An Open Letter To The Ambassador Of Germany In Australia

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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.

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Pirate Party To Distribute Burned CDs On World Intellectual Property Day

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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.”

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A Black Day For New Zealand – Disconnection Laws Pass

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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.

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Cybercrime Convention To Make All Australians Suspects

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Download Submission

Pirate Party Australia has submitted to both the Attorney-General’s consultation process and the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties regarding the proposed accession to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime.

“The Convention itself deals with offences related to infringement of copyright, fraud, child pornography and network security offences – and there is no doubt that in order to combat some of these things, greater cross-border law enforcement co-operation is necessary — however the Cybercrime Convention contains serious flaws that demand we reject the proposition that Australia should accede to this treaty — it is a fundamentally imbalanced treaty that detracts from the good intentions and benefits the treaty may carry within it.” said Rodney Serkowski, Party President.

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Pirate Party Australia Joins International Efforts To Mirror Wikileaks, To Support Whistle-Blowing Worldwide

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In response to recent attempts to censor Wikileaks and increasingly worrying calls for violence against Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, Pirate Party Australia has joined Pirate Parties worldwide in mirroring Wikileaks. Participating pirate parties include the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Romania, Russia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

This has been done to safeguard the freedom of the press and expression and to protest the lack of condemnation of the increasingly shrill calls for violence against Assange.

The Pirate Party Australia initiative can be found at:

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