Pirate Times Newsletter

[Principe]

Welcome to the 32nd edition of the Pirate Times Newsletter that summarises the posts of the last two weeks.

Democracy and Hypocrisy: The US Government’s “Multi-Stakeholder” Model. September 5, 2014
At the Internet Governance Forum, the US government is promoting its version of the “multi-stakeholder” model. What does the US government actually mean by the term “multi-stakeholder” model which it seems so willing to coerce and enforce on the rest of the world? The reality is that the US government does not intend to relinquish any control over the internet; it only wants to create the appearance of legitimacy through faux democracy.

Internet Governance Forum Through Livestream 2-5 September. September 4, 2014
The ninth Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was held in Istanbul with the aim to “Connect Continents for Enhanced Multistakeholder Internet Governance”. The opening session showed a disproportionate amount of male politicians talking about the buzzword of multistakeholders, which seems to indicate that marginalized stakeholders still won´t have a proper voice in the new model for the internet governance. The Alternative Informatics Association in Turkey arranged an unconference running parallell to the IGF to bring up some of the vital problems not discussed enough at IGF.

Winning Discussions: False Dilemma (Effective Pirating). September 1, 2014
Logical fallacies are techniques that people use to make an argument appear convincing, even when it is wrong. False Dilemma consists in leading people into having to make a choice between two or more options when others are available. The analogy of black and white thinking is helpful in understanding how this fallacy is used. There can be shades of grey in between the two extremes of black and white. There can also be completely different colours in the spectrum of choice. But you are only presented with the black and white alternatives.

TTIP Talk-Debate by Confederación Pirata and ATTAC. August 26, 2014
On 1 September 2014, the Confederación Pirata launched the first talk-debate about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The talk featured David Hervás, member of ATTAC Castelló. David is an expert on TTIP and CETA. The event tookplace on Piratas de Catalunya’s mumble and was held in Spanish.

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[Principe]

Welcome to the 33rd edition of the Pirate Times Newsletter that summarizes the posts of the last two weeks.

New Zealand’s Election Results. September 21, 2014
For many in New Zealand and overseas the Internet Party was the “stand-in” for the ailing Pirate Party of New Zealand. It shared many policies with the international Pirate Movement in the areas of human rights, whistle-blower protection, net politics, copyright reform, privacy, transparency, surveillance and others. Early in the campaign, with its alliance partner Mana, they were polling well at 3–4% and were expected to get several MPs in Parliament. In the end they only achieved slightly more than 1% and no representatives.

Results from PPDE State Elections (Saxony, Thüringen and Brandenburg). September 20, 2014
In the last few weeks the German states of Saxony, Thüringen and Brandenburg have held state elections. The result was dismal for the Pirate Parties who got only 1.1 – 1.5% of the votes. However, they all still retain state funding which comes with an election result above 1%. With the slogan of “Aufmischen einmischen!” (stir up, meddle in) the 881 Pirates of Saxony fought hard on Pirate and local issues but only managed to get half the number of votes they got in 2009.

Winning Discussions: Affirming the Consequent (Effective Pirating). September 18, 2014
Logical fallacies are techniques that people use to make an argument appear convincing, even when it is wrong. Affirming the consequent consists in taking a true conditional statement of the form if A then B and lead people into thinking that the opposite statement, if B then A, is also true and so confusing the order of horses and carts.

Piratpartiet (PPSE) Below 1% in Swedish Elections. September 16, 2014
September 14 was national, regional and local elections in Sweden. The preliminary results from the Swedish national election are public now with the rest still being counted. The Swedish Pirate Party did not manage to achieve their goal of more than 1% in the national election and to enter local parliaments throughout the country. The party did not manage well in local elections either.

Net Neutrality and America’s Censorship Through the Backdoor. September 12, 2014
In one of those rare moments in history, grassroots activists and Silicon Valley are on the same side of an issue: net neutrality must be saved at all costs. For Silicon Valley businesses such as Netflix, there is clearly an economic incentive for preserving net neutrality. Netflix and its Silicon Valley brethren do not want to have to pay for the internet “fast lanes” that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing.

Think Twice 2 – A Conference to Bring Academics into Politics. September 12, 2014
The first weekend of September the second Think Twice conference took place in Istanbul. The Think Twice conferences are organised to build bridges between Pirates, academics and NGOs. The first was held in Frankfurt am Main earlier this year.
The program for the conference was made up of thirteen speakers from around the world. Pirates will recognize many of the speakers as being from their own ranks. Names like Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Julia Reda, Smári McCarthy and the Pirate Times’ own Josef Ohlsson Collentine. Non Pirate speakers include Richard Vickers (University of Lincoln), Ufuk Eriş (Istanbul), Oana Olariu (Romania) and a few others.

Pirates Without Borders International Orga Weekend. September 10, 2014
Communication within and between Pirate Parties is essential for the continued work and growth of the movement. Pirates Without Borders is holding an Orgaweekend that will address issues related to communication and decision making. This is very much in line with the organization’s aims. The venue is in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and the weekend in question is 29 – 30 November 2014. The plan is to combine social interaction with learning. Presentations are planned on LaTeX, Redmine, OTRS and more. Decision making will also receive a lot of attention from simple votes to primary elections – both on and offline.

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[Principe]

Welcome to the 36th edition of the Pirate Times Newsletter that summarizes the posts of the last two weeks.

Czech Pirates Celebrate their First Pirate Mayor. November 17, 2014
If we look at Pirate history we see that the Czech pirates already have a Senator but now history is being made again. The first Pirate mayor in the history of the Czech Republic has been elected in the spa town of Mariánské Lázně (also known as Marienbad). Vojtěch Franta, a 29 year old architect was elected mayor by 15 of the 19 legislators present. The Pirates won 21% of the vote and gained five seats.

Winning Discussions: argumentum ad ignorantiam (Effective Pirating). November 21, 2014
Logical fallacies are techniques that people use to make an argument appear convincing even when it is wrong. Learning how to identify and refute logical fallacies is one of the best ways to win in a discussion. Catching an opponent committing a fallacy will force him to retract his error or he will appear foolish or manipulative to his audience. There is a dark side to this. Once you learn to identify logical fallacies you will also be able to use them. Do not deliberately use them against fellow Pirates; it is extreme bad manners and you will most probably be caught out.

Why Pirates should be concerned about TTIP. November 28, 2014
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) bothers us on the methodological plane and on the content plane. On 11 October 2014, a large number of organizations cooperated with European Pirates in actions across many countries against the TTIP

Dutch Pirate Party attacked in hacking incident. November 25, 2014
During the General Assembly of the Dutch ‘Piratenpartij’ (PPNL), hackers penetrated the security of the party’s infrastructure. Some of the databases that were affected were the member administration system and the webmail. It is still not clear whether the intruders copied any data, changed files or compromised the party’s infrastructure in some other way.

PPSE GA: New board, Changes and Plans for 2015. November 30, 2014
The General Assembly of the Pirate Party of  Sweden recently ended with some changes. The meeting decided to make the future GA’s a bit more flexible, in lead up time, from the previous mandatory six weeks to the Presidium deciding the period. The Presidium will also be able to prepare the GAs further in advance with several of the nomination applications being mandated earlier than previously was the case.

Leading Swedish Pirates Step Down. December 2, 2014
"Goodbye and thanks for the fish" said Anna Troberg, long standing Leader for the Pirate Party of Sweden, as she declared that she will not be available for a reelection for 2015 when her term ends at the end of this year. Not only that, both the Deputy Leader, Marit Deldén, and Party Secretary, Henrik Brändén, announced that they would not either be available for reelection.

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The Pirate Times is now accepting bitcoin donation:

http://piratetimes.net/the-pirate-times-is-now-accepting-bitcoin-donations/

[Principe]

FROM: A pirate newsletter with global news <[email protected]>

Our article about CISPA is the most popular one we have ever published. This newsletter is extra long but filled with great articles worth reading.

Pirate Times got access to the recently reintroduced CISPA bill before it was even published on congress.gov. Being the first one to release the bill in public gave us more than 50.000 unique visitors to our article and +1800 downloads of the actual CISPA bill showing that there is still a large interest in stopping it from becoming reality. TPB back was big news everywhere, PT reported mostly about the controversy surrounding it and what some people are doing to break up the "monopoly". In Sweden the youth pirates decided to employ surveillance on government officials at a security conference with a trick that they should definitely not have fallen for.

http://piratetimes.net/exclusive-a-sneak-peek-at-cispa-2015/ The first public copy of the CISPA bill
http://piratetimes.net/let-a-thousand-pirate-bays-blossom/ TPB is back, in a multitude of forms
http://piratetimes.net/young-pirates-surveil-government-officials-at-security-conference/ Professionals tricked by open wifi connection
http://piratetimes.net/exclusive-illinois-law-allows-schools-to-spy-on-students-what-fox-news-got-wrong/ Schools spy on students social media accounts
http://piratetimes.net/new-snowden-documentary-censored-online/ How the new documentary about Snowden is being restricted online
http://piratetimes.net/an-interview-from-brazil-featuring-lexi-alexander/ Whenever Lexi speaks about women and filesharing in movies she gets a lot of negative attention



The announcement of an extra-ordinary assembly for PPI has created a discussion in the Pirate Movement about how to reform and what kind of pirate movement is needed for the future. The Pirate Times wanted to create more discussion and involvement from pirates around the world. Thus we decided to launch a series of articles from prominent international pirate guest authors about how they see the future of the movement (based on personal opinions and not from the view of their organization/party).

http://piratetimes.net/ppi-board-and-ppau-to-conduct-online-general-assembly/ Announcement of the extra-ordinary GA for PPI
http://piratetimes.net/this-is-our-last-chance-to-reform-ppi/ Brendan explains why this is a crucial step for the future of PPI
http://piratetimes.net/pirate-visions-a-new-series-of-guest-articles/ Introduction and explanation of the series of articles
http://piratetimes.net/christian-engstrom-political-activism-pirate-visions/ believes we need to focus more on issue driven activism
http://piratetimes.net/gustav-nipe-facing-technological-change-pirate-visions/ believes we need to focus more on international cooperation to how society will benefit as a whole to technological advances and in the short term on the balance between privacy/transparency
http://piratetimes.net/mozart-olbrycht-palmer-responsible-participatory-democracy-pirate-visions/ believes we need to deliberate more, create infrastructures that help us reach our goals and to think before we speak.
​

​We set high goals for 2015 and need your help achieving them. We started off by allowing bitcoin donations and reporting about our current incomes from Flattr. PPAR decided not to take part in elections and PPGR had to cancel their participation in their national election.

http://piratetimes.net/winning-discussions-no-true-scotsman-effective-pirating/ how to debate in an effective manner
http://piratetimes.net/why-pp-gr-is-not-running-for-the-elections/ The trojan horse was not ready to be launched.
http://piratetimes.net/the-pirate-times-is-now-accepting-bitcoin-donations/ PT became a bit more modern and started accepting Bitcoin donations
http://piratetimes.net/flattr-appreciation-during-dec-2014-10-41e/ Our report from our December donations
http://piratetimes.net/a-report-from-the-argentinian-pirate-party-ga/ What the PPAR decided to focus on this coming year
http://piratetimes.net/goals-for-pirate-times-in-2015-world-domination/ The goals for PT during 2015, help us reach them!

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We always appreciate feedback for improving Pirate Times. If you have comments, ideas or tips, we would love to hear from you! Send a mail to: contact at piratetimes.net

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The News from Pirate Times from February and March come in an online form this time. We're still working on finding a suitable format for our newsletters. Click through on the following list to find the news summaries for the pirate movement:

http://piratetimes.net/newsletter/feb-march/news.html

[Principe]

FROM: A pirate newsletter with global news <[email protected]>

Winning Discussions: Argument from Repetition – ad nauseam (Effective Pirating). Logical fallacies are techniques that people use to make an argument appear convincing even when it is wrong. This article explains endless repetition of an argument with the intention of winning the point by wearing down the opposition.

Our April Fools joke about the Icelandic Pirate Party taking the power in Iceland was popular. Early in this morning, Icelandic time, the coast guard in Iceland stormed Althingi (their Parliament) and took control over the country. All the Icelanders named Bjorg seem to have been particularly affected by the music, they gathered together in a hive and announced that “Resistance is futile”.

Pirate Parties International First Online General Assembly. There were 16 Pirate Parties represented, which was enough to establish a quorum of 1/3 of the ordinary 41 members. After an intense discussion over the rights of  board members to use membership fees for travel and accommodation, the first motion to be passed was regarding the right of PPI to raise fees.

The Swiss Pirates had their General Assembly. To replace outgoing President Alexis Roussel, the GA decided to elect two co-presidents for the first time. The General Assembly elected Guillaume Saouli and Stephan Thöni to take that role.

Israel had elections and PPIL only participated as a "white note". Many people in Israel feel that the political system doesn’t represent their opinions or their views. They’re making the electoral threshold percentage higher. They’re making it bigger parties who have more internal constraints in passing laws and voting

Another popular article was the possibility for the Finnish Pirates to end in court for collecting too many anonymous donations through bitcoin. More than 26 bitcoins (~6,000 Euros) were donated in only two days (March 22nd and 23rd). Finnish law states that you are allowed to collect up to 1,500 Euros annually in anonymous donations.

Pirate Party of Portugal is Rising to Activity Again. The Portuguese Pirate Party (PPPT) has not been very active lately but now it seems they are ready to get active again. Last week, on 14 March, the Portuguese Pirate Party Movement revealed their tough and long work on their party infrastructure.

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FROM: A pirate newsletter with global news <[email protected]>


Sometime has passed since our last newsletter so here is one compressed with many interesting articles.

Elections
Finland had elections and managed to increase their results.
Netherlands had a regional election which also mean a slight increase for them.
In Spain the situation was looking good for their local elections which resulted in three elected pirate councillors.
Another country to have elections was the UK pirates. Wales started up a Pirate Party to help them and some live reporting took place and resulted in a slight increase in results.

Following the results of the UK elections their leader, Loz Kaye, decided to step down. Another long time leader for the Australian Pirates, Brendan Molloy, also stepped down from his position. Both these leaders will continue but in new positions.

PirateVisions
Our series of visions for the future of the Pirate Movement continued. Andrew Reitemeyer talked about a multifaceted political experiment. Josef Ohlsson Collentine wanted to emphasize how pirates mean progress. Antonios Motakis focused on the different hats that pirates wear. Jelle De Graaf introduced a local perspective on the international vision. Matthijs Pontier talked about the power of ideas. Andrew McCallum introduced a view on the movement from a new Pirate.

PirateTimes
Following some accusations of bias and external pressure on us for writing"uncomfortable facts" we felt a need to make a statement about our independence

We do not blindly republish press releases, we do not write puff pieces.  We are not a promotional machine.  We report on news, and matters of interest to Pirates around the world.  We will not shy away from writing critical articles if we feel they reneeded, and far from apologizing for that fact, we are proud to openly proclaim it and wear it as a badge of pride.
 
We will continue to report on anything which any of our team feels should be reported on, and we openly welcome any contributions  even (perhaps especially) if its a rebuttal to something we have already published.

Our Flattr income, that supports our infrastructure, was worryingly low inMarch but rebounded slightly in April.

We continued our series on how to do effective pirating and win discussions by special pleading and through the 'if by whiskey' argumentation.
 
PPI

If you're still looking for vacation plans PPI has organized a Pirate Summer in Poland. Some summer reading also comes in the form of the e-book from thesecond Think Twice Conference with many interesting topics and speakers.

The Icelandic pirates decided to leave their membership in PPI. The Swedish pirates asked their GA whomthen decided to terminate their observer membership in PPI.

The Pirate Unicorn
Some weekly discussions on mumble have been initiated each Sunday at 21.00 CEST. Some nights there are special guests talking about their experiences and holding Q&A sessions. The UK pirates participated after their elections and the Spanish after theirs. This Sunday some Icelandic pirates will be talking about their recent rise to become the largest party on Iceland according to polls made. These Pirate Unicorn talks have all been summarized in podcast episodes: Nr. 1, nr. 2, nr. 3, nr. 4 and nr. 5

An interview with a German pirate living in Iceland was made to explain their recent success better.

Two pirate conventions were held, one in MariánskéLázn (where a pirate mayor is ruling) and the other in Boston, USA.

Poking a dragon
The future of copyright is going to be determined soon. The German pirate MEP needs your help to poke dragons and make the future more bright.


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