Earlier today, Loz Kaye, leader of the Pirate Party, published a statement highlighting a major threat to the Internet, to civil liberties, and our political and legal systems; ACTA. Following this, the Party has received many requests asking what we, ordinary citizens can do about this, and the best way to stop it.

tl;dr version

1. Raise awareness of ACTA - make sure people know that it exists and the danger it poses.
2. Contact your MEPs, urging them to vote against it when they get the chance to (in June, for most of them).
3. Contact your local MP (or MSPs, AMs and councillors, if you have them), letting them know about ACTA, and why it should be stopped.
4. Join over 600,000 people across the world in signing AVAAZ's petition against ACTA.
5. Openly support any of the many organisations campaigning against ACTA, and encourage others to do so as well.

Follow the link below to access the full version, with details on what has already happened, who to contact, how and when to contact them, and what to say.

Happy New Year.

This time is always a period to look back over the year that has gone, and see what it means for the year to come. At times, it seemed like there was almost too much news in 2011. So many certainties seemed to fall away, perhaps the scariest part of the last 12 months, yet also it shows the future can be different. It is that determination and optimism that characterises the Pirate movement for me.

These days, one of the chief problems that any new movement faces is surviving the first flash of excitement. People's attention spans, particularly online, can be short. During 2011 Pirate Party UK has come the other side of that period stronger in my opinion.

The Pirate Party Needs Your Help

The Party is asking volunteers to join policy working groups i

n the next stage of Policy 2011. We want you to get involved in the discussion and the refinement of policies for our next manifesto and beyond.

If you want to be involved, are a member and would like to help shape the party for 2012 then join one or more of the working groups listed below. You can do this by signing up to the working group mailing lists (Send an email with 'subscribe' as the subject, to the relevant address).

Updates will be available at www.pirateparty.org.uk and from the working group leaders via the mailing list. If you are already familiar with the policy process, you can skip the next bit and scroll down to the description and email addresses for the groups below right away.

I am happy to announce that today the party is kicking off its public policy process.  To get involved simply take a look at www.pirateparty.org.uk/policy2011 and then go to piratethispolicy.co.uk to let us know what you think.

As you know, over the last year I have been listening to members, voters and the public as well as going out and speaking to the people who had an opportunity to vote for one of our candidates in Gorton, Oldham and Bury. I watched as our brothers and sisters in Berlin reinvigorated their voters and overturned a legacy of decline and apathy.  I saw that it was not just because they had money, not just because the electoral system in Berlin is fairer, but because they had ideas that people could vote for; ideas that came from the same guiding principles as our own, ideas that were well presented, sensible and relevant.  They were ideas that won 8.9% of an election and they were good ideas.

The Pirate Party movement believes that the way information is shared and controlled is a key fight in 21st century politics. The Internet gives us tools to participate in a more active and equal way in culture, political life and the economy - if we are able to grasp them. These tools, which we could only have only dreamt about two decades ago, have opened up a new front in politics. Every key story this year has had a digital dimension; from the riots to “Hackgate”, from the Middle East to failings in our education system. We all should have the right to take part in the peaceful information revolution.

In the last week there have been three stories in the news concerning copyright infringement and "illegal websites". In each case, a group with an interest in enforcing copyright has called for or announced measures against such websites, but this raises an important question of what makes a website illegal. In terms of copyright infringement this is a very tricky question as there is no easy way to tell whether content or a service is unlawful.

The Pirate Party is constantly working hard to protect the rights of citizens across the country. From the outset we have been vocal critics of the Digital Economy Act. The Act was forced through in the dying days of a discredited parliament and survived a judicial review. It has seen popular opposition and objection from business, it has been rejected by those who it will have an impact on as well as those who must enforce it.

The Law now is still as bad as now as when it was first proposed.

There is still hope though. This law is being challenged again, on the 14th of June a group of brave MPs, Julian Huppert, MarkDurkan, Andrew George, Robert Halfon, Eric Joyce and Tom Watson brought an Early Day Motion to the House. The Motion criticises some of the worst aspects of the bill, and presses for a much needed re-examination. We would urge anyone who opposes this legislation, anyone who values freedom of expression and open access to the Internet to offer their support to these MPs.

This week the Home Secretary Theresa May unveiled the Coalition Government's optimistically titled new counter terrorism strategy 'prevent'¹.  'Prevent' is being billed by the Government as a way to deal with all forms of terrorism and extremism that the country is supposedly overrun by, as well as things like non-violent extremism and harmful ideas being disseminated by groups hell bent on... well, something.  

The problem with this approach, as with any that intends to change how people think and what ideas are attractive, is how we define the threat.  When we look not at terrorism, but at extremism, extremist views or radicalisation we leave ourselves open to making some fundamental mistakes, to trading fundamental freedoms and rights for protection against an  ill defined enemy.  

Privacy law in the UK is fairly simple but its application is confusing, and this confusion has not been helped by recent events. Over the last few weeks we have seen intense criticism of the law, and its application by the judiciary, coming from politicians, the media and even the Prime Minister. Not everything being reported by any of these groups is entirely accurate. While this post will attempt to clarify the law to some degree, for a more complete picture, the recent European Court of Human Rights judgment in Mosley v The United Kingdom has a thorough outline of the law, and the Committee on Super-Injunctions produced a very thorough report on the current situation.