Introduce Yourself

[azhao]

Say a bit about yourself, where you live, what you're doing and what are your views.

When you introduce yourself in this thread, you will be added to the Pirate Party members group in the forum. PM MonkeyJam if you aren't in the group and have posted in this thread.
If you have already posted, you should now be in the group. You can check by going to your profile, and looking in the Groups drop down box. Being in the group allows you to post topics and vote in the new Vote! section. Here party polices and other party matters will be decided by polls.

My name is Andrew Zhao, I'm 18, living in Loughborough but going to to Cambridge University in October to study Engineering. I became interested in the policies a couple of years ago, but the old party had pretty much died by the time I found the forum. Post spectrial the forum revived and I joined with the intention of helping bring change to the UK and point it in a forwards direction, not a sideways or backwards one. Of course I have very strong views about Privacy and Copyright, however I feel most strongly about Patents due to the wholesale manslaughter of those in poverty by Pharmaceutical companies patenting drugs and charging extortionate amounts for it. I have helped set up the website, and have written most of the content on the website which I hope you'll have fun browsing, its not got much at the moment but its still early days and I've got a lot of exams coming up, so bear with me.

[FozzDog]

I'm going to copy and paste what I wrote on the pp international forum, as I would rather post here somewhere we can call home.

Hi everyone
I'm Chris Mole a 19 year old student from Newcastle and will hopefully be heading to uni next year.

I don't like the way the country is heading with the UK Government encroaching on the population's right to privacy and sitting by while private corporations, particularly in the entertainment industry do the same.

I just really feel like it is time to stand up for our privacy both online and offline and that the government shouldn't be so involved in our lives.

[K3V]

Hey,
Im K3V, 26 from the sunny Isle Of Wight,
Not really got much to say, Just started getting interested in Politics ...
Although i did Email Daniel Hannan MEP (European Parliament) with my views on the Telecoms Package.
Just wanted to stand up & be counted !
Good Luck with the mission and you got my Vote

[ahdkaw]

Hi all, I'm a 37 year old IT professional who has been interested in copyright reform for a long time now. I am currently residing in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, and would definitely vote for the Pirate Party, should you be running in my district (Kirklees). I actually came to this site yonks back but it wasn't available at the time. I'm glad to see it up and running at last.

I will be using my Internet pseudonym here on the public forums, but my real name will only ever appear in PMs and suchforth, I hope this doesn't cause any upset. This has nothing to do with hiding from the copyright lobbyists, it's just protecting myself from potential harm to myself, my family and my business from some of the crazies on the Internet (I've been online since '99 so had my fair share of those).

[rancidpunk]

I'm a lorry driver from the sunny south. Finally had enough of being walked over by "the man" every time he notices me. Just feel we need to start shouting louder than them.

[Sharkz]

Hey guys, I'm David from Derby. I'm 18 and at college still studying games design. I'm tired of all the weird lawbreaking anti-copyright people walking all over the law and changing it to serve them.

Not sure how i can help. I'll do what i can to spread the word

[darkstar516]

Hi there,
Im Tom, im from a small village near York, i currently go to college, blah blah blah
I think how this country is entering the 21st century is stupid, with the government being so scared of this new era that they have to follow us all, and watch and scrutinise what we surf the web for, what we download etc.
They feel that they know best for us, when in astounding fact, we know whats best for us, a positively shocking revelation I know
But i hope that you guys win this struggle to make this fair country for the better

Thanks.

[narnigrin]

Hi all,
I'm Erika, 23 years old, Maths student currently living in Aberdeen, Scotland. I moved here from Sweden a few years ago, so naturally, I'm active with Swedish PP as well (this also means, obviously and sadly, that I'm not technically a British resident or citizen, but living here means I'm just as affected by British law as anyone else), at the moment mainly by blogging every now and then. I like to think that I'm one of the people who got PPUK back to life (by posting this and this and sending out some e-mails) =)

Of our principles, I'm most concerned about privacy and personal integrity, and how current legislation seems to be doing its best to take that away. I've also been thinking about how we should go about making ourselves known to people on the street and get rid of the idea that we're all about 'getting mp3s for free' which seems to be the only thing many people know about the pirate movement (a friend asked me, completely seriously, whether it would be the Pirate Bay guys who would take the seats of the Swedish Pirate Party in the European Parliament if they get in ...).

[bavardage]

I've also been thinking about how we should go about making ourselves known to people on the street and get rid of the idea that we're all about 'getting mp3s for free'

absolutely. I think there are bigger issues here than a load of teens getting their music for free, and that kind of image would really detract from the bigger issues. If this party *does* turn into a 'getting mp3s for free' then I'm out of here

[Gavman]

Indeed bavardage,

we are not about 'getting mp3s for free', we are about raising awareness and pushing for major reforms over copyright, patents and the privacy that we are all entitled to.

It still amazes me how people just accept that in this country the de facto standard is 'Guily until proven innocent but even then the mud will stick', when without fail a person shouls always be measured as 'innocent until proven guilty'

[bavardage]

that's kind of swaying from the central policies there though. I agree there are huge problems with guilty until proven innocent (i.e. rape cases and such)

[bavardage]

My name is Ben. I'm 17, currently living on the english side of the south wales border, but (hopefully) going to St. John's, Oxford in October to study maths.

Why I'm here?
Uhh not because I torrent lots (I barely do at all, don't even have a torrent client installed atm).
What really convinced me that I would support the pirate party (based on swedish policy) was the alternative to pharmaceutical patents article: http://www.piratpartiet.se/an_alternati ... al_patents
I'm also fairly against restrictions on sharing. I believe that information should be free (as in speech not beer).

That one can patents genes is ridiculous (unless something is done soon-ish, screening for breast-cancer causing genes will only be able to be conducted by companies holding the patent for that gene).

The idea for guardrails on the internet (Sony Entertainment's CEO: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-l ... 07459.html) is ludicrous.

I'm against this sort of madness.

I'm a fan of Cory Doctorow and his views on copyright. I'm a fan of the open source movement. <3 Linus Torvalds Uhmm.

Oh, and I'd like there to be somewhere selling Ebooks without DRM. Then I'd buy an ebook reader, otherwise I may end up buying the deadtree editions and pirating the DRM-free digital versions.

[bliss]

[cabalamat]

I'm Phil Hunt. I'm a 45 year old IT professional, and I've been involved in digital rights and Internet campaigning since 2001, when Dmitry Sklyarov was imprisoned for the crime of writing a program that reads a file format (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Sklyarov ).

I'm here because I'm fed up with corportation and governments trying to destroy my freedom -- the entertainment industry are one of the biggest culprits here, but are far from the only ones. When I use digital equipment that I've bought and paid for, it should do what I want it to do, not what corporations and governments want it to do.

I blog at Amused Cynicism -- http://cabalamat.wordpress.com/.

[starbase1]

Hi, I'm Nick, 51 years old, and getting more and more pissed off with the way we are being governed.

More specifically the way the government wants to track everything about my life, from my DNA to every email and phone call. Yet there is hardly a single bit of data, from military secrets to MP's expenses, that they have not managed to lose in the post, leave in a carpark, get stolen, or just hand over for free to Bush and his neocon torturers...

Meanwhile our intellectual property laws are being rewritten to suit a few failing record labels...

I'm a reasonably accomplished 3d graphics artist, so if we need something done for the cause, I'm very happy to help. (I've already done quite a bit of pirate related stuff for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!)

Those are here:
http://www.starbase1.co.uk/flying-spagh ... nster.html

I think it would be cool to make some pirate party wallpaper and avatars!
Nick

[darkstar516]

"Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster"
IT IS REAL!!!!!!!!!!!11

[Sharkz]

Some wallpapers and avatars relating to the Pirate Party would be awesome

[Andy_R]

I'm Andrew, I'm 40 years old, and I'm a web/print/ad/video designer. I'm keenly interested in the way the music industry will function in a post-major-label world, since my secret dream is to quit my day job and make a living from being a musician.

[Gavman]

I dont think I have actually posted in here,

So first of all Hi to everyone who has already posted, and Hi to those of you who will be posting after me

My name is Gavin Meredith, currently residing in Hampshire and working as a Project Manger.

I am here due to a number of reasons. My biggest issue with the current Parties and the Governemnt are thier views on Privacy and Copyright, which are two of the priniciples the Pirate Party seek to reform so score two for the PPUK!

[afonsoduarte]

Hi,
I'm Afonso, 25 years old, I work as a graphic designer at last.fm and I moved to London about 2 years ago for the job. Although not a british citizen, I am affected by British law and am therefore very interested in seeing a party like this one grow into existence.

I'm particularly interested in the reform of copyright laws, which I deem crippling to innovation and promoters of the status quo. Sharing culture is always good for the ones involved in its production, no matter what the middle men say.