Government should follow EU in rejecting ACTA, says Pirate Party

Posted on

In a decisive victory for democracy and civil liberties, the Committee on International Trade has recommended that the European Parliament reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Pirate Party Australia welcomes this victory against opaque, anachronistic and exclusionary policy.

Although Australia has already signed the agreement, the text is currently under consideration by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. The Pirate Party has said on many occasions[1][2] that the agreement must be rejected, and that Australia still has the opportunity to withdraw from the agreement. Australia’s withdrawal would pave the way for industry-specific approaches and reforms, rather than the blanket ‘solution’ provided by ACTA.

“The rejection of ACTA by four consecutive committees — including the Committee on International Trade — is damning of the text, process and intent of this agreement. It raises larger questions about the process of treaty making in Australia. It is imperative that we move toward greater transparency in such processes. Texts, drafts and negotiations must be made public. Civil society must be included from the very beginning of any initiative,” said Brendan Molloy, Party Secretary.

Read More

Pirate Party Calls for an End to TPPA Mess

Posted on

Pirate Party Australia is disturbed by the decision of the Canadian and Mexican Governments to join in the opaque and fundamentally flawed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations. The Party yet again calls for complete transparency and inclusion of civil society in the negotiation process. If these cannot be delivered, Australia must end its participation in TPPA negotiations.

“Based on the revelations contained within the recently leaked investment chapter and the draconian measures called for in the intellectual property chapter, the entire Agreement is a power grab by large corporations. They are taking advantage of the secrecy surrounding the negotiations to undermine democratic and legal principles that have taken centuries to establish,” said Simon Frew, Deputy President of Pirate Party Australia.

Read More

Pirate Party Congress 2012

Posted on

Dear Pirates,

I would like to invite all members of Pirate Party Australia to this year’s National Congress.

The National Congress is an opportunity for Pirates all over Australia to meet up, and to vote on leadership and policy changes, as well as other major party decisions.

This year’s Congress will be held from 14th-15th July at Ross House, Melbourne.

The agenda is yet to be announced, and we are looking into suitable accommodation to recommend for travelling members. An Eventbrite invitation will be sent out to all members shortly.

We are also looking into hiring a bus to take members from Sydney to Melbourne for the weekend. Please email [email protected] if you are interested. It will be treated on a first come, first serve basis.

More information related to the Congress will be announced soon. In the mean time, if you hunger for information, see the wiki page: https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Pirate_Congress_2012. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email.

Thanks for your support. I look forward to seeing you in July!

—
Regards,

Brendan Molloy
Secretary
Pirate Party Australia

Victories Against ACTA in the EU as Final Vote Looms

Posted on
Download Submission

In the last week we have seen four important votes as various committees in the European Parliament consider the merits of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

In what can be considered four important victories against the agreement, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) and the Committee on Development (DEVE) all voted to recommend to the Committee on International Trade (INTA) that the European Parliament withhold consent to ACTA.

Whilst there are important votes approaching on June 20, where INTA will decide its recommendation to the European Parliament as it digests the ITRE, LIBE, JURI and DEVE recommendations and adds it’s own to the mix, the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) is currently considering the ACTA text. It’s report into the agreement is expected in late June, or early July.

The following is a supplementary submission to JSCOT, providing a distilled version of events in Europe in the hope the Committee considers those events in Europe in its final report, hopefully condemning the opaque process, the blunt and reckless signing of ACTA by the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, where a more considered sectoral approach should have been considered, one that respected fundamental freedoms like privacy, the freedom of expression and was aware of the need for fundamental and structural reform.

Read More

Email to Attorney-General regarding Piracy Talks

Posted on

Pirate Party Australia has sent an email to the Attorney-General’s Department requesting greater access for the public to this Thursday’s piracy talks in Sydney.

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to you on behalf of Pirate Party Australia to raise concerns about the Piracy Talks to be held in Sydney this Thursday.

Due to the secrecy surrounding the negotiations so far, we are concerned that the agreement will be unbalanced in favor of rights holders and old media at the expense of consumers. Our attempts at finding out details through a Freedom of Information request was met with many pages completely blacked out, exacerbating our fears that consumers’ rights will be trampled on.

Whilst including ACCAN as the consumer representative is a step in the right direction in addressing concerns that consumers will be represented, we can’t help but feel that they are a poor choice. Their Chairperson is Michael Fraser who has also just been named Chairperson of the Australian Copyright Council. He is not a representative of consumer interests and it is hard to see an organisation that he leads will be an impartial and fair advocate for consumers.

To rectify this imbalance we request that these discussions be opened up to transparent public participation. Whilst organising public participation would be difficult for the meeting planned Thursday, we would be able to send a representative to carry out this function as some representation on behalf of the public would provide a better outcome for Australian consumers than the currently proposed limited representation.

Regards,

Simon Frew
Deputy President
Pirate Party Australia

Update (5 Jun, 7.36pm): we received a nameless response from the Attorney-General’s Department:

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Frew,

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately it will not be possible to accommodate additional requests to attend the roundtable personally.

Please be assured that arrangements for the roundtable discussion to be held on 7 June 2012 specifically include a number of participants from several consumer representative bodies.

Attorney-General’s Department

Somehow, it is difficult to believe their ‘assurances’ from such a generic response.

Update (6 Jun, 1.25pm): Simon followed up their email with the following:

Thankyou for your reply.

We were wondering if it would be possible to find out which other consumer organisations are attending as we would like to liase with them regarding any proposals affecting consumers?

Regards,

Simon Frew
Deputy President
Pirate Party Australia

This was the AGD’s response:

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Frew,

Thank you for your email. The consumer organisations attending are: The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN); and The Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU).

Attorney-General’s Department