Today’s copyright legislation is out of balance, and out of tune with the times. It has turned an entire generation of young people into criminals in the eyes of the law, in a futile attempt at stopping technological development. Yet file sharing has continued to grow exponentially. Neither propaganda, fear tactics, nor ever harsher laws have been able to stop the development. It is impossible to enforce the ban against non-commercial file sharing without infringing on fundamental human rights. As long as there are ways for citizens to communicate in private, they will be used to share copyrighted materials. The only way to even try to limit file sharing is to remove the right to private communication. In the last decade, this is the direction that copyright enforcement legislation has moved in, under pressure from big business lobbyists who see their monopolies under threat. We need to reverse this trend to safeguard fundamental rights.

People sometimes ask us "how come you hate musicans? why do you want to stop them making money". Now without getting into our favourite argument about how that analysis is *all wrong*, instead we'd like to give a huge shout, and some big love, to a few musicans we've come across recently...

It has been a of week of chaos for Britain's government on civil liberties. Theresa May signaling the intention to bring in legislation to allow law enforcement agencies to check email, web, social media and gaming forum traffic unleashed a wave of protest. It also unleashed contradiction in the government parties. The Conservatives were quick to exploit the "being tough on crime" angle in the Sun. LibDem president Tim Farron was fielded to promise to shoot down the proposals Nick Clegg was set up to defend just a few short days before.

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.