GREEN PIRATE

No Safe Harbor, the first Pirate Party collective, is announced to be released today. The following announcement comes from the US Pirate Party via Andrew Norton.

The Pirate Party is proud to announce the release of its first book, No Safe Harbor.

No Safe Harbor, released January 24th 2012, is a collection of political essays, texts, and discussions that help explain and educate about Pirate Party positions. While some have been published before, many others are original to the book.

Contributors range from first-time writers being published for the first time, leading academics, to Pirate Party officials, and even international organizations like the United Nations.

Adding color to the book are cartoons by artist and free culture activist Nina Paley, creator of the animated film Sita Sings the Blues.

Topics covered include notes on the 4th Amendment, the history of copyright, biopatents, and corporate personhood.

The book is released under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY-NC-SA) and sharing of it is strongly encouraged. To further that, the book is available in a number of DRM-free formats, free of charge. In addition a paperback edition can be purchased through Amazon.com for $9.99

“For anyone concerned with our rights today, but unsure where to start, this book is an invaluable guide,” says Assistant Editor and contributor Andrew Norton. “Education on these very important topics, and their immense potential for harm, has been sadly overlooked in recent years. We felt it was time to correct that.”

Further information, including the book and press resources can be downloaded from www.nosafeharbor.com

The following interview was recently posted at youtube. Here is a chance for people to get to know one of their most unique elected MEP and hopefully see why she is so well suited for the position. Enjoy!

Here is the source of the interview.
http://vlad.ursulean.ro/o-seara-cu-suedeza-pirata-amelia-europarlamentara-la-24-de-ani/

Rick Falkvinge, who anyone active in the pirate social movement is aware, is the founder of Sweden’s Piratpartiet which has since grown into an international Pirate Party and continues to grow in support around the world. He was named a Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy magazine.

Rick Falkvinge is a modern thinker who has been triumphant in voicing concerns that are shared by many and affect us all. One thing that sets him apart from “talking heads” is that he very much seems to enjoy taking time to consider people’s opinion and give a thoughtful response. When I say “people”, I mean anyone. Go ahead and leave a comment on one of his posts at TorrentFreak or his own falkvinge.net and chances are that if he is available, he will give a fair reply.

Don’t think this is just for your sake though. While it is apparent that he is passionate about education people on the inherent need for free speech, open communications, civilian right to privacy and copyright / patent reform, there are rare occasions where someone directs his attention to something he was not previously aware of or gives him an opportunity to see something in a perspective that had previously been off even his radar. This ability to adapt and grow; to see beyond preconceived notions, is one quality that Rick Falkvinge possesses that has probably greatly helped him to earn this award, which he most definitely deserves.

So congratulations, Rick, from Green Pirate and welcome to the U.S.A! Have a great trip to D.C.!

Be sure to read his response to the good news.

This guy has been following Green Pirate tweets and RTing just about every post like it was important. Who is he? He is Urban Sundström – The Pirate Herald. As you may have noticed, he is very enthusiastic about the Swedish Pirate Party (Piratpartiet) and all of his tweets are related to current events surrounding internet rights. On top of all this, his name seemed familiar so I got curious enough to do a google search where I found that this may be the most ebullient messenger supporting the Pirate Party and it’s related platforms of free speech, civilian privacy and copyright/patent reform.

But his roots go much deeper than that. Take a look at this flattr blog post (which, wouldn’t you know, was written by Marie Axelsson who is another noteworthy pirate supporter, friend and former co-blogger!) about him and you will see that he is a true veteran when it comes to supporting and spreading the word about the importance of free (libre) communications as far back as the days of ham radio.

As you can see in his picture, he drives a car with the PIRAT PARTIET logo boldy and proudly displayed on the sides with a license plate that simply reads “PIRAT”. If you aren’t following his twitter account already, I am sure you will never feel out of the loop once you do. He tends to post in Swedish, but many of the links he posts are to English sources, so don’t let that deter you.

It is sometimes easy to feel like you are helpless as an individual while reading bad news about those who want to take your rights and freedoms away. Fortunately we have people like Mr. Sundström to remind us that just passing on a simple message about what you believe in makes a difference and makes you a foghorn on a sometimes misty shore. Keep it up Urban! We all appreciate the encouragement!

Yeah so thought you might want to know about this. Especially if you are a Spanish voter. #votopirata

And they’re not only Pirates, but very exceptional candidates as well. For instance, the head for Barcelona’s constituency is no other than Josep Jover. He is a famous lawyer in Spain for many reasons, but most notably because he managed to overturn in Brussels the Spanish digital tax: an arbitrary charge on all digital equipment, collected to be paid as a compensation to Spanish artists, as for their hypothetical losses due to what they call “piracy”.

Well I don’t know who the other candidates are. It doesn’t say in the source and I am too tired to google, but if you are in Spain you probably already know, right?

The final ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, which changes the allowances for the number of members of European Parliament for some nations in the EU, is expected to be annexed to the original document in Rome this month. The changes will be active December 1st, 2011.

The Lisbon Treaty, in which the rules governing the European Union were last modified, limits the number of MEPs to 750 plus one president and tweaks their allocation among member states after the massive enlargements of 2005 and 2007.

Twelve countries are to gain one or more representatives – Spain: 4; Austria, France, and Sweden: 2; Bulgaria, Italy, Malta, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, and the UK: 1 – whereas Germany is set to lose three of them.

One of those 18 additions includes elected MEP of Sweden, Amelia Andersdotter of Piratpariet (Sweden’s Pirate Party). Sweden should consider itself lucky to have such a passionate, well informed representative who genuinely cares about the well being of the people of Sweden.

The Pirate Party platform revolves around three important issues which are not prejudice to race, class or any group less than the sum of all citizens. These issues are copyright and patent reform, less intrusive commercial and government surveillance (right to privacy) and increasing freedom of speech.

The people have spoken and elected Miss Andersdotter to represent them in these areas way back in 2009. Andersdotter has continued to stay active in Swedish politics in spite of not being on the payroll. You’ve heard of starving artists? Well, you might be able to call her a starving politician. On the bright side, she is probably more prepared and sharper than she has ever been to represent the people of Sweden.

Now Sweden’s citizens, including Amelia, are no doubt excitedly awaiting official announcement of when she will take her seat at parliament. Congratulations and best of luck to you all!

Update: The following e-mail message is from an excited Amelia Andersdotter to her supporters, friends, family and all.

Dear all,

It appears that me and my 17 Lisbon Treaty MEP colleagues will finally get to be inaugurated during the Strasbourg session in December 2011. The 2,5 years it has taken the European institutions and member states to sign a paper enabling the further democratization of the union, equal in number the amount of years I will be able to actively work towards a democratization of the union.

There have not been any official callings of me to the parliament yet – apparently such notifications will be sent out only after the Belgian government have had their ratification approved by the depository of treaty documents in Rome. That means, that should such notification from the Belgian government and subsequent approval by Rome take more than 12 days from today, my inauguration will instead occur during the January plenary in Strasbourg.

Certainly my perspectives on bureaucracy, democracy and their many interactions have developed during these 2 years, but for the remainder of this legislature I’ll do my best to advance this union )

Goodnight and till tomorrow,

Amelia

Once again, ActivePolitic is the first to let me know! Thanks.

Germany has made the great success in politics today by the winning seats for Pirate Party (locally known as Piraten Partei Deutschland) to be at Pariliament of the European Union. 15 whole seats no less! Great good doing! Here is link because I do not know if true, only that internet told me is.

Today you have made me a proud Hoff. I Bellamy Salute you.

*This post sponsored by Murlok