Pirate Party Australia – Page 68 of 76 – Pirate Party Australia is a political party based around the core tenets of freedom of information and culture; civil and digital liberties; privacy and anonymity; government transparency; and participatory democracy.

Pirate Party Australia Congratulates Piratenpartei Germany On Their Election Success

Posted on September 19, 2011

Pirate Party Australia salutes and congratulates the Pirate Party of Germany, Die Piratenpartei, on their historic election victory in the Federal State of Berlin.

After five years of hard work, the Pirates of Germany have finally reaped the rewards of their labour and are likely to secure about fifteen seats in the state legislature. This will put them in a position to contribute new perspectives and voices to the government of Berlin, with a uniquely positioned understanding of the world of today.

ALRC National Classification Scheme Review Submission

Posted on July 17, 2011

No PDF of submission

Below is the submission that Pirate Party Australia made to the Australian Law Reform Committee National Classification Scheme review. In summary, we recommended a voluntary system similar to PEGI or ESRB and recommended the abolition of the Refused Classification category.

Answering this inquiry in such a regimented format proved to be quite troublesome for such a broad inquiry, but we believe that we have answered the questions to the best of our ability.

Thanks to all those who contributed to this paper, your input is greatly appreciated!

Pirate Party Opposes AFACT’s Extortion Tactics

Posted on July 12, 2011

Pirate Party Australia is opposed to the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft’s (AFACT) latest offensive against Australian internet users[1]. They have demanded that ISPs attend ‘voluntary talks’ to implement a graduated response regime (commonly known as 3 Strikes) before the conclusion of the iiNet trial or face “unspecified legal action”.

AFACT’s alleged extreme demands would require ISPs to notify their customers of infringements as alleged by AFACT and disconnect them if they do not respond within 7 days.

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