

“The insidious development of a Control society is a reality. There is a need for change. We need freedom of movement of personal integrity,” they write.

Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge acknowledges that his party’s politics have been copied, but true to his own ideals, is supportive.

“I think it’s great to spread our ideas and with more parties tackling these issues, this is what we wanted from the beginning,” he said.

But is Falkvinge concerned that the Lefts are going to steal his voters?

“For us it is not an end in itself to sit in government. The more people talking about issues and spreading ideas is what we want. From the beginning politicians did not want to take on these issues, now that several parties have this is very good,” he added.

Article from: FreakBits

In the coalition agreement that’s currently drafted both parties have agreed not to allow Internet disconnections for alleged copyright infringement offenses.

The decision is huge blow to the lobbyists of the movie and music industries, but not really unexpected.

Before the elections FDP’s legal expert Sabine Leutheusser already said that her party opposed to a three-strikes scheme for copyright infringers, calling it a disproportionate measure that would violate fundamental rights of German citizens. This standpoint is now included in the coalition agreement.

In other countries like the UK and France the so called “graduated response” legislation is still on the table, despite huge opposition from the public.

Article from: FreakBits

Dick Doyle of IRMA (the local RIAA) and Christian Engstrom who represents The Pirate Party in the European Parliament, discuss the issue on Todayfm.

While Eircom gave in to the demands of the music lobby, two other ISPs, UPC and BT Ireland refused to do so. They will be taken to court by IRMA, Doyle says during the chat at Todayfm. Engstrom, who represents the European Pirates after an election win in Sweden sees Eircom’s actions as censorship.

[wpaudio url="http://audio.todayfm.com/pirate_eircom.mp3"]

Article from: FreakBits

Last September The Pirate Party of Finland (Piraattipuolue) began collecting the 5000 supporter signatures required by Finnish law. That milestone was achieved and the party handed them to the Ministry of Justice in early June 2009.

Piraattipuolue is now able to participate in the Finnish parliamentary, municipal and European parliamentary elections. Their primary goal: get their representatives in the Finnish parliament at the 2011 election.

“Piraattipuolue has a steady support and our membership figures are climbing steadily. Pirates are an important part of our society”, says chairman Pasi Palmulehto.

The Pirate Party of Finland becomes the 8th officially registered Pirate Party and currently has around 2,370 members.

Pirattipuolue

Article from: FreakBits

“Our goal is to change the law on a global scale to encourage the emergence of an information society, characterized by diversity and openness,” he writes.

The Piratpartiet is also needed to protect citizens’ privacy against surveillance and data harvesting by populist authorities, even on a local political level, says Falkvinge.

While championing the introduction of open source software into schools and authorities, Piratepartiet also wants to increase the public’s right to access information while decreasing copyright terms.

Article from: FreakBits