In the last few days several people have given their view about the mass-spying scandal revealed by whistle-blower and former ‘Booz Allen Hamilton’ employee Edward Snowden. Although his true motive can be questioned, the fact is that Snowden’s actions revealed the existence of a government and corporation spy apparatus operating on a global scale, only envisioned in dystopian near-future movies and literature until recently. This is something that Pirate Parties and other digital rights and freedom activists have been warning about for years. Governments and corporations now have more personal information about us freely available than ever before in history. In fact, the amount of information is so overwhelming that the NSA is currently building a massive new $2 billion data centre in the state of Utah, capable of intercepting, processing, deciphering and analysing a large swath of the world’s data flow.

But ultimately, governments and their spy agencies are accountable to the public, the Constitution, the People and their representatives. The whole principle of representative democracy rests on the foundations of individual rights and freedoms,  accountability, transparency checks and balances that can limit the abuse of power. Even if it often seems like wishful thinking, those principles are what’s keeping democratic governments in line.

On the other hand, corporations are only accountable to their stakeholders. That is a legitimate principle, but completely contrary to those of representative democracy. There is a constant trend of upgrading and widening of “national security” systems, especially since the “War on Terror” was declared all over the world. Among these trends is also the outsourcing of security services to private corporations who almost exclusively depend on government contracts, one of them is Booz Allen Hamilton. On their web page it is stated they are “a leading provider of management and technology consulting services to the US government in defence intelligence and civil markets”. In other words, they are a privately owned spy agency with access to top secret government intelligence, which from what we have seen from the latest revelations includes swathes of personal information about US and other citizens across the world. They are not the only ones by far, but are currently in the focus of the public eye due to Edward Snowden being their employee.

As Pirates have been warning for years, these kind of actions ultimately lead to the erosion of democracy and a steady path of complete loss of liberty and total surveillance. They also completely negate the principle of the openness of the Internet and Network Neutrality, as well as the loss of public trust. As The Guardian’s Jeff Jarvis says:

“If governments use this event as an excuse to exercise more oversight and control over the net, will that not then, in turn, reduce citizens’ trust in the net and their freedom using it? Governments present themselves as the protector of our privacy, but as the NSA story demonstrates, governments present the greatest threat to our privacy as they have the means both to monitor us and to use our information against us.”

When combining the government’s capability to easily intrude upon your basic rights as a citizen and the profit seeking corporate “intelligence consulting” sector, you get a deadly combination that is out of the public’s reach and control. It also negates the basic principles of representative democracy;  individual rights and freedoms, accountability, transparency checks and balances that limit the abuse of power. That’s why there is a need to extend those constitutional rights and freedoms to the digital realm which is getting more and more intertwined with reality every day. Without the Free and Open Internet there can not be a true participatory democracy, “we Pirates will therefore defend the freedom of the internet with fierce determination at the European level as well as on a global scale.” (The European Manifesto of the German Pirate Party)

Featured picture: CC-BY-NC, Steve Rhodes

The sudden shut-down of ERT, the public radio and television in Greece and a founding member of EBU (Euopean Broadcasting Union), by the Greek government with black screens appearing on TV sets on all its frequencies, caused outrage amongst journalists and  caused a public outcry inside and outside the country.

ERT, the only channel in Greece licensed to operate legally, ended up broadcasting in a pirate fashion being hosted through a network of sites, including EBU,  the programs being presented by former employees, journalists and technicians who occupied the central building in Mesogeion Str. The Pirate Party of Greece has been mobilized since the first moment of the announcement of ERT’s shutdown.

Following an urgent decision by the Board of PPGR, the program of ERT is being transmitted from party’s main page, with an image that became the main attraction, a mock-up of the logo of ERT that is quite descriptive of the overall situation in the country; public radio-television broadcasting in a pirated way via an internet network of supporters, such as media, associations, even the EBU and individual pages!

The parody of  the ERT logo (EPT in Greek), is where the letter “P” has been replaced by a Pirate flag, was adapted by a PPGR member with the nickname “mankasp”.

The Pirate Times contacted Thanasis Gounaris, chairman of the Board of PPGR who recalled, as EBU did in its letter to the Prime Minister of Greece, that according to the Treaty of Amsterdam the system of public broadcasting in the Member States is directly related to the democratic, social and cultural needs of each society and to the need to preserve media pluralism, and explained the extraordinary decision of the Board:

“We give political cover and protection to ERT and react to any attempt to silencing free speech. Frequencies of ERT belong to Greek citizens and not to the government nor the illegal mega-contractor owners of the private sector channels. Greek peoples’ opinion has never being asked about anything, not for our entry into Euro currency, nor for the 2004 Olympics, nor the “memoranda of understanding”. There an endless list of decisions made for us but without us. Representative democracy has been dead for some time, only Pirates have the solution to this current “no way out”. Digital direct participatory democracy now!”

On Sunday  16 June 2013 Gounaris and George Misoulis, responsible person for the finance of PPGR, appeared in ERT  and explained what Pirates think about the issue.

Greek Pirates want to ensure (among others)

• above all that there is a public, rather than the state, character in the new ERT
• fully transparent operation both financially and administratively
• meritocratic structure to the maximum extent with objective and publicly accessible evaluation of all employees and managers
• the exclusion of political parties’ influence at all levels of structure and function
• democratic representation of all tendencies – political and social, pluralism and openness in the transmission of ERT
• open standards software use in all systems of new ERT at maximum extent
• converting ERT’s archive to a public access library (Public domain)
• immediate abolition of this regime’s of unrestrained use and unclear licensing of spectrum and other broadcast frequencies and communication and replacing it with a clear, open and democratic framework yielding of these respective licenses.

Greek Pirates are willing to help the employees if they were asked to do so and worried what will happen to ERT’s valuable archive because of its dissolution; archive must go to the public.

Also they are afraid that the government’s heavy handed decision on ERT, will spread by the same anti-democratic manner to all issues and this is a blow to democracy.

It must be noted that ERT’s shutdown was made without the consent of the other two parties supporting Samaras government and didn’t come to a vote in the Parliament but was an administrative act, that gave management of ERT to the Ministry of Finance! The two other parties have so far disagreed with the closure of ERT and want definitely an open public television during the transition to its new form.

How unprepared was Greek government’s plan was, can been seen from the fact that the replacement for ERT will be called NERIT but none of its initiators took any steps to register the domain name for the new entity. A reporter of a newspaper registered nerit.gr and transmitted from this page the signal of pirated ERT!

Government’s main justification for this move, as a government spokesperson said, ERT was a “haven of waste” and cost more while having fewer viewers than private stations.

The truth is that with the connivance of the political system private television stations have operated for 25 years while not licensed, reaping big profits illegally. Truly one wonders who the real pirates are in this case!

Public television is the heart of democracy, even if it has low viewership, the State had to keep it in operation and promote culture. Nobody agrees with this sudden shutdown that reminiscent Eastern countries in other decades.

Treaty of Amsterdam defines that “Public service broadcasting, although having a clear economic relevance, is not comparable to a public service in any other economic sector. There is no other service that at the same time has access to such a wide sector of the population, provides it with so much information and content, and by doing so conveys and influences both individual and public opinion”.

Many people, from the first moment of the notice of closure, were overwhelmed and gathered at the headquarters of ERT to stand by the journalists and staff.

The action became apparent when black colour gradually replaced the frequencies used by ERT on televisons, a spectacle that united all; political parties and institutions and ordinary people.

The ERT network, which consists of several regional stations, was silenced and locked down with signal and power interruption and in some cases with the assistance of the special forces of the Greek police causing an authoritarian impression.

There are many objections and disagreements from many sides about ERT’s previous management that was used by the individual governments to serve selfish ends and to recruit  “our children”, while lack of transparency, meritocracy and promoting the positions of government and corruption were rampant within ERT.

The whole issue is directly linked to the crisis in Greece. According to the memorandum, signed by the Greek government with the Troika, 2000 civil servants should be fired during June. With the closure of ERT more than 2500 are on the way out.

On Monday, 17 June 2013, heads of the three political parties, that support government, met to defuse the issue. Samaras insists on maintaining his positions, while the clouds of early elections are gathered dangerously above the political scene.

Media adore early elections scenarios but it seems that something has happened and it is no coincidence this time, it is just before the elections in Germany in September.

NEWS FROM PIRATES IN EDUCATION

Thanassis Gounaris, is the first ever Pirate unionist elected to the Board of Representatives of Greek Teachers Federation (D.O.E.) by the ballot “Pirates in Education.” In their first statement, “Pirates in Education” said that Gounaris will be a candidate for the 7-member Board of D.O.E. which will be elected by the General Assembly of the Representatives and will be held from 22 to 25 of June in Athens and expected about 400 teachers to take part in the voting. “Pirates in Education” announced that they will broadcast the G.A. live via internet for the first time in the history of the body, giving the opportunity to every Greek teacher, no matter how remote they are, to hear what happens inside the hall.

UPDATE: At the time of publication it appears that ERT is back on air due to a court order.

Featured Image: CC BY-SA by mankasp

This Article has been edited to clear up an ambiguous use of the number 2000

Pirate Times Review

A regular review of some things that happened in the previous week and a preview of some events coming in the week ahead and a list of videos and podcasts that were published in the last week that are relevant to the World Pirate movement and are in English. See below.

The week in review 3 – 9 June 2013

• Monday 10 June – An on going vigil at Fort Mead for Bradley Manning every Monday morning
• Sunday 16 June Estonia held its General Assembly

Some events  that should be interesting for Pirates in the coming week

• 22 -23 June Austrian Pirate Party GA

Pirate related podcasts that were published recently

• The Guardian’s Politics Weekly – discusssion on NSA and PRISIM 
• To The Best Of Our Knowledge – Economics of Well-Being – Virtual currencies and more

Pirate related videos that were published in the last week

#exil6e “Letters” S03E20

#exile6e “The Luxembourg Library” S03E21

Privacy vs Security: ‘Obama already made choice for us’ Losz Kay from PPUK  talks to RT

Cyber-attacks grow every year in size Andy Halsall from PPUK talks to RT 

Our Vanishing Civil Liberties  Panel discussion with  Daniel Ellsberg, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Nadia Kayyali, Norman Solomon

Vanos Enigmaisland introduces her Facebook Page “Political Pirates without Borders”

Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir on the Snowden case  on Viewpoint ”All of us are now targets”

Birgitta Jónsdóttir – poem at NA Away Day

Featured image: Pirate Times CC  BY-SA

According to Boingboing.net a film production company “Good Morning To You Productions Corp” is suing Warner/Chappell Music for charging copyright on the most sung song in the world – “Happy Birthday to You”. Based on work by Robert Brauneis showing that the song has most probably been in the public domain for decades and that the fees have been improperly collected, the action is going to be one of the most interesting cases in recent history.

Typical of the tactics used by the copyright industry, Warner/Chappell demanded a fee of $1,500 from the company with the threat of a penalty of  $150,000 for non-compliance. Up to now victims of these strong arm tactics have acquiesced and paid up rather than trying to fight the claim in court with the possibility of ruinous court costs.

It is to be hoped that this action will cause politicians and citizens alike to take another look at the way the IP industry is using out of date and over complicated laws to steal from the people what is rightfully theirs as a common good.

For any of you who have never heard it – which means you are probably a lizard person – here is the cat version (all memes shamlessly expoited).

Featured image: BY-NC-SA  DJOtaku 

In May we had 41 things flattred by 15 unique users. In total we were flattred 81 times last month and received Euro 20.49 in support for our work. We are very happy about this and it seems like it’s mostly a core of about 15 Flattr users that give us continued support. Thanks a lot for that! Here are some income statistics from Flattr over the past months. In February we received an extra 9.50 Euros (after fees) in a direct donation from one anonymous benefactor, many thanks!

Expenses

Domain = 18.50 Euros (two years)
Server space = 25 Euros (past few months + until end of December)
wpml wordpress plugin = 60.50 Euros
Flattr fee for withdrawing = 1 Euro
== 105 Euros in total costs

Remaining on account = 92.50 Euros
——–

The wpml plugin is to add multiple language and translation support to our wordpress. We plan to start translating our blog to at least French and Spanish (hopefully more later on) to reach a bigger audience. If you speak several languages and would like to help us translate then please get in touch.

Flattr is a microdonation service that allows you to give a small amount of money each month to content you would like to give support. It can be compared to a “facebook super-like” with money attached. Users act like patrons of work or people they want to support and  ”many small streams” adds up to something larger.

Period: May

Featured image:  CC-BY, Pirate Times

After a report published in the Guardian last Wednesday (5 June 2013), people around the world found out about a secret surveillance scheme. The scandal that emerged was that US National Security Agency routinely collect people’s data through secret surveillance, through access to major US web companies engaged in social media, search and other  activities. The weekend after this was made public Edward Snowden revealed he was the source of the leak and explained why he did it. In a video interview Edward simply stated that he did not want to live in a world where everything he does or says is recorded. US foes, allies and even its own citizens are now the victims of an espionage network that spans the globe and from whom no one is safe.

“You are not even aware of what is possible. The extent of their capabilities is horrifying. We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place.”

“We do have the tools and I have maps showing where people have been scrutinised most. We collect more digital communications from America than we do from the Russians.”

Now the world’s citizens know for a fact what was previously only suspected, the exact thing that Pirates and other activists have been warning  people about for years.  The government is recording what you do, what you say and to whom you say it. The data goes back years many years which makes it easy to get to someone if there is a desire. With this revelation we can make comparisons with the East German Stasi, who held detailed records on citizens who had been informed on by family and friends.

“Whenever we had a debate in the office on how to handle crimes, they do not defend due process – they defend decisive action. They say it is better to kick someone out of a plane than let these people have a day in court. It is an authoritarian mindset in general.”

Snowden fled to Hong Kong before revealing his role in the leak as the Chinese have more respect for free speech than the USA . He also mentioned he might try to seek asylum in Iceland.

“My predisposition is to seek asylum in a country with shared values. The nation that most encompasses this is Iceland. They stood up for people over internet freedom.”

Smàri McCarthy, Birgitta Jónsdótir and their team at the International Modern Media Initiative immediately released a statement in which they offered to ”assist and advise Mr. Snowden to the greatest of our ability.”  They want to investigate the security implications as Iceland may not be the best location possible. Remember that Iceland re-elected the government that allowed the financial system to bankrupt the country.

Following quickly on the heels of the Icelanders the Pirate Parties of Austria and Luxembourg quickly demanded that their governments offer asylum to Edward Snowden and other Pirate Parties are getting prepared to follow suit. We are expecting to see more Pirate Parties calling on their respective governments to offer asylum to Snowden and to call on the US government to free the other whistle-blowers and hackers that it has in custody such as Bradley Manning, Jeremy Hammond and many more activists persecuted by the US government under Barack Obama.

Featured image:  composed from work by ElectronicFrontierFoundation and Truthout.org CC BY-NC-SA

This  Aricle has been edited to remove an unsupported claim. (AR)

Pirate Times Review

A regular review of some things that happened in the previous week and a preview of some events coming in the week ahead and a list of videos and podcasts that were published in the last week that are relevant to the World Pirate movement and are in English. See below.

The winner of the latest Pirate Times Quiz is Dario Castañé. congratulations Dario – the book will be on its way to you.

The week in review 3 – 9 June 2013

• Monday 3-4 June Public Banking 2013, Funding the New Economy
• Saturday 8-9 June Pirate Party of Switzerland Summer Congress

Some events  that should be interesting for Pirates in the coming week

• Monday 10 June – An on going vigil at Fort Mead for Bradley Manning every Monday morning

Pirate related podcasts that were published recently

1. The second part of this Guardian Politics Weekly podcast shows how undemocratic institutions, like the UK House of Lords, are prone to corruption and lobbyism.
2. A London School of Economics lecture entitled “Green Philosophy” Does the green agenda belong  to the left or the right or outside the right-left political divide?

Pirate related videos that were published in the last week

PPUK’s Loz Kaye  on the revelations that the scale Obama surveillance  machine and the involvement of the Cameron regime.

Why do we have to go to the Russian media for news on Bradley Manning? Here Birgitta Jónsdóttir is again standing up for Bradley and the increasing climate of secrecy.

Birgitta speaking at the  Public Banking Conference in San Rafael, CA, USA

Hacking the Exile or #exile6e as it is known to the cognoscenti. This episode is called “Semper Iuvenis” which translate to “forever young”.We can only reply, from experience, tempus est iocondum et fugit and recommend you watch the episode.

Eleanor Saitta from the International Modern Media Initiative on Programming Law

Smári McCarthy: Failure Modes of the Modern Rational Utopia or Who is the protocoleteriat?

This article is an Editorial  and expresses the opinion of the author.

“The principle of universality allows the Web to work no matter what hardware, software, network connection or language you use and to handle information of all types and qualities… Why should you care? Because the Web is yours. It is a public resource on which you, your business, your community and your government depend. The Web is also vital to democracy, a communications channel that makes possible a continuous worldwide conversation. The Web is now more critical to free speech than any other medium.” (Scientific American, 5 June 2013)

Network Neutrality is a term often mentioned, but yet differently defined depending on the point of view of the person or organisation defining it. In fact, it has become one of the most widely used terms when talking about the Internet today. Different individuals and organisations claim to support it and uphold by it, but the parts they emphasise are often different. I will mention two main definitions  the one based on the right of consumer choice and the other on digital rights, freedoms and control of access.

Google defines network neutrality as a principle that users should be able to control the content they view and the applications they use on the Internet. Also, broadband carriers shouldn’t be allowed to use their market strength to discriminate competing content applications. (Google Public Policy Blog, 2010.)

As is seen from the definition Google supports, Network Neutrality is nothing more than the right for consumer choice in the open market. It is aimed against broadband carriers who also, following their interest, try to push their proprietary solutions onto users and prioritise their own applications and services over ones from rival tech companies like Google. Although this definition covers one aspect of network neutrality, I do not believe it to be adequate for embracing the full scope of the term.

Network neutrality is much more than a simple principle of open competition, it has an equally important political, democratic and technological part which defines is as the cornerstone of the Free Internet. The definition that I believe covers all the important aspects of Network Neutrality is one found on the “friendly web encyclopaedia“ QWhatIs.com:

„Net Neutrality is a principle to offer restriction free internet to end users. This principle states that internet should be neutral to end users and no restriction can be made from the part of internet providers and government. Net Neutrality is a network paradigm that argues internet service providers should be completely detached from what information is sent over the network. Service providers are trying to implement tiered internet. Neutrality protagonists argue that telecom service providers want to create a artificial scarcity, oblige content providers to buy the bandwidth or the services will turn to be uncompetitive“. (Qwhatis.com, 7 June 2013.)

It is my stand and that of the Pirate Movement that without the Free and Open Internet there is no possibility of its conceptualisation as a platform for upgrading current democratic practices. Only the Free and Open Internet can serve as a sphere of deliberative (liquid) democracy and a new community of open co-operation. The principle of Network Neutrality is one of the prerequisite foundations of such a system; without it the Internet would become a closed and walled system of “particular internets“  of different countries, organisations and corporations.

Network Neutrality and Internet regulation legislation has been in the focus of the international community for the last couple of years. There is a constant threat of back-door meetings, closed conferences and corporative lobbying trying to push restrictive legislation regarding copyrights, publishing and patent rights and censorship. This is one of the main reasons the Pirate Movement was created in the first place; to protect human rights, freedom of speech and liberty on the Internet and consequently in everyday life. The situation today varies deeply, even between “western democracies“, not to mention non-democratic regimes.  For example, countries such as the Netherlands and Slovenia can be considered “champions“ of defending Network neutrality in the current situation, while others are „harbingers“ of its restriction.

In the Netherlands, a Network Neutrality law was passed in 2011 which “prohibits the blocking of internet services, usage of deep packet inspection to track customer behaviour and otherwise filtering and manipulating network traffic“.(Wikipedia, 7 June 2013.)

A similar law has been passed in the Slovenian Parliament on 20 December  2012, which „confirms the open and neutral character of the Internet and forbids the discrimination of Internet traffic on the basis of the services provided.“  (edri.org, 7 June 2013.)

These are just some examples, more and more legislation is discussed and passed every day all over the world directly or indirectly touching the subject of Network Neutrality. The danger is in international laws and treaties that are being discussed far from the public eye and are branded as “trade agreements“ but also regulate the Internet and restrict the right of free speech and expression by the guise of protecting copyright and patent laws. It is my opinion that today, more than ever, the role of the Pirate Movement is crucial as the forefront defender of digital rights, freedoms and free speech.

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.“ – James Madison

When personal data is moved between different countries it makes it hard for citizens to have the right to protect and have some control over their personal information. The different registers, differing between countries, make it very hard for citizens, as well as companies trying to act in several countries, to keep track and control their information. Currently the European Parliament are discussing an attempt to harmonize data protection across the European Union.

With personal data being the oil of the new Internet there are big corporate interests in keeping the data protection laws weak. Having the funds and interests to weaken an attempt of a new law around data protection in Europe several lobbyists are set to work trying to make the new law more of a swiss cheese than a bank vault of privacy.

Privacy Campaign makes a good  job with their description:

Personal data is any information relating to you, whether it relates to your private, professional, or public life. It can be anything from your name, a photo, an email address, bank details, your posts on social networking websites, your medical information, your religious beliefs, or in many cases, your IP address.

In the online environment, where vast amounts of personal data are transferred and exchanged around the globe instantaneously, it is increasingly difficult for people to maintain control of their personal information. Almost everything you do online, from the websites you visit, to the links you click on, to the searches you make and the services and platforms you interact with, allow for the collection of data.

The “right to be forgotten” is important in order to maintain privacy. Some people try claiming that “if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear” but a right to privacy is more than this. Always being watched means people don’t want to risk being perceived as “stupid or ridiculous” causing creativity and personal development to be severely limited. Privacy is the right to “think aloud ideas not yet fully formed”. Even if you believe there is nothing to hide people always have their limits on how open they want to be with e.g. medical / financial history or giving out their phone or e-mail to random persons they don’t know.

This topic is not only interesting to the lobbying of big companies living on personal information. Several people and organizations are informing about the situation but they could always need some more help. The two Pirate MEP’s, Amelia Andersdotter and Christian Engström, are obviously working hard on the proposed European Data Protection. The Swedish Pirate Party has also started a campaign site on the matter. The Greens / EFA are running their own campaign site and  EDRi gives you everything you need to know about the data protection regulation. Together with a few other digital rights groups they are also trying to get people to write their MEPs on another site. Several national campaigns for Data Protection are active and they could always need a helping hand, or if your country isn’t listed maybe start your own campaign?

Featured pic: From the campaign site https://www.nakedcitizens.eu/ encouraging you to send this (or similar postcard) to your MEP.
Original picture in public domain.

[Editor's  note] Last month the Ukrainian Pirate Party came under attack. How they reacted  and coped can show other Pirate Parties what to do in such cases.

Oleksii Ignachuk is the international coordinator for the Ukrainian Pirate Party and author of this article.

Featured image CC BY-NC-SA by Vince Lamb