Swedish Pirate Party Declares War On Copyright Trolls

from the to-arms dept

We've discussed the various "Pirate Parties" that have sprung up around European political systems over the past few years. While the name taken by these political movements is probably unfortunate, having political interests centered around the many, many problems within copyright law and enforcement is undoubtedly good and necessary. Sadly, those parties have too often been ineffectual, often ties co-opted by standing political powers in a way that dilutes their purposes. In Sweden in particular, the past few years have seen all the worst kinds of copyright problems sprout up as though somebody had sprinkled fertilizer over the land. As this was happening, Sweden's Pirate Party had remained comparatively silent, particularly on the matter of what can only be described as a copyright troll invasion.

Well, that is set to change, with the Swedish Pirate Party finally waking up to the threat of trollish extortion letters being sent to thousands of Swedish citizens and announcing plans to fight back.

The Pirate Party describes the copyright trolling efforts as extortion. It stresses that the evidence copyright holders rely on is far from solid, something they believe the courts should take into account.

“It is a scandal that the Swedish judicial system facilitates the mafia-like methods of copyright trolls,” says Pirate Party leader Magnus Andersson. “To condone the sending of extortion letters without reasonable ground for suspicion of criminal activity is not acceptable. We demand the Justice Minister to do something about the situation with these copyright trolls!”

Petitioning the Swedish government is not the only avenue available to fight back, however. In addition to calls for reinterpretations of Swedish law that would disallow the more controversial tactics used by copyright trolls, the Pirate Party could also simply petition the EU to have that same Swedish law repealed entirely. In addition to all of that, the Pirate Party is also lending support to Banhoff, the Swedish ISP that has made a name for itself in fighting the efforts of copyright trolls viciously, even going so far as to send trolling operations its own form of settlement letters.

Regardless, it's good to see Sweden's Pirate Party finally waking up and fulfilling its stated mission of advocating for the public on copyright matters.

Filed Under: copyright, copyright trolls, pirate party, sweden

Iceland Forms A New Government... Without The Pirate Party

from the keep-sailing dept

Last month, we recognized that while it was still a long shot, it was interesting that the Iceland Pirate Party actually had a chance to form the new government there. A few previous efforts had failed and the job had fallen to the Pirate Party. However, it didn't take long for reports to leak out that the Pirate Party was having trouble building a coalition that would form the new government. And now a new government has been formed without the Pirate Party as part of the coalition:

Iceland's center-right Independence, Reform and Bright Future parties have agreed to form a coalition government and will give parliament a vote on whether to hold a referendum on joining the European Union.

Together, the coalition will hold 32 of the 63 seats in parliament. The Independence Party will have 21 seats, making it the largest party in the coalition.

This was always the most likely result -- as these groups also got the first crack at trying to form a coalition, and couldn't make it work at the time. That was part of what left an opening for the Pirate Party to try. It certainly would have been interesting to see what a Pirate Party-led Iceland would have been able to do -- especially in a time where we really could use a haven for freedom of expression, internet freedom and privacy. But, alas, it didn't happen this time around.

Filed Under: governance, government, iceland, pirate party

Pirates Trying To Form New Icelandic Government

from the this-could-get-interesting dept

All year long, there have been reports talking about how the Pirate Party in Iceland were poised to take control over the Icelandic government in the elections. Many publications acted like it was a foregone conclusion. However, if anything should be obvious this year, what the polls and the press are telling you about likely outcomes of elections should be taken with a large grain of salt. So we didn't report on it -- even after the election when the Pirate Party did well, but still came in third place. However, with the top two parties failing to build a coalition to form a new government, the Iceland Pirates have been given a shot and they're hard at work trying to build a coalition that will form the government.

Of course, this still isn't a guarantee -- and there's already talk of having to hold another election, but hopefully the Pirates can put together something. While it does feel like many people involved in Pirate Parties have underestimated what it actually takes to govern, it would certainly be interesting -- especially in Iceland -- to see what they could do.

The party appears to be taking a measured approached to a task viewed by many as exceeding urgent and pressing. Members of the parliamentary party spent all weekend discussing the issues between themselves, with no representatives of any other parties involved.

“We don’t want this this to be a rushed or botched job. We want to do things properly,” says Pirate MP Einar Aðalsteinn Brynjólfsson.

“Of course, it is time for a new government to be formed – otherwise we could be heading for a constitutional crisis. The current government is a caretaker government with a limited mandate.”

Hopefully the parties can work out their differences and create a coalition government led by the Pirates. Icleand has swung back and forth on the pendulum of supporting true internet freedom in the past, but having the Pirates in charge could lead to some interesting and worthwhile experiments. And, in an age where too much reasonable anger at old line politicians is being directed towards ultra-nationalistic campaigners who tend to look backwards rather than forward, it will be worthwhile to see what a party with a truly forward looking agenda could accomplish.

Filed Under: iceland, pirate party

EU Parliament Takes A Small Step Towards Improving Copyright

from the no-big-bold-changes-yet dept

On Wednesday, the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) adopted a copyright reform proposal based on the report that Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda released earlier this year. There were tons of amendments and some of the important ideas in the original report were taken out or watered down -- something that Reda readily admits. Former Pirate Party MEP Amelia Andersdotter, who had complained about Reda's report from the start, is vocally upset about the outcome, arguing that accomplishing a plan with only moderate ambitions is not what the Pirate Party should be supporting.

That said, there are some real reforms in there, including dropping the proposal for ancillary copyrights, better known as a "snippet tax" or "Google News tax" that many are pushing for. Missing from the final result, however, was support for "freedom of panorama" -- an important concept allowing people to photograph things in public (like the Eiffel Tower). Also troubling was the inclusion of an amendment that says copyright holders need to give express permission for works to be performed in public spaces, which could create a huge mess.

In short, it's copyright reform, but like most copyright reform lately, there's a jumble of concepts mixed in -- some good, some bad. When the US Congress finally gets around to releasing its plan for comprehensive copyright reform, it's likely to be something similar. A mixed bag of decent ideas and bad ideas, each designed to trade off on each other, to try to keep "both sides" happy -- or, more realistically, to placate both sides from being too angry about the stuff they consider bad.

But that's no way to create real reform. I understand how both Reda and Andersdotter feel on this issue and sympathize with both positions. Getting anything through on copyright reform is nearly impossible, so even marginally good changes can, quite reasonably, be seen as a big step -- especially after years of most reforms leaning much more heavily on bad ideas, with almost no good ones. Having a proposal move forward that at least has some good ideas in it is... progress.

But, it's also messy and marginal progress that comes along with some bad ideas as well. It becomes more about the politics of getting something than getting the best result.

And that's where this whole process is a bit depressing -- as is politics all too often. You focus on getting something done and it involves a lot of horse trading and marginal improvements rather than big fixes. It's also why it's so frustrating to see so many people continue to argue that copyright is about "two" competing interests -- copyright holders and the public. That's not the case. An ideal copyright system should be maximizing benefit to both. We should be looking at real policy changes that creates greater overall benefit, but no one seems willing to even entertain that possibility. And, for that reason, I share Andersdotter's dismay -- but not with Reda, rather with a process that is, itself, quite broken. Reda got something through that, frankly, would have been close to impossible a very short period of time ago. The fact that it's pretty limited speaks a lot more to the overall political system today than it does to Reda herself. But these small victories are important for the time being, so long as the overall focus is on creating real reforms in the long run.

Filed Under: amelia andersdotter, copyright, copyright reform, eu, eu parliament, julia reda, juri, pirate party, small victories

Pirate Party Launches Site For Public To Put Questions To New EU Commissioners Responsible For Internet Policy

from the give-it-a-go dept

There's a new set of top politicians coming in to form the European Commission, one of the three bodies that run the European Union. Next week, the European Parliament -- another of those three bodies -- gets to grill them on their suitability. It's largely theater, since rejecting a Commissioner-designate is pretty heavy, and rarely happens. Still, if nothing else, it's a chance to put embarrassing questions to people who will soon be powerful and hard to call to account. Sadly, though, it's not something that the public can participate in. The Pirate Party's newly-elected Member of the European Parliament, Julia Reda, wants to change that, and has created a site called "What would you ask?". Here's the explanation:

From September 29 to October 7th, the European Parliament gets to vet the designated members of the EU Commission: The people who will be drafting laws for 500 million people for the next five years. I believe: The people of Europe should also be allowed to ask questions! That's why I'm asking YOU: If you had the chance, what would you ask the Commissioners responsible for internet policy?

There are two Commissioners involved: Andrus Ansip, Designated Vice President for the Digital Single Market, who oversees the breaking-down of borders between EU member states on the Internet, and Günther Oettinger, Designated Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, responsible for the telecom sector, copyright, start-ups, e-government, security, Internet governance, and the European Commission's own computing services. Rather worryingly, Ansip was an unabashed supporter of ACTA when it was being pushed through a couple of years ago, while questions have been raised about Oettinger's experience and understanding of the digital world.

Reda adds:

I will forward the top-voted questions to the Commissioners and ask them to reply. But please note: Since as an individual MEP even I have very limited opportunity to ask questions, I cannot promise I will be able to pose these questions in the actual committee hearing.

Still, given that previously the public had precisely zero opportunity to pose questions to these people, even a small chance is worth taking.

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Filed Under: andrus ansip, eu commissioner, eu parliament, gunther oettinger, julia reda, pirate party, questions

Russian Pirates Offer To Host NASA's Website While US Government Is Shutdown

from the adopt-a-us-gov't-webiste dept

The government shutdown leading to various government websites being taken offline has been the subject of much mocking. But, for people who rely on those websites, it can be quite a nuisance. So perhaps it's time to start an "adopt a federal website" program, where others are willing to host the downed websites until such time as the government gets its act together. It appears that the Russian Pirate Party has kicked all this off by offering to host NASA's downed website. The full statement on the party's website is somewhat amusing:

To NASA, USA
from Pirate Party of Russia

Dear Madame/Sir,

We do care about the situation around your web site and the budget crisis in USA. Thereby we would like to offer you bulletproof collocation or dedicated servers on our hosting platform till the end of the crisis. We stand for Internet privacy, and as the result you would not have to worry about programs such as PRISM and other illegal activities of secret services of different countries. Your traffic, your activity and the activity of your users will be in safety.

We love Mars!

Perhaps we can set up an crowdfunding campaign to get this kind of thing moving.

Filed Under: government shutdown, pirate party, russia, websites

Interesting Move: Peter Sunde, Of The Pirate Bay & Flattr To Run For EU Parliament

from the raising-visibility dept

The Pirate Party of Sweden famously got two MEPs elected to the European Parliament in its last election, and now in an interesting move, Peter Sunde -- probably best known as the former spokesperson for The Pirate Bay -- has announced that he'll be running for the European Parliament in Finland (he was apparently born in Sweden but his ancestry is Finnish). After the Pirate Bay -- which many people incorrectly assume is connected to The Pirate Party -- Sunde went on to found Flattr, a system (which we use here) that helps content creators make money.

I've discovered that people who have never met Peter tend to be very quick to jump to conclusions about him -- almost always entirely incorrect. Amusingly, when I first met him, a few years back in Berlin, he and I were sitting in "the green room" of a conference right before a panel that he was supposed to be on. All of the other panelists on his panel had entered the room and were discussing the panel across the room, without knowing that Peter was sitting right there talking to me. So they started talking about him, and someone explained that "the pirates now hate Peter, because he switched to the other side with Flattr." Of course, nothing is further from the truth. This was never about "sides" but about reality. Peter has always been incredibly focused on recognizing what reality is and trying to respond to reality -- rather than making up artificial boundaries and pretending a fake world must exist where it does not. I'm not sure how well that will play in actual political situations, but it would be great to see what would happen.

The one bit that surprises me, frankly, about the decision to do this via the Pirate Party is that, in the past, Peter has actually distanced himself from The Pirate Party in the past, saying that he preferred other parties, such as the Swedish Green Party. Either way, in my limited experience with him, Peter has always been one of the most perceptive and thoughtful commenters on the state of technology and its impact on society and culture. I've come away from our conversations feeling like I understood a lot more about the world than when the talks started. I recognize that for many who come with pre-conceived notions, it will be easy to try to dismiss him, but for those willing to take a chance and see what he actually has to say, there is tremendous value in hearing what he has to say -- and in a political world, it would be great to see what he could accomplish.

That said, there is the outstanding matter of the ruling against him -- and the fact that he's been sentenced to jail, though it's still never been made clear when or how he will be expected to serve that sentence. I would imagine that somehow, that issue would need to be clarified if his candidacy actually gets any real momentum.

Filed Under: eu parliament, finland, peter sunde, pirate party
Companies: flatter, the pirate bay

Pirate Party Elected To Parliament In Iceland, First Pirate Party Victory In National Parliament

from the in-just-five-months dept

There's been a bit of political upheaval over in Iceland with this weekend's national election. As was widely expected, the "centre-right" opposition parties have returned to power, though many are pointing out that these are the same folks who "bankrupted" Iceland (though it wasn't them alone who did that...). However, in this upheaval, it appears that the brand new Pirate Party Iceland, which started just a few months ago, was able to squeak by the 5% threshold and gain what appears to be 3 Members of Parliament. That would make it the first Pirate Party victory in a national parliamentary election. As many of you already know, the Pirate Party has elected two MEPs to the European Parliament from Sweden, and there have been a number of victories in various German regional elections, though the German Pirate Party has also gone through some recent upheaval of its own. The Icelandic Pirate Party is lead by Birgitta Jónsdóttir, who is a former Member of Parliament in Iceland who got plenty of attention (including from the US government) for helping Wikileaks.

Filed Under: iceland, pirate party

Icelandic Politicians Ignore Crowdsourced Constitution; Pirate Party Rejoices

from the we-know-what-happens-next dept

Techdirt has been following the fascinating saga of Iceland's crowdsourced constitution for nearly two years. Back in October 2012, we noted that Icelandic citizens gave it a pretty big thumbs up. Reflecting that, it really looked like Iceland's parliament might pass the associated bill, and go down in the history books for this bold re-invention of itself.

But the politicians have just put a stop to that, as Thorvaldur Gylfason explains on his blog:

32 out of 63 members of parliament were induced by an e-mail campaign organized by ordinary citizens to declare that they supported the bill and wanted to adopt it now. Despite these public declarations, however, the bill was not brought to a vote in the parliament, a heinous betrayal -- and probably also an illegal act committed with impunity by the president of the parliament. Rather, the parliament decided to disrespect its own publicly declared will as well as the popular will as expressed in the national referendum by putting the bill on ice and, to add insult to injury, hastily requiring 2/3 of parliament plus 40% of the popular vote to approve any change in the constitution in the next parliament, meaning that at least 80% voter turnout would be required for a constitutional reform to be accepted in the next session of parliament.

In other words, not content with simply ignoring the will of the people to adopt this crowdsourced constitution, the Icelandic politicians have now made it even harder to bring in something in the future.

By a happy coincidence, a new Pirate Party has been formed in Iceland, and is already doing quite well given its recent formation, as Rick Falkvinge explains:

The poll gives the Icelandic Píratar 5.6% of the votes, translating to four seats in the Icelandic Parliament. This growth is nothing short of phenomenal, even within the Pirate Party movement, and it would seem that the Icelandic pirates will be the first to put people in a regular, proportional, national-level parliament. (Sweden was first with the European Parliament, Germany was first with state-level parliament, and the Czech pirates were first with a senator.)

As we've seen elsewhere, there's nothing like a little outrageous behavior from mainstream politicians to drive voters into the arms of the Pirates, so Falkvinge's understandably optimistic predictions may well turn out to be true. Let's hope so, if only as a punishment for the contempt shown by the Icelandic parliament for its people.

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Filed Under: constitution, crowdsourced, iceland, pirate party, public interest

Brazil's New Political Party: Green With A Shade Of Pirate

from the new-new-thing,-or-old-new-thing? dept

Techdirt has been following the rapid rise and current problems of the various Pirate Parties in Europe for some time. Both their success and difficulties flow in part from the fact that they do not fit neatly into the traditional political categories. This makes them attractive to those who are disenchanted with established parties, but also makes it hard for Pirate Parties to devise a coherent political program that they can seek to implement, for example through alliances with others.

An interesting question is whether the Pirate Party is a one-off, or part of a larger movement away from traditional party lines towards a different kind of politics -- specifically one that recognizes the central importance of the Internet in modern life. That's just been answered by the appearance of a new party in Brazil, as reported by Global Voices:

A former Brazilian presidential candidate and famous environmentalist is leading the charge for the creation of a new political party in the country, one that seeks to use the Internet as a tool for action on sustainability issues.

Former Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva officially launched her Sustainability Network in the capital Brasilia on 16 February, 2013, to a crowd of around 1,700 people, including supporters, founders and ideologues. The network aims to collect the required 500,000 signatures by September 2013 to become legally recognised as a political party.

What's interesting here is that the new party seems to draw on both traditional Green policies, with their emphasis on sustainability, and key ideas of the Net-based Pirate Party. For example, the idea of a network is central to the new party, as its name -- "Sustainability Network" -- makes clear. The party's manifesto (original pdf in Portuguese) expands on this aspect:

We believe that networks, as a means of aggregation and organization, are an invention of the present that bridges to a better future. The concept of a network is based on a democratic and egalitarian operation that seeks convergences in diversity. It is an instrument against the power of hierarchies that capture democratic institutions and, ironically, makes them their instrument of domination. For it is networked with society that we want to build a new political force, with alliances underpinned by an Ethics of Urgency, having as its aim the construction of a new model of development: sustainable, inclusive, egalitarian and diverse.

As the Global Voices article explains, like the Pirate Party in Europe, the new Sustainability Network is already coming under fire for its unusual platform. It will be interesting to see whether it can use the Internet to collect the signatures it needs in order to become a formal party -- and what happens afterwards.

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Filed Under: brazil, marina silva, networks, pirate party, politics, sustainability network