GREEN PIRATE

“HACKERS ARE NUKES AND THEY’ll FUCK YOUR SHIT!” – Yet Another Old Wanker

Overheard on irc:
00:12 <+u4t> imagine if a hacker had been dropped on hiroshima or nagasaki
00:12 <+u4t> there would be NO SURVIVORS

People use the word “copyright” often and, in many cases, without an proper understanding of what the word entails. Here is something for you to meditate on before wielding this word in your future discussions.

cop·y·right
noun
1. the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc.: works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death.

The exclusive right to exploit artistic work. Alright then. Let’s see what the thesaurus offers.

copyright
Main Entry: monopolize
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: dominate, control
Synonyms: absorb, acquire, bogart, consume, copyright , corner, corner the market, devour, employ, engross, exclude, exercise control, have, hog, hold, keep to oneself, lock up, manage, own, own exclusively, patent, possess, restrain, sew up, sit on, syndicate, take over, take up, use, utilize
Antonyms: distribute, scatter, share

Are these healthy words? Are these the words that describe a thriving society? Copyright is a monopoly. Monopolies consume and devour competition. You are now the competition.

The following is a guest submission, in its original form, from Burkely Hermann of Interesting Blogger.

We information renegades must say: Internet use is a human right!

The death of Aaron Swartz has affected me deeply. I’ll admit that I didn’t know about him before his death, but I used reddit all the time and continued being an internet pirate. This is the reason I became so fascinated in the subject. Already, I wrote in the past how “the pirate movement is defending file-sharing for every each one of us” and I even encouraged people to “join in this movement and stand up against Big Business and the state.” I talked about Stefan Wray’s idea of electronic civil disobedience (ECD), or applying the concepts of civil disobedience on the streets to actions on the internet. From this I considered that downloading of content via file-sharing servers was ECD. Even so, it seems evident that current copyright laws benefit Big Music and their cronies, that the music market is controlled by corporate oligopoly, and that Obama declared war on the internet users. From this I asked myself what internet users could do to unite together as one against common foes and declare that internet use is a human right.

For one, information renegades must recognize the war against them, if they don’t already. The rebellious song by Futuristic Sex Robotz titled Fuck the MPAA tells you just about all you need to know. They sing that sharing MP3s results in the” government comin after me,” that “puttin DRM onto audio CDs…don’t make it any harder to steal your MP3s,” and even note that that they will get stuff for free no matter what. They curse out the MPAA, the RIAA and the BSA (Business Software Alliance). However, what they end the song on is what I believe is the most important. They note that if they don’t see changes then “ it’s time to fight” and that they won’t let these companies manage their digital rights. At the very end, they speak of the corruption, mentioning how the RIAA, MPAA, and BSA are “buyin off senators left and right [meaning] my vote doesn’t count,” but note that “the internet is the only place you’re still free” and challenge the listener saying “if you disagree, just you wait and see/you wanna lock down the web and throw away the key?/well, you better not touch my fuckin technology.”

In order to stop the internet from not being free, it seems evident that we must unite together. In another song by Futuristic Sex Robotz titled, If I Ruled The World they sing that “In my world…I’d download all my music in MP3s/And wouldn’t fear retribution from record companies/Movies would be free…If I ruled the world…All the hackers would unite…If I ruled the world, I’d…Release all the info that wants to be free/And convince the music biz not to fear MP3s.” Some of this is what I hope as well, but I feel one way to bring this vision to light is to tell everyone about the sponsors of the online censorship bills, SOPA and PIPA which includes a bipartisan mix of politicians still in office according to Wikipedia. The ones everyone should remember are Lamar Smith who Introduced SOPA and Senator Patrick Leahy who introduced PIPA. From this, I say you should tell others to not give any degree of support to those individuals who sponsored these bills. They are basically pure evil.

We as internet users must declare: Information renegades united cannot be defeated! One can do this by becoming a member of the Internet Defense League which will supposedly take “the tactic that killed SOPA & PIPA and turn…it into a permanent force for defending the internet, and making it better. Think of it like the internet’s Emergency Broadcast System!, look at the reddit feed of the organization but it’s a bit outdated and go on the site of Fight for the Future to keep up with what they are doing. While there are many noble organizations out there one could join like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the U.S. Pirate Party, the Free Software Foundation, the GNU project website, the people on AccessNow.org,  the Open Net Initiative, Privacy International, Anonymous,  and the Open Rights Group, that isn’t enough. You could read stories on Torrent Freak, read what the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, Richard Falkvinge has to say on falkvinge.net, read analyses from Richard Stallman who founded the free software movement, read Chilling Effects.org to see how speech online is being attacked, read what online activist and academic Ronald Deibert has to say, read Lawrence Lessig’s commentary on tumblr and read what the people on peacefire.org have to say. But it wouldn’t be enough.

The best one could do is to get the word out there and inform others about how to defend their digital rights telling them when it is “time to fight.” Even more, one must declare that internet use is a human right. Frank La Rue, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression reported to the Human Rights Council of the UN General Assembly in May 2011 that “the Internet boosts economic, social and political development, and contributes to the progress of humankind as a whole.” He furthermore wrote that the “cutting off users from Internet access, regardless of the justification provided, including on the grounds of violating intellectual property rights law [is]…disproportionate and thus a violation of article 19, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” and that “all States [must]…ensure that Internet access is maintained at all times, including during times of political unrest.” He later concluded that “given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool…ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all States. Each State should thus develop a concrete and effective policy…to make the Internet widely available, accessible and affordable to all segments of population.” As information renegades, we must tell all of those who try to limit the power of the internet that we as citizens of the world “have the right to freedom of expression…[the] freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice” as noted in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In order to make everyone becomes connected to the internet, we must ensure that the development of internet begins with the pushing for improved infrastructure everywhere to make internet servers more sustainable.

I’d say we must declare just like the end to The Communist Manifesto that we internet users “disdain to conceal their views and aims” by openly declaring that all information must be free for all, out of the control of the few monopolistic companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo and that internet usage should be available for all, free from censorship. In conclusion we must declare that internet users “have a world to win” and that internet users of all countries must unite!

Hi! Do you like sipping a hot beverage at your favorite cafe while browsing the internet on your laptop, tablet or smartphone? Well, FUCK YOU! We are on a witch hunt against any and all forms of online copyright infringement and we’ve finally discovered the ultimate solution: WE’RE BANNING THE INTERNET!

That’s right! The world will finally be safe from the evils of internet piracy! No need to call us heroes. Voluntarily preventing civil torts from occurring is just a hobby of ours. We enjoy it so much that we are willing to expend our own resources without any empirical benefits to ourselves, our customers or anyone really! It is the ultimate act of altruism!

Of course we’re kidding about that last part. We aren’t saints. Our expert accountants assure us that continuing to charge the same price for services that we don’t actually provide will allow us to cut back on our expenses tremendously! Who knows? We may even be able to lay off employees nation wide!

We thank you for your legally binding support which you already provided when you agreed to our Terms of Service. Please don’t be late with your next payment.

- AT&T, Time Warner, Verizon and coming soon to an ISP near you.

Is this not the type of thing you pay your ISP for? Then get on over to watchdog.net and sign the PETITION to KEEP WIFI LEGAL!

No idea what is going on here. Just see for yourself. That is one lucky Turkish leader.

Best part is by far the old guy with a cane or something at 1:00

The registration for MEGA opened only minutes ago. They are obviously being bombarded with other trying to register as the site is running really slowly. This Green Pirate has already registered, but it seems a bit wonky so actually using the service hasn’t been possible as of yet. To get started, you can register at https://mega.co.nz/

While you are waiting on registration pages to load and all of that, you can get an insider’s look at the new MEGA site at Politics & P2P.

Update: Since registration, login has thrown up and incorrect password error. There is no way to reset the password according to MEGA’s help center.

Unfortunately, your MEGA password is not just a password – it is the master encryption key to all of your data. If you lose it, you lose access to all of your files that are not in a shared folder and that you have no previously exported file or folder key for.

There is also no way of knowing if this is user error or an error on behalf of MEGA. The password used for testing was very simple, but if it is so imperative that the same password is maintained for the life of the account, which itself presents a horrible security problem, it would be highly recommend to confirm the password entered upon registration by having the user enter it twice and ensuring that the passwords match before submitting the form.

If you haven’t registered yet, be careful.

Hey, y’all. The blog could use some attention so for now Green Pirate is Naked Pirate. Those of you who have tried the RSS feed in the past will have noticed an error that prevented it from working. Well, the problem was due to some mysterious blank lines appearing before the XML version which is supposed to be on the first line.

It would probably take forever to figure out what is injecting these lines, so instead here’s a quick fix.

In the file /wp-includes/feed-rss.php you will find this line near the top (line 11).
echo ''; ?>

Dump the formerly echoed string into a container and then echo that container with the trim() function to remove any space surrounding the string before it echoes. It should look like this:
$firstline = '';
echo trim($firstline); ?>

That’s it! I got 99 problem but RSS ain’t one.
http://blog.greenpirate.org/feed/

Ladies and gentlemen, when Green Pirate lived full time in San Francisco, he made some wonderful friends. These friends are certainly no strangers to Green. There was something about these two, Malik and Grimm, that set them apart from the crowd. Actually, that’s not accurate. There was something about Malik and Grimm that made them a part of the crowd.

Everywhere they went turned into a party full of good times for whoever was around. They could literally walk into a strangers half-dead house party and a wave of good timiness washed over the people as the lyrics spilled forth endlessly, like the waterfall of Zora’s domain. Of course you would be more likely to find them two-stepping all over a bay area club.

Together, they are Aquarius Groove. It’s not just what they are. It’s also what they do.

It’s hard to describe the new video, “Sookie“. It’s hypnotic, yet powerful. It’s like water.

Green Pirate asked where fans who want to show their support should go. Proving that there are still artists out there who are in it to share their art, Aquarius Groove replied,

Any and ALL of the FAMBASE can go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyh_Ju8YVmw
Share it with the world!

So here it is. Twist one up or fill your cup and get Sookie.

Rep Zoe Lofgren has opened the forum for discussion and support of a new law she is introducing in response to the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz under intense pressure from prosecutors. Posted at Reddit, a company that Aaron is often said to have had a hand in creating, she writes about changing the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA):

As we mourn Aaron Swartz’s tragic death, many of us are deeply troubled as we learn more about the government’s actions against him. His family’s statement about this speaks volumes about the inappropriate efforts undertaken by the U.S. government. There’s no way to reverse the tragedy of Aaron’s death, but we can work to prevent a repeat of the abuses of power he experienced.

We should prevent what happened to Aaron from happening to other Internet users. The government was able to bring such disproportionate charges against Aaron because of the broad scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the wire fraud statute. It looks like the government used the vague wording of those laws to claim that violating an online service’s user agreement or terms of service is a violation of the CFAA and the wire fraud statute.

Using the law in this way could criminalize many everyday activities and allow for outlandishly severe penalties.

When our laws need to be modified, Congress has a responsibility to act. A simple way to correct this dangerous legal interpretation is to change the CFAA and the wire fraud statutes to exclude terms of service violations. I will introduce a bill that does exactly that. In addition to the posted link, a draft copy of the bill is available here. In coming days, I will seek cosponsors for the bill from both political parties.

As you know from prior posts, I am drafting broader measures to improve copyright law that are separate from this effort. But this bill to amend CFAA and wire fraud statutes, which I would like to call “Aaron’s Law,” should be enacted separately and swiftly. It could be an important tribute to him.

But that is likely to happen only with your help and your support.

You can join the discussion and find out how to show your support for Aaron’s Law here.

For those interested, Lofgren was recently interviewed by Arse where you can read a nice story about congress’s experience of the SOPA blackout and her view on the foreseeable future of the web. You can read the Zoe Lofgren interview here.

The caliginous news of the suicide of activist Aaron Swartz has, for some of us, raised a few ghosts of the past as this type of news has become too familiar. Suicide can seem somewhat prevalent among those who struggle to maintain freedom of speech and access to information on the internet.

It was noted earlier today by Travis McCrea, known for being the founder of The Ultimate Ebook Library (TUEBL) and his roles in national and international Pirate Parties, that

It is too common amongst my circles that this happens. Lonely and depressed people frequently find solace in technology, and furthermore other people get wrapped up into technology and forget a real world with real people who love them exist.

Depression isn’t something to be ashamed of, and it’s nothing you should hide. It’s a medical condition, and it physically affects how you think. You wouldn’t hide having a broken leg, so why be ashamed of having depression. Many people who follow my posts already know this, but I think this is a good opportunity to point out that I suffer from depression (and sometimes it is very severe) but I don’t work through it on my own. I have friends who I talk to, I even have an IRC channel that I frequent full of other people who are also depressed (which is a lot less depressing than it sounds).

While Aaron Swartz was facing an apparently grave situation, you may find that quite a few internet activists have found themselves vulnerable to depression under the weight of their assumed causes which are often of a national or global scale. Rather than focusing on the details of Aaron’s situation which you can read about anywhere else by now, it is a good time to focus on those who are still living. Because the last thing anyone wants to see a person’s life cut short who is so willing to give what they can to their community or society.

In August of 2012, a hacktivist who almost turned to suicide instead opted to do something quite characteristic of an activist. He turned his situation into a serious lesson which made quite an impact on the immediate activist community which he was most intimately involved in. While Aaron’s situation was pretty extreme, the words below are shared here in hopes that his untimely passing can make louder the voice of someone who has been there and managed to find a way through it. You don’t have to be facing extreme penalties to find yourself in such a dismal space of mind that snuffing it feels acceptable.

That said, here is Stephen Urbach’s story of how he came to find himself at that low point and how he and his community found a way to moved past it. Take a moment to read and consider sharing this throughout your own communities.

The day I wanted to die – a personal confession or: Why the shutdown of a cluster is making people live

I have to make a confession. A very personal one. I wanted to die.

I planned everything. I planned how to do it. I organized the tools to do it. I wrote down how to gain access to my email account, my server, my IRC sessions and who was to be informed. I was in a deep depression. I saw no way out to stop this feeling other than to commit suicide.

The pressure was to much for me. I was working since January on different projects with Telecomix and others. We were helping egyptians to gain back their connection to the internet, helped in Syria, Lybia and many other countries to give the opressed a possibility to speak. We made it possible that their voices were being heard. Literally, I fought for that. I fought against my sleeping cycle, eating habits and my need for recreation. On some days it was normal to stay awake for 30 or more hours.

I saw and read things I would never have considered possible. In the last months we helped many people to get connected to the internet, to speak up and to show the world what was happening. Some people got lost. I never saw them again and I do not know if they just moved away from us or if they got arrested or killed. I do not fucking know and I will never know.

Every day in the media we see so many bad news from all over the world – news which are bad but which do not affect us directly. The news about these people (or lack thereof) who were talking to me affected me deeply. The pressure arose to help, to help these people who struggle hard for their right to speak freely. The more we helped the people the more the responsibility I felt grew to a new level.

I could not fucking sleep any more. I drank way to much. I smoked more than was good for me. I saw no more meaning in my life than helping other people. Over that, I forgot what I needed for myself. Sleep, recreation, movies, music. Hanging around with my friends and not thinking about people on the ground and what to do next.

One day I realised that I was lost. Lost in this life that was not mine. Lost in a life where I only served others, people considering me a hero. Noone saw that i was just a little boy who wanted to play around with techology and write papers about the future of communication.

Long story short: It all needed to end for me. I saw no other way than going. Leaving. Not beeing a hero any more. I planned to commit suicide a day after the CCC Camp. Everything was prepared. But there it happened. We closed down the activist cluster I was with. I met many great people for the first time in real-life and many of them have the same problem. My friends were there and showed me that life is worth living it.

With the reboot of the cluster I will reboot myself. I am starting to make plans for my life again. I am not lost anymore. I have my place in the hacking and activists scene and I have my friends all over the world. I am not alone and the facts I considered a burden are not a burden anymore but opened my eyes to what is important in life: To communicate what you feel. And if my communication of my feelings helps others to do the same, it was worth it.

So, shutting myself down to reboot. It is time. reboot -h now.