Pirate Party Perturbed by Assange Extradition Verdict

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Pirate Party Australia are perturbed at yesterday’s ruling by the UK Supreme Court to extradite Julian Assange to Sweden. Contrary to the ignorant prejudicial opinions of Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, he has not been charged with any criminal offence in Sweden or any other country, yet has been held for over 500 days under house arrest.

“The Australian Government’s continued and willful ignorance of US intentions to extradite Mr. Assange, an Australian citizen, possibly on the grounds of espionage and conspiracy, is completely unacceptable. The government must be more active in seeking to ensure the safety of Mr. Assange,” said Simon Frew, Deputy President of Pirate Party Australia. “Our continued alliance with the United States should not be at the expense of the rights of Australian citizens.”

“While the case remains somewhat up in the air, it seems very likely he will face extradition to Sweden,” Mr Frew continued. “There are a number of concerning issues with the legal process. The Supreme Court used the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a document regarding the interpretation and operation of treaties between states, as a basis in their determination. This had not been raised by either side during the proceedings of the appeal. Legal analysis seems to indicate this may give Mr. Assange and his team opportunity to re-open the case.” 

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“Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement has no economic benefit,” says Pirate Party

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Transparency is a new idea to Australian Government, according to notes taken by Pirate Party Australia Secretary Brendan Molloy at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) intellectual property meeting in Canberra last Thursday.

According the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), “the Australian Government will pursue a TPP outcome that eliminates or at least substantially reduces barriers to trade and investment” that will “also deal with behind-the-border impediments to trade and investment.”[1]

So far there has been no confirmation on exactly how the TPP will achieve these aims, as there have been no official drafts of the Agreement released, and the negotiators actively refuse to discuss the contents in anything other than vague and evasive statements.

At the meeting in Canberra, stakeholders were invited to participate in a question and answer session with the inter-departmental negotiators. Disappointingly, the negotiating team dodged almost all questions regarding the Agreement, including the impact it might have on the Australian Law Reform Commission’s copyright review. The negotiators also failed to give any definites about what intellectual property (IP) provisions would be included, and did not sufficiently address the concerns of those present.

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Pirate Party Australia Webcast – Episode 3

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In this episode Sam covers some recent news and reads the third installment of The History of Copyright. Subscribe to the feed, or view past episodes.

News:
yeslab.org: TPPA Gate crashers
smh.com.au: Super Warrants
delimiter.com.au: Piracy FOI Request Rejected
dw.de: Pro-copyright Group “We Are The Creators”
aph.gov.au: Joint Standing Committee on Treaties – May 7 Transcript

History Of Copyright:
No Safe Harbour book
Rick Falkvinge’s Blog (links to the 7 original blog entries)

Quote:
“It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.” — Bruce Schneier, http://www.schneier.com/

Podcast (webcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:24 — 10.6MB)

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Pirate Party Furious at Attorney-General’s “Super Warrant” Proposal

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Pirate Party Australia is furious that the Attorney-General’s Department is considering expansive additions to Australia’s already overbearing ‘security theatre’ operations[1].

The Attorney-General’s Department is proposing a “super warrant” system that can grant ASIO sweeping investigative powers for six months. This currently requires much greater judicial oversight.

“It seems to now be a weekly occurrence that the Government adds a new act to its ‘security theatre’. If the Gillard government cares so dearly about citizen input, why were expansive changes to the ASIO Act – changes that would potentially allow ASIO to target Wikileaks – pushed through last May without public inquiry?” questioned Brendan Molloy, Secretary of Pirate Party Australia.

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Pirate Party Australia Webcast – Episode 2

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In this episode Sam does his first pirate profile on himself, we have a short segment from a pirate pub and the second installment of Rick Falkvinge’s History Of Copyright. Subscribe to the feed, or view past episodes.

A transcript of the webcast will be available shortly.

History Of Copyright:
No Safe Harbour book
Rick Falkvinge’s Blog (links to the 7 original blog entries)

Quote: “In the 21st century, the Internet IS speech, IS assembly, IS association and IS the press… if a corporation can’t sustain a business without having these rights limited, then that corporation deserves to go out of business. The sooner the better.” – Rick Falkvinge

Podcast (webcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:08 — 17.4MB)

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