Vote Pirate!: Pirate Party UK issues it's manifesto

The Pirate Party have now launched their manifesto for the forthcoming UK elections.  There are LOTS of good stuff on the list - including tackling many of the UKs biggest shortfalls in building a free and fair society for the digital age....  in the areas of privacy, surveillance, data protection and intellectual property. It's a manifesto aimed at protecing and strengthening the rights of the individual.

Here is the shortform version..

"We will give the public the following new rights:

• The right to share files provided no money changes hands.
• The right to format shift and time shift data. 
• The right of access to government funded data. 
• The right to compensation for government data loss. 
• The right to safely encrypt private data. 
• The right to apply to a court for compensation where data protection laws have been broken.  
• The right for constituents to force a by-election. 
• The right to pay only for the fraction of the claimed broadband speed that an ISP actually delivers. 
• The right to be a whistleblower. 
• The right for photographers and filmmakers to go about their business without persecution under anti-terror laws.
• The right for disabled people to demand an unrestricted version of DRM protected content where that is necessary to allow them to access it.

We will reform outdated laws:

• We will abolish drug patents, replacing them with subsidies. 
• We will reduce the length of copyright to 10 years. 
• We will provide exemptions to patent law for non-commercial use, personal study and academic research. 
• We will introduce system of compulsory patent licensing
• We will reform libel law.
• We will prohibit the abuse of RIPA powers.
• We will remove loopholes in copyright and patent law.

We will protect the public from abuses of new technology: 

• We will forbid third parties from intercepting or monitoring communication traffic
• We will introduce a mandatory warning label on products that include DRM.
• We will introduce laws on the acceptable use of CCTV and DNA samples.
• We will legislate in favour of net neutrality.
• We will introduce stronger data protection laws
• We will not allow government censorship of the internet
• We will put into action the government's Open Source Action Plan.
• We will require the BBC to release all their content under a Creative Commons licence.
• We will prevent the BBC from using DRM technology.
• We will ensure better computing education in schools."

Piratpartiet &; The Pirate Party -  Make your voice heard.

What makes a pirate?

In an election year in both Sweden and Britain it's interesting to understand - what is a pirate anyway? Or more to the point - what does the Pirate Party stand for?  And that's just the question that Michael Davies has put on his blog with an open letter to Andrew Robinson, leader of the Pirate Party.  He asks a number of pertinent questions, on politics and pirates, on copyright and patents and on the importance of the rights that copyright enforcement increasingly infringes.

The entry has seen promises from both Andrew and Piratpartiet leader Rick Falkvinge to answer in more depth - responses I look forward to reading.  In the meantime, on The Pirate Party Forum, JohnB has given a long and full answer of his own...    and maybe, in the fullness of time I might try and add my view on these questions here...

Put simply...  the internet has brought huge changes in how we communicate - and equally huge changes in the possibilities to track and monitor our everyday lives.  How society decides to use or constrain these forces, for better or worse, is an intensely political question and one which demands focus and attention by us, the populace - otherwise other interests in industry, law enforcement and in government will do what they can get away with.  They will do what they can - not what they should.

If you want it any other way you need to make your voice heard.

Shouting louder, means shouting in unison.... 

Welcome on board.....

Digital Natives vote Pirate: Andrew Robinson talks to Russia Today

Links: Pirate International, The Pirate Party, Piratpartiet

CCTV...

CCTV cameras are a part of everyday life.... and in some cases you could argue they provide a deterrent effect on crime, and in some cases they can also be used after the even to help solve crime. But is the positive effect they can have really enough to justify millions of cameras recording your daily life? They are all over.. on the street, on buses and trains, in shops schools car parks... pretty much everywhere. They can be used to track your car - and pretty soon face recognition software will let them identify and track individuals (Actually I heard they already do for football matches).

Chris Mole has been looking at the facts - or lack of them - around CCTV surveillance in the UK.  (Which saves me the effort of going away and dragging out the facts!)

On Technorati: CCTV,surveillance