Press Release – Page 53 of 61 – Pirate Party Australia

Pirate Party Continues To Condemn Internet Censorship Efforts

Posted on June 24, 2011

Pirate Party Australia continues to consider the continued policy of Internet censorship advocated by the Australian government to be misguided and irresponsible[1]. Pirate Party Australia also welcomes the findings that ISP filtering is ineffective by the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety in their Interim report released recently[2].

The Joint Select Committee found that the biggest obstacle to taking down illegal content such as child pornography is not lack of legislation but bureaucracy of multinational hosting companies. It found no evidence that legislation based ISP level content filtering will be better than the voluntary framework currently in place. In fact the Joint Select Committee reports that under the voluntary framework more content can be removed compared to what is provided for in the Broadcasting Services Act.

Pirate Party Salutes UN For Recognising Internet As Fundamental Right

Posted on June 9, 2011

On May 16 a special report was made to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly by the the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue.[1]

“The Pirate Party Australia supports the UN Special Rapporteur’s report into the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. It is high time that the rights of individuals were taken into account in the online world. The report is a thorough investigation into the limitations being imposed by many nations onto the free expression of their citizens,” said Pirate Party Acting Secretary Simon Frew.

“Notably, Mr La Rue declared access to the Internet a fundamental right. Countries like France, New Zealand and Britain, which have passed ‘3 Strikes’ laws are condemned for passing draconian laws that disconnect people after they have been reported for file sharing. What is especially worrying is that this bypasses due process and relies on the copyright holders word that something they own the rights to has been illegally shared. Similar measures have been campaigned for by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) here. The rule of law should never be abandoned to protect failing business models, no matter how much money movie studios and record labels donate to major political parties around the world.” he said.

“Governments too readily use the new platform to institute wholesale monitoring of their citizens, such as the data retention regime, part of the EU Cybercrime Convention which is currently under consideration in Australia by the Gillard government.” Mr Frew continued. “This report sheds light on this and pursues an agenda of mirroring the same expectations of privacy that is expected in the real world.”

“Further, we support calls for greater freedom of speech. This is not just criticising oppressive regimes, where the internet has been completely switched off during times of unrest, but is also directed at western defamation laws such as the British ‘Super Injunction’ which has been widely discredited through the whole Ryan Giggs affair,” Mr Frew said.

“This report stands in stark contrast with the agenda being pursued by the likes of Sarkozy at the eG8, which was intent of making the internet safe for the old media and government spindoctors, by attacking the rights of citizens online,” he concluded.

[1] http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/A.HRC.17.27_en.pdf

An Open Letter To The Ambassador Of Germany In Australia

Posted on May 21, 2011

An open letter to his Excellency Dr. Michael Witter, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Government in Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Nauru.

Dear Mr. Ambassador,

I write to you with regard to events that have transpired on Friday, the gravity of which have led me to question the democratic integrity of the Federal Republic of Germany.

On Friday morning, May 20, German law enforcement officers seized the information technology and communications infrastructure of the Piratenpartei, a legal and officially recognised political party. The seizures have transpired irrespective of the fact that the Party is not suspected of any illegal activity.

Read More

Pirate Party To Distribute Burned CDs On World Intellectual Property Day

Posted on April 26, 2011

Today, Tuesday April 26, at 3pm, members of the Pirate Party Australia will be handing out free CDs outside the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Broadway Campus main entrance.

Pirate Party Acting Secretary Simon Frew said “Today is World Intellectual Property day. Intellectual property is a term used to lump together a range of different concepts in an attempt to conflate them with physical property. Ideas and culture can now be shared at a trivial cost, yet companies rely on government imposed legal restrictions to maintain their advantage through creating a false scarcity.”

A Black Day For New Zealand – Disconnection Laws Pass

Posted on April 14, 2011

Pirate Party Australia expresses it concern and disappointment with the passing of ʻthree strikesʼ termination laws by the government of New Zealand.[1] Access to the Internet is a human right — socially, culturally and economically, we rely on the Internet for our day to day discourse. Now the New Zealand government threatens its citizens with disconnection for sharing information knowledge and culture. The circumstances under which the law has been passed raises concerns, and the presumption of guilt raises significant concerns regarding due process.

Internet access is a universal service, similar to postal services, the phone or even electricity or water. In fact several countries, including Finland, Spain, Estonia and Greece have passed laws that enshrine the right to internet access for all citizens. A vast majority of Australian also feel the same way — access is a human right.

“The post office does not stop delivering to your house just because you are suspected of sending photocopies to someone. Yet this is precisely what the New Zealand government are proposing with their Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill. Under the legislation internet users accused of file-sharing three times will be disconnected” said Simon Frew, Acting Secretary.