26 June 2012

The Pirate Party needs you!

| pirate_taco
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Press Release: Pirate Party – ACT

Pirate Party Australia’s ACT branch (PPAU-ACT) aims to contest the October Legislative Assembly election in Canberra, and needs your support to make it happen.

The Pirate Party requires 100 members who are registered to vote within the ACT before Thursday 28 June, in order to register the Party within the ACT. However, if they do not achieve the necessary numbers by Thursday, they plan to still field independent candidates.

The Pirate Party stands for individual privacy, and feels that constant surveillance is a violation of the presumption of innocence. The Party believes that only those suspected of criminal activity should be monitored, and only for a limited time.

“While we consider individual privacy to be extremely important, we also push for greater transparency of Government,” said Stuart Biggs, co-ordinator of Pirate Party ACT. “Our representatives need to be accountable, and hiding behind exceptions to the Freedom of Information Act is an inappropriate method of governing.”

The first Pirate Party was formed in Sweden in 2006, and since then over 40 international groups have adopted the “Pirate Party” name.

“By calling ourselves Pirates, we have appropriated the name. If intellectual property lobbyists are allowed to use it in such a misleading manner, branding people who share things they like with that label, then we are more than happy to use it ourselves. If pirates want freedom, then we are Pirates,” Mr Biggs continued. “Pirate Party ACT in no way advocates the illegal duplication and distribution of copyrighted materials. We simply recognise that the copyright mechanism as it stands currently does not work. It doesn’t compensate artists properly and it doesn’t foster creation of original works. Human culture ignores the artificial limitations it tries to set, and it just isn’t enforceable. We want to fix this.”

Pirate Party Australia liken the ACT to Berlin, Germany, where the local Pirate Party there had a major breakthrough, securing 8.9% of the vote and 15 state parliament seats. Like Berlin, the ACT is a comparatively small electorate and uses a proportional representation system, two elements that may have been responsible for the success of the Pirate Party in Berlin.
“We are not expecting to duplicate Berlin, though it would be fantastic if we could. But there are similarities. We feel that there are a high percentage of voters sympathetic to our message and ideals, and are currently unrepresented in ACT politics,” Mr Biggs concluded.

You can sign up as a member of Pirate Party Australia for free at https://join.pirateparty.org.au. By signing up as a member within the ACT you show your support for individual privacy, government transparency, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of association, and have a real chance of seeing these issues represented within the ACT.

Join before Thursday 28th if you want to vote Pirate in October.

https://join.pirateparty.org.au

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Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

pirate_taco said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Long bow to draw and also cheap argument to make comparing hardship of a refugee to the installation of p2p speed cameras.
I’d suggest not looking like a fool this early in your race.

If you don’t think it’s easy to slip onto the wrong side of the government without doing anything illegal, ask any of the Assange supporters who were hassled by the AFP today in Melbourne their thoughts on the matter.

Good point for a different argument, but what’s that got with p2p cameras.

The P2P cameras potential future use for mass surveillance can be misused against people that the government simply doesn’t like, or used illegally by corrupt operators.
The government doesn’t need this ability to achieve its goal of improving road safety, and thus we should not allow them to create a system that has the potential to be misused.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd8:38 pm 01 Jul 12

pirate_taco said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Long bow to draw and also cheap argument to make comparing hardship of a refugee to the installation of p2p speed cameras.
I’d suggest not looking like a fool this early in your race.

If you don’t think it’s easy to slip onto the wrong side of the government without doing anything illegal, ask any of the Assange supporters who were hassled by the AFP today in Melbourne their thoughts on the matter.

Good point for a different argument, but what’s that got with p2p cameras.

Already planning it:

Alistair Coe MLA
Media Release
POINT-TO-POINT CAMERAS COULD BE USED FOR TRACKING BY DRONES

Information obtained by ACT Shadow Transport Services Minister, Alistair Coe, shows the governments point-to-point speed cameras can be used for car tracking by unmanned aerial vehicles or ‘drones’.

“This shocking revelation from an Australian Federal Police Representative on the Point-to-Point Camera Steering Committee shows the cameras could be used for drones to follow ‘vehicles of interest’ until police interception could be performed,” Mr Coe said.

‘….a specific benefit would derive if the P2P cameras were linked to UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)
which could track vehicles of interest until police interception could be safely performed.'(AFP
Representative, Point-to-Point Camera Steering Committee, 18 June 2010).

“The representative also said the cameras could be used to detect other vehicles of interest:

‘…The use of the P2P cameras to detect unregistered, stolen and other vehicles of interest would
provide ongoing and longer term benefits of the project.'(AFP Representative, Point-to-Point Camera
Steering Committee, 18 June 2010).

“This confirms my concerns about the capacity for point-to-point cameras to be used for mass surveillance, with every single car that passes being tracked in a centralised database.

“This government is incompetent at securely managing records and cannot be trusted with such a database. Last year, under their guidance, secret cabinet documents and the personal details of more than 15,000 public servants were made available to bureaucracy and political offices through an unprotected computer network.

“I’m yet to see any evidence of safeguards to ensure this won’t happen with the point-to-point camera database.

“I sincerely hope members take these disturbing revelations into account when debate on the point-to-point legislation resumes in the Assembly today,” Mr Coe concluded.

22 September 2011

link: http://www.canberraliberals.org.au/NEWSROOM/MEDIA-RELEASES-COE/POINT-TO-POINT-CAMERAS-COULD-BE-USED-FOR-TRACKING-BY-DRONES.asp

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Long bow to draw and also cheap argument to make comparing hardship of a refugee to the installation of p2p speed cameras.
I’d suggest not looking like a fool this early in your race.

If you don’t think it’s easy to slip onto the wrong side of the government without doing anything illegal, ask any of the Assange supporters who were hassled by the AFP today in Melbourne their thoughts on the matter.

In the absence of a resurgent Sunripened Warm Tomato Party, Pirates may well get my vote!

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd4:07 pm 01 Jul 12

pirate_taco said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Like the greens, you seem to have some good policy and some bad policy. Most is good but being against mass surveillance and p2p cameras is retarded. What exactly is the issue? Unless you are doing something wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

Taken from http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100803/23475610484.shtml

“Everyone has something to hide. Privacy is relational. It depends on the audience. You don’t want your employer to know you’re job hunting. You don’t spill all about your love life to your mom, or your kids. You don’t tell trade secrets to your rivals. We don’t expose ourselves indiscriminately, and we care enough about exposure to lie as a matter of course. Among upstanding citizens, researchers have consistently found that lying is “an everyday social interaction” (twice a day among college students, once a day in the Real World). Remember the disasters that befell Jim Carrey in that movie plot that left him magically unable to fib for even one day? Comprehensive transparency is a nightmare. “

Also, ask any recent refugee about their opinion on the “if you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to worry about”

Long bow to draw and also cheap argument to make comparing hardship of a refugee to the installation of p2p speed cameras.
I’d suggest not looking like a fool this early in your race.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Like the greens, you seem to have some good policy and some bad policy. Most is good but being against mass surveillance and p2p cameras is retarded. What exactly is the issue? Unless you are doing something wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

Taken from http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100803/23475610484.shtml

“Everyone has something to hide. Privacy is relational. It depends on the audience. You don’t want your employer to know you’re job hunting. You don’t spill all about your love life to your mom, or your kids. You don’t tell trade secrets to your rivals. We don’t expose ourselves indiscriminately, and we care enough about exposure to lie as a matter of course. Among upstanding citizens, researchers have consistently found that lying is “an everyday social interaction” (twice a day among college students, once a day in the Real World). Remember the disasters that befell Jim Carrey in that movie plot that left him magically unable to fib for even one day? Comprehensive transparency is a nightmare. “

Also, ask any recent refugee about their opinion on the “if you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to worry about”

johnboy said :

Word is they galloped over the line

It was a strong finish, we had a rush of sign ups in the last 1/2 hour pushing us over the 100 and giving us a bit of room for a few members to get knocked back during scruitiny.
The application was emailed with just 5 minutes remaining till midnight.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd9:01 am 01 Jul 12

Like the greens, you seem to have some good policy and some bad policy. Most is good but being against mass surveillance and p2p cameras is retarded. What exactly is the issue? Unless you are doing something wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

Did we make it?

johnboy said :

I have it on good authority the pirates are in if they can get one more member signed on in the next half hour. Who wants to set sail into history?

I wish them luck! 🙂

Word is they galloped over the line

DrKoresh said :

pirate_taco said :

Locally, we are interested in unwarranted government surveilance.
If the Point to Point and Fixed speed cameras cannot justify themselves in terms of road safety as Alistair Coe recently alledged, then I would support their removal

How are speed cameras an invasion of privacy? They aren’t storing personal information, all they look at is speed and rego-plates. Where the fudge do you pull invasion of privacy from that? 😐

It’s not an invasion of privacy with the right controls in place. The fixed speed cameras as I understand their operation only take a photo if you are detected speeding.
More worrying is the P2P cameras which record every vehicle passing it, and was found in the government’s own report to be suitable for future use as mass surveilance.

If the cameras safety benefit outweighs the potential misuse, then with the right controls they could be supported.
However, the data of their effectiveness remains dubious, and thus if the safety benefit fails to outweigh the potential for misuse, they should be removed.

For those still debating copyright, have a read of The Case For Copyright Reform by Engstrom and Falkvinge http://www.copyrightreform.eu/

Last day to sign up as a member.
If you care about freedom. join.
https://join.pirateparty.org.au

I have it on good authority the pirates are in if they can get one more member signed on in the next half hour. Who wants to set sail into history?

DrKoresh said :

@Dilandach-

Thanks for those links, I had no idea just how bad the entertainment industry really is. Surely that creative accounting constitutes some kind of fraud? If not, it should.

Perfectly ‘legal’. Even if was being investigated for change, the industry will throw money around until it goes away.

Another example is what Conroy told the studios when they were going through their court case against iinet. Even if they lost the case, they’ll legislate in their favour. Now the only reason it hasn’t happened along with the internet filter is that they don’t have the numbers to force things through the parliament. If they had the numbers, both would be done and dusted.

but one thing is for sure, no matter who gets in next election, the studios will come knocking for the laws they want…and will get.

A sad fact of reality, democracy comes at a price but corporations of all types have worked out that they can afford that price and then some. Its been that way for a long time now. Their interests first, ours second.

pirate_taco said :

Locally, we are interested in unwarranted government surveilance.
If the Point to Point and Fixed speed cameras cannot justify themselves in terms of road safety as Alistair Coe recently alledged, then I would support their removal

How are speed cameras an invasion of privacy? They aren’t storing personal information, all they look at is speed and rego-plates. Where the fudge do you pull invasion of privacy from that? 😐

Update on numbers: 26 more members needed,

Thank you Dilandach and c_c for those informative posts.

Once you get past dubious research paid for by the recording industry, the facts and economics are all on our side. If anything they suggest that 20 years is too long.

Pork Hunt said :

I’d like to bet that commercial Canberra FM radio compensates artists adequately. With their mind numbing repetition of artists such as The Eagles, Daddy Cool, Mike and the Mechanics, Phil Collins, etc etc they are keeping those people on a good pension.

Hard to say whether they adequately compensate artists. The radio stations don’t actually pay to use a song. They instead purchase a blanket licence, the fee for which is a percentage of the stations revenue.

What is that percentage?

Well the answer is why FM stations seem to be more and more talk – why they have Bigzy and dumb dumb rabbiting on in the morning and replays of Better Homes and Gardens.

The percentage is determined by what proportion of the station’s on-air content is music. If it’s over 80%, then they pay just under 3.7% of their revenue. At 50% though, it’s only 1.6%. It can go well below 1% if the station is really stingy on music.

The revenues from those licence payments then get pooled and distributed to artists, a range of contracted parties and distributors according to formulas and based on the reporting data from licence holders.

For international artists, the cumulative effect generates a nice return. Less certain though how Aussie artists fair.

@Dilandach-

Thanks for those links, I had no idea just how bad the entertainment industry really is. Surely that creative accounting constitutes some kind of fraud? If not, it should. I think I’m gonna stop going to see big releases on the big screen (except, of course, the chickflicks the missus wants to see). Nearly every single movie released of late has been a recycled turd for the most part. I’m not against dumb movies with ‘splosions but that’s pretty much all we’re seeing these days. Films with an ounce of originality or substance or wit are few and far between. It’s not even action movies I’m discriminating against, it’s the fact they’re all so stupid. Compare Die Hard to Die Hard 4 if you want a tangible example of what I mean, and tell me you can’t feel the difference.

SnapperJack said :

Does the Pirate Party have any policies apart from depriving every actor, musician, record company, film studio and everybody else who entertains us their income? I know that getting music and films for free over the Net might be convenient but it is hurting a lot of people.

Oh where to begin? Education is a wonderful thing, you should educate yourself on both the music and movie industries. The labels and studios despite their public statements do not have the best interest of artists, authors or actors at the top of their priorities. You have to ask yourself, is their motivation money or to entertain? Would they attempt to avoid paying the very people that have come up with something they’re making money from? Absolutely they do and they get away with it in the most outrageous ways.

Remember the movie Forrest Gump? With some creative accounting, that movie actually made a loss. That way the studios didn’t have to pay the author of the book it was based off of. Harry Potter made a loss too, infact here’s a little info on how they did it

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100708/02510310122.shtml

SnapperJack said :

Singers and musicians should receive income from their works, record companies need money to keep signing and promoting new artistes.

Are you supporting the artist or every middle man inbetween the guy who presses the CDs right up to the record company CEO?

Another fun educational link: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml

SnapperJack said :

I realise the record companies were slow on the uptake regarding digital downloads. They dithered for years and tried to close down file sharing because they had millions of dollars invested in manufacturing and distributing CDs, but we now have legal sites like iTunes and Yahoo Music and – let’s face it – $1.69 per song is a lot better than the $4.99 CD singles used to cost.

Even with the reduction in factory costs and the fact that they have a product that they can copy infinitely with little to no cost, they still find ways to squeeze that extra bit out of the consumer. I’m sure you’re aware of such things as this:

http://www.macstories.net/stories/the-great-disparity-in-global-itunes-prices/

Are Australian 1’s and 0’s somehow more expensive to transport? Price gouging just ’cause they can’.

SnapperJack said :

If the Pirate Party fields candidates in the election I will be putting them last. I don’t want the livelihood of the entertainment industry to be put at risk because of someone’s strange idea of personal freedoms and liberty.

I’d suggest that you educate yourself on how the industry actually works instead of taking things at face value. It would be nice if artists did get their just rewards but there is a reason why people say “If you want to support the artist, go to their live shows.”

Then there’s the song “Happy Birthday”, you know you have to pay royalties for that right? Or “Waltzing Matilda” which had a fraudulent copyright filing in the US which couldn’t be overturned and resulted in the Australian government having to pay royalties to the US company who holds it when they had the song played at the Atlanta games. Each time you hear a radio or CD playing in a business, that business has to pay APRA licensing fees or face severe fines (how much do you think that each artist would get from those royalties?)

…and on and on it goes. They’re just a few off the top of my head examples, you don’t have to sign up and vote for the pirate party but don’t take the position that artists are being looked after and valued or that the industry has your interests at heart.

I’ll leave you with this thought, if copyright had existed in its current form back in Beethoven’s time, what do you think it would have done for his music?

(And for the record [excuse the pun] I’m not a member of the PP nor a future one.)

I’d like to bet that commercial Canberra FM radio compensates artists adequately. With their mind numbing repetition of artists such as The Eagles, Daddy Cool, Mike and the Mechanics, Phil Collins, etc etc they are keeping those people on a good pension.
Both FM stations are owned by the same mob and broadcasting the same crap from the same building.
Where is the ACCC while all this is happening. Competition, I think not.

SnapperJack said :

Does the Pirate Party have any policies apart from depriving every actor, musician, record company, film studio and everybody else who entertains us their income? I know that getting music and films for free over the Net might be convenient but it is hurting a lot of people.

Singers and musicians should receive income from their works, record companies need money to keep signing and promoting new artistes. Likewise the film industry should receive income from sales of their titles which in most cases cost many millions of dollars to produce.

I realise the record companies were slow on the uptake regarding digital downloads. They dithered for years and tried to close down file sharing because they had millions of dollars invested in manufacturing and distributing CDs, but we now have legal sites like iTunes and Yahoo Music and – let’s face it – $1.69 per song is a lot better than the $4.99 CD singles used to cost.

If the Pirate Party fields candidates in the election I will be putting them last. I don’t want the livelihood of the entertainment industry to be put at risk because of someone’s strange idea of personal freedoms and liberty.

Musicians have been fleeced by the record companies for decades. an industry where having a hit single could mean owing the record company money at the end.

The Pirate Party doesn’t want to deprive musicians of a living, we just want to return the length of copyright to a rational term.

Most movies will take around half of their lifetime income in the first couple of months. The income that this movie brings in will steadily decline, to the point where by year 20, the vast majority of movies will have already made something like 99% of the income that they will ever make.

I’m sorry that you cannot see the value to society of having a strong public domain. That you think that we should cease to stand on the shoulders of giants unless we track the rights holder down and seek permission.

In any case, the copyright policy is a federal issue.

Locally, we are interested in unwarranted government surveilance.
If the Point to Point and Fixed speed cameras cannot justify themselves in terms of road safety as Alistair Coe recently alledged, then I would support their removal
We also discussed the police taser and lapel cameras, and would support the taser cameras, but have concerns over the lapel cameras.

Governmental transparency is also an issue where we feel that the current government falls short. We will fight to make sure that anything that should be publicly available, is.

We have also discussed the school chaplains program, and I would support the Greens proposal to replace chaplaincy with qualified counselors.

I am also interested in developing an alternative road safety strategy, with a focus on improved driver education instead of the single focused “speed kills” safety strategy currently in place.

At the moment we are focused in getting the membership numbers we need before Saturday.
Once registered we will hold a full vote for all positions, before working to create local policies in an open and democratic manner.

I would join, but ninjas are better than pirates.

Does the Pirate Party have any policies apart from depriving every actor, musician, record company, film studio and everybody else who entertains us their income? I know that getting music and films for free over the Net might be convenient but it is hurting a lot of people.

Singers and musicians should receive income from their works, record companies need money to keep signing and promoting new artistes. Likewise the film industry should receive income from sales of their titles which in most cases cost many millions of dollars to produce.

I realise the record companies were slow on the uptake regarding digital downloads. They dithered for years and tried to close down file sharing because they had millions of dollars invested in manufacturing and distributing CDs, but we now have legal sites like iTunes and Yahoo Music and – let’s face it – $1.69 per song is a lot better than the $4.99 CD singles used to cost.

If the Pirate Party fields candidates in the election I will be putting them last. I don’t want the livelihood of the entertainment industry to be put at risk because of someone’s strange idea of personal freedoms and liberty.

Copyright doesn’t exist to create a retirement plan for artists, it exists to get as many new works into the public domain as possible by providing a time limited monopoly that is long enough for the artist to see a return on investment.
20 years is a longer period than the majority of works receive any significant income from.

If the artist hasn’t managed to put enough money into their retirement fund from the profits during this time, they are free to continue to create new works, or perform old ones again.

Once the works are in the public domain, other transformative uses are free to flourish, and our cultural heritage can be freely preserved.

pirate_taco said :

Postalgeek said :

We simply recognise that the copyright mechanism as it stands currently does not work. It doesn%u2019t compensate artists properly and it doesn%u2019t foster creation of original works. Human culture ignores the artificial limitations it tries to set, and it just isn%u2019t enforceable. We want to fix this.

So what does the PP propose to compensate artists properly and foster creation of original works?

I don’t have a link to the economic studies that back this up right now, but we have chosen 20 years because it was at roughly that point where there was a greater benefit to the public in having music/movies/etc become public domain, as opposed to the dwindling benefit to the artist.
After that time, almost no artists make a significant return on their work any more, and they should enter the public domain.

A rich public domain enabled companies like Disney to flourish, yet they have been one of the worst offenders with lobbying for increases in the length of copyright.

In the case of the rare artist that manages to have a mega hit that still produces income 20 years after the fact, they are free to create new works.

You might have to explain to me in simpler terms how reducing copyright to 20 years ‘properly’ compensates an artist, when you’ve just deprived them of any ability to support themselves through their own work later in life or benefit their children with their legacy?

And what exactly do pirates create in order to offset their sense of entitlement to the efforts of those that are creative?

Postalgeek said :

We simply recognise that the copyright mechanism as it stands currently does not work. It doesn’t compensate artists properly and it doesn’t foster creation of original works. Human culture ignores the artificial limitations it tries to set, and it just isn’t enforceable. We want to fix this.

So what does the PP propose to compensate artists properly and foster creation of original works?

I don’t have a link to the economic studies that back this up right now, but we have chosen 20 years because it was at roughly that point where there was a greater benefit to the public in having music/movies/etc become public domain, as opposed to the dwindling benefit to the artist.
After that time, almost no artists make a significant return on their work any more, and they should enter the public domain.

A rich public domain enabled companies like Disney to flourish, yet they have been one of the worst offenders with lobbying for increases in the length of copyright.

In the case of the rare artist that manages to have a mega hit that still produces income 20 years after the fact, they are free to create new works.

I dont want to sound negative but no. Parties website is vague and full of feel good phrases without any plans or real proposals. First time I had a question about your supposed policies all I got was duck and weave.I can get that from a regular party. Why go out of my way to encourage more?

VYBerlinaV8_is_back1:02 pm 28 Jun 12

Sounds kinda like slutwalk, but for politicians.

Sorry, but I’m already a pirate, but of a Pastafarian kind… ARRrrrrrrrrRAMEN!

We simply recognise that the copyright mechanism as it stands currently does not work. It doesn’t compensate artists properly and it doesn’t foster creation of original works. Human culture ignores the artificial limitations it tries to set, and it just isn’t enforceable. We want to fix this.

So what does the PP propose to compensate artists properly and foster creation of original works?

About 30 more to go.
C’mon Canberra!

Bump!

It’s either these guys, or well be stuck with the Motorists Party in October.

We are getting closer to the target. Last number I heard was 40 more members to go.

Come on RIOTers! Sign up!

Canberra and Berlin are exactly alike! Well spotted. I can hardly wait to subscribe to your newsletter.

Would have joined, but I’m already a member of another party and the Pirates don’t allow dual memberships. Fair enough I suppose. Arrrrrr sez I.

ReverandRandom11:28 pm 26 Jun 12

Current A.C.T. headcount is nearly 50 at the current point in time.

We already have a bunch of clowns in coalition government, we don’t need pirates too..

Holden Caulfield1:09 pm 26 Jun 12

All those in favour say, “Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

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