Press release archive for March 2011

"The Judicial Review leaves the Digital Economy Act as a lame duck piece of legislation. At the time, Pirate Party UK pointed out that rushing the bill through without proper democratic oversight would result in shoddy lawgiving. We have been proved right.

"While the arguments about proportionality may have been technical, some of our worst fears that the act will result in an unacceptable mass surveillance of millions are being born out. This outrageous attack on civil liberties is based on a flawed assumption that hunting down music fans will result in increased revenue.

"This entire process has so far only managed to put money in the pockets of lawyers, not artists."

The Pirate Party UK has learned that the Motion Pictures Association (MPA), British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Communications Minister Ed Vaizey are urging British Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to implement a new and secretive extra-judicial web-blocking scheme. This scheme is intended to block websites alleged to facilitate copyright infringement, after copyright industry impatience due to delays in the implementation of the Digital Economy Act.

This release is published on behalf of Pirate Parties International.

From March 12th to 13th 2011, representatives of Pirate Parties from 18 countries will meet in Friedrichshafen, Germany, to hold the General Assembly of Pirate Parties International (PPI), the umbrella organization of Pirate Parties. Besides the official part of the conference with membership applications, statutes amendments and board elections, representatives will discuss the Pirate movement in an Open Space event workshop and listen to the keynote by Rick Falkvinge, former leader and founder of the Swedish Pirate Party. On Sunday 13th at 14:00 (local time) a press conference will be held to inform the public about the outcome of the conference.