Privacy, Copyright & Integrity: Steps in the right direction..

I've been a bit busy recently - but things are happening out there in the big wide world...

You no doubt saw that in Australia they've ruled that an ISP shouldn't be held to account for the content carried...  a revalidation of the 'pure carrier' doctrine with it's analogy in "don't shoot the messenger".  A great commentary on the judgement by Technolama

In the UK, the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights were not at all happy with the provisions of the governments proposed Digital Economy Bill - which is hardly surprising but reasuring to hear.  Meanwile the EU parliament think the privacy of their citizens merits protection and have said no to the Swift agreement that gives the USA bulk access to european banking data. Thanks you guys (& gals)!

The EFF today reports on a victory in the US courts that confirms the 'first rights' principle that if you buy something it's yours to enjoy, share and sell as you like - no matter what small print a company may add on the box.  You bought it, you own it.

..and Cory Doctorow explains how if you look into the issues with IP, copyright and innovation you come to very different conclusions than if you crib your research from lobbyists... (from the tireless Michel Geist).

And of course Christian Engström, Piratpartiet's MEP, celebrated making it to the big 50.  Congratulations Christian - keep up the good work!

Spies in the sky

Back from a Christmas break, John Lilburne is back with a pithy snippet on UK police plans to use surveillance drones for ”routine” monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers".

But surely... isn't "routine" monitoring an invasion of privacy?

Urgent: Tell Parliament what you think about your rights

The Joint parliamentary committee on  human rights are currently looking for submissions on human rights issues relating particularly to proposed legislation.  I came across it quite by chance - but it is a superb opportunity for interested citizens to get their views across - but you need to act now!

From the press release:
"The Joint Committee on Human Rights scrutinizes every Government Bill for its compatibility with human rights, including common law fundamental rights, the Convention rights protected by the Human Rights Act 1998 and the human rights contained in other international obligations of the UK. The Committee's scrutiny of Bills for compatibility with the requirements of human rights law includes consideration of whether the Bill presents an opportunity to enhance human rights in the UK. The Committee is actively seeking to encourage more input from civil society into its legislative scrutiny work.


Further to the Committee's press notice of 28 July 2009, on the Government's draft legislative programme for 2009-10, the Committee has now identified the following nine priority areas for scrutiny in 2010, based on the significance of the human rights issues involved and the likelihood of legislation being passed before the end of the parliamentary session. The Committee would welcome short submissions of up to 1500 words from interested parties by Monday 18 January."
(my highlight)

The areas for submission cover:

• lllegal File Sharing
• DNA & Fingerprints
• Domestic Violence
• Stop & Search
• Enforceable Entitlements for parents and pupils
• Mandatory Sex and Relationships education
• Reporting of family court proceedings
• Entitlement to personal care at home
• Asylum support and destitution

The press release includes more details on the rights implications of each of these topics.  It also says where to send your submission.  There is a mail address but you are also asked to send a signed hard copy (which hopefully can be accepted after the submission date).

Time is short, so if you have views on the above - and several of them have privacy issues and issues areound respect for your private life - then you need to set aside some time during the next few days to put down your views.

Resources to help formulate your submission:e.g on copyright policing

Open Rights Group on Digital Economy Bill
Liberty on the Digital Economy Bill
Latest News on the Digital Economy Bill

There are I'm sure others - I welcome constructive additions in the comments.

PLEASE SPREAD THIS TOPIC!

Updated:  now with the link to the press release!  Damn....  

Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.

A thought for the New Year

"För vem vågar man lita på i ett samhälle vars värdegrund bygger på misstro?"

Who can you depend on in a society who's basic values are built on mistrust?

Comment to an article on new surveillance powers in Bulgaria...

Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party - Putting privacy first.

I wonder who's watching me now....?

"I'm just an average man with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey hell I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone


I always feel like somebody's watchin' me
And I have no privacy
I always feel like somebody's watchin' me
Tell me, is it just a dream?"
         Rockwell.. and the late Michael Jackson.

Hear it again here....
                 ............or do I mean here?



"And I don't feel safe anymore, oh what a mess
I wonder who's watching me now?
Who?"
The FRA?

Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.

Swedish bloggers look to Telia to stand up for their rights

I don't usually blog in Swedish - not because I can't - but because I want the world to read about what is being done here in defending our rights.  Right now though - all across Sweden bloggers are putting up this.. or words like it. (translated below).  Read it please...  and if you want to stand up for your rights and ours, blog it and spread it further. Join us too on Facebook..

Upprop: Telia – ta FRA-lagen till domstol

Från och med den första december 2009 är Sverige en övervakad nation. Det är då som FRA får tillgång till en stor del av vår Internet- och mobiltrafik.


Detta kommer att få ett antal konsekvenser. De mest påtagliga är att flera grundläggande rättigheter i praktiken kommer att sättas ur spel. En självklarhet som brevhemligheten kommer efter den första december 2009 inte att existera på Internet. Även andra grundlagsskyddade rättigheter som källskyddet är starkt hotat. Många organisationer har skarpt protesterat mot FRA-lagen, bland andra Journalistförbundet och Advokatsamfundet. En majoritet av svenska folket är emot FRAs avlyssning.


Flera juridiska experter uttrycker dessutom stor tveksamhet till om FRA-lagen är förenlig med Europakonventionen, dvs. den europeiska konventionen angående skydd för de mänskliga rättigheterna. Sverige har förbundit sig att följa den konventionen och rimligtvis bör lagen alltså prövas i Europeiska domstolen för de mänskliga rättigheterna. Telia ansvarar idag för en majoritet av den trafik som FRA kommer att vilja avlyssna. Därför uppmanar vi Telia: ta FRA-lagen till domstol.


Telia har nu en chans att vinna goodwill genom att stå upp för demokratin

Appeal: Telia – take the FRA-law to court!


"From the first of December 2009 Sweden is a nation under surveillance. It is then that the FRA has access to a large part of our Internet and mobile services.

This is going to have a number of consequences. The most notable is that several fundamental rights will  in practice be eliminated. Obviously confidentiality of correspondence does not exist on the Internet after the first december 2009. Other constitutional rights such as protection of (journalistic) sources are highly threatened. Many organizations have strongly protested against the FRA law, including Journalists and the (Swedish) Bar Association. A majority of Swedish people are against FRA's interception.

Several legal experts also express considerable doubt whether the FRA law is compatible with the ECHR, ie. the European Convention on Human Rights. Sweden has undertaken to comply with the Convention, and the law ought therefore to be tested in the European Court of Human Rights. Telia is currently responsible for a majority of the traffic that FRA will want to listen to. We therefore call on Telia: take the FRA law to court.

Telia now has a chance to win goodwill by standing up for democracy."

This is an open and common blog entries - copy, enhance and publish to your blog....
 
Sweden's FRA are monitoring all traffic passing Sweden's borders and monitoring in particular international transit traffic.  Lift this and copy it.... 
 

Bloggers making the call include....
Tantrikbloggen, Annarkia, Scaber Nestor, Sossar mot Storebror, Den Nya Medborgarrättsrörelsen, Archangel, Darkangel och Mumma, Signerat Kjellberg, Den digitala parkbänken, Sagor från livbåten, Piratpartisten, Thorlin, Sandrability, Bloggvärldsbloggen, Aspiebloggen, Farmorgun, Pesptraktelser, Humblebee.net, JensO, Beelzebjörn, Röd Libertarian, Calandrella, ProjO, Christian Engström, Webhackande, Liberal & Långsint, Osmidigt, Solid Block of Ise, Johan Ronström, Personlig Utveckling?, Bandhunden Skäller, Infallsvinkel, Hearts of Joy, Primarys Blog, Alliansupproret, Integritet & frihet, Tieowbeijas, The Pheleroxian Blog, Mattias Bjärnemalm, Skivad Lime, OlofB, OlofB, OlofB, Enligt min Humla, Daniel och de små tomtarna, hannes2peer, Beelzebjörn, Exiled Pirate,  Henrik Alexandersson, Den Digitala Parkbänken
(this list mostly lifted from Tantrikbloggen..)

Piratpartiet & The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.


Translated by Google.. with a little help from me...



,

Have a Big Brother Christmas...

Today's the day...  It's finally happening.....   

Today is the day that FRA get connected in to cables carrying ALL Swedens cross border e-traffic and the Swedish state gets to monitor anything they fancy from traffic passing through the kingdom (though the king I don't think gets much say in things).  Since bits aren't all that fussy which route they take that's just as much an issue for the rest of humanity as it is for the few million herring eaters out here on the continental fringe - in fact they are intending to primarily focus on monitoring international traffic not sourced from Sweden.

So...  Happy Christmas..  Big Brother Sweden is giving all of us a big slice of state surveillance to chew on.  Pour another glass of glögg and...  Skål!

Still Big Brother does have a sense of humour....   check out this at Techbelly...
Merry fucking Xmas, Love Big Brother

Piratpartiet & The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.

For the spy that has everything?

What do you give to the spy that has everything?  Somewhere to keep it all....

In this case the spy in question is Uncle Sam, in the form of the National Security Agency, who needs somewhere BIG to put all that data they are eavedropping.  Estimates of the storage they need range from a mere couple of hundred petabytes (200 000 000 000 000 000 bytes) to a mindblowing yottabyte (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes).

And I thought it was the citizens duty to keep a watch on government - not the other way round.

Wisdom and justice are not found in a database......

Piratpartiet & The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.

Watching you: Surveillance and the EU.

Open Europe has published a new report taking stock of how the EU is impacting our civil liberties....  Everyone should read it: "How the EU is watching you: the rise of Europe's surveillance state"

Quoting the Open Europe blog: "There are lots of juicy proposals in the pipeline including: a target to train a third of all police officers across the EU in a “common culture” of policing; the mass collection and sharing of personal data including DNA records into an EU-wide database; controversial surveillance techniques including ‘cyber patrols’; the creation of a fledgling ‘EU Home Office’ with powers to decide on cooperation on police, border, immigration and criminal justice issues; an EU “master plan” on information exchange; the transfer of criminal proceedings among EU member states; a three-fold increase in the number of controversial EU arrest warrants; access to other member states’ national tax databases; and EU laws on citizens’ right to internet access."


The road to hell is paved with good intentions...

Also on: HAX & The Telegraph


Piratpartiet & The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.

Tips on living under Surveillance: Stockholm Edition....

I've blogged about it before but just today I thought Swedish readers might find themselves in need of advice on how to communicate securely in repressive environments. 

Actually.. it's not just - or not even Sweden - that is under surveillance now that parliament here has for the second time given the thumbs up for the FRA to tap all traffic passing Swedish borders.  It's enough to piss you off....  Whatever happened to principles?

Piratpartiet & The Pirate Party -  Defending your privacy

Secret Affair: This is the time for action (FRA edition)

"This is the time for action, this is the time to be seen"

Sadly I missed the demonstrations on Saturday against the FRA legislation - up for review in the Swedish parliament on Wednesday.  This legislation - which is in force since the first of January this year - allows state monitoring of ALL traffic passing Swedens international borders (mail, telephony, SMS, surfing etc, etc).  There are specific provisions to limit surveillance on traffic originating in Sweden - but all other traffic is fair game.... 

Which means if you don't live in Sweden THIS AFFECTS YOU!  Your right to privacy?  Those nice guys in Riksdagen are about to screw you over....

If that concerns you then write to them and tell them.  Lobby them to respect your privacy and vote against this legislation.

Write today...    write now........  do it.

Contact details here.  Supporting the bill and in need of your persuasion are Moderaterna (m), Kristdemokraterna (kd), Folkpartiet (f) and Centerpartiet (c)... click through for lists of names and mail contact details..


Piratpartiet & The Pirate Party -  Putting Privacy first.

Unwarranted Intrusion: On the Fourth Amendment.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

I'm not a great scholar of history, or an expert in American constitutional law - but this last week I discovered the Fourth Amendment - and more sadly, how it is being bent and broken in American today (although I guess I kind of knew that already).

My starting point was Cory Doctorow's piece on Senator Al Franken, reading out the Fourth Amendment and questioning a Department of Justice official whether the Patriot Act provisions for roving wiretaps on unnamed individuals meet the terms of that amendment.  (You can watch the actual exchange on video at the MN Progressive Project).

The moot point here is do you need to name someone to be allowed to tap them - or more to the point to tap the broad spectrum of their friends, relatives and contacts?  This snippet of political theatre highlights how much weight is put on the exact wording of constitutional texts that were written well before the concept of wiretaps was ever thought of.- but texts that in any case establish essential principles.

To get at the spirit of the amendment though we can remember that it was - in part at least - a response to British use of writs of assistance in the 1760s - blanket warrants that gave power to search without needing cause and without even identifying who or where you wanted to search.  Which makes it unsurprising that, alongside the Patriot Act, the FISA Amendment Act - with it's support for warrentless wiretaps - is seen to clearly be in violation of citizens constitutional rights. Attempts to challenge it's constitutional legality have though been blocked (at least for now) because the plaintiffs have no evidence that they are actually being watched...  but as it's a secret government surveillance programme how would you ever know you were under surveillance?!
But that's in America....   we do things differently in Europe right???


EFF on roving wiretaps
Inspector General's report on thousands of abuses of the Patriot act by the FBI
American Civil Liberties Union on FISA Amendment Act
Liberty - death by a thousand cuts

Cutting surveillance: Justice for Patriots

The EFF reports on the prospects of changes to the USAs Patriot Act and the broad reaching FISA Amendments that permit warrantless surveillance.  Proposals have been tabled for a new Justice Act that would curb and constrain the powers in the Patriot Act to provide better protection of individuals' civil liberties.

It's a change that's to be welcomed - not just because it is a good thing for Americans - but also because the US set the tone for what is legitimate and acceptable for a government to impose on it's people.

Of course tabling legislation isn't the same as having it adopted so we can hope that there are plenty of libertarian Americans taking up the EFF's suggestion to contact their Senator....

Technorati:  surveillance, Patriot Act, Justice Act

Privacy, what privacy? Spies on your desktop.

The EFF blog has a thought provoking piece on online tracking and how information on your surfing ends up in the hands of a wide range of players in what at best you could describe as a less than transparent process. There is quite clearly a whole industry that collects and correlates inforrmation to build up in depth dossiers on people.

Key points of concern are:
- The scale and scope of information gathering
- new 'super cookies' hidden from and out of the control of your browser
- lack of respect for users privacy, e.g. recreating cookies after they're deleted.
- Datamining social networks and analysing usage to identify you. (Violating your anonymity)

Monitoring and tracking your online activity amounts to electronic surveillance - it can lay bare your social and business networks, your interests, your political affiliations and your religiouus beliefs. Surveillance on this scale - actively, and with the intention to use the information - would be a gross abuse if it was run by the state... and to have this going on in unregulated private hands is simply scary.

The article gives tips on how to shield your privacy - but at the end concludes that it is extremely hard today to not be a victim of this systematic invasion of your privacy. The right to privacy needs to be protected - and that means this type of intrusion needs to be regulated with clear, easy and legally binding opt outs.

Piratpartiet and the Pirate Party - putting privacy first:

Blowing in the wind

After questioning whether Britain is a lost cause in the face of increasing surveillance and a hard handed approach to copyright enforcement, it seems that the wind of change is already in the air. Conservative MP Dominic Grieve has announced Tory party intentions for a range of measures to push back state surveillance. It has to be a move to be welcomed though there is some skepticism just how far reaching changes would be when the Tories have their hands on the reins of power.

There is an excellent article on the topic entitled 'Reasons to be Cheerful' over at Heresy Corner - who also links to this article in the Guardian on the rise of Libertarianism -  with poll figures that 79% think the state has too much of a say in their lives, and a scary report that in the UK 1 in 78 people had been subject to some kind of official eavesdropping last year.  It's not hard to think that change is already long overdue....

Take it away Ian.....



Tags: surveillance, tories, The Pirate Party

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

Britain a lost cause...

Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Swedish Piratpartiet made a throw away comment on the state of affairs in Great Britain in a reply to a comment on his blog. "Det är kört". The race is run, it's finished... a lost cause.

The UK government continues to push the boundaries for state surveillance at the cost of individuals privacy, and the chance to reform copyright to meet the needs of the digital age is being squandered in legislating to defend outmoded ideas on how culture should be created, distributed and shared. Big business has the ear of the government, and Big Brother is alive and well in the corridors of Westminister.

But government is not the people. The number of people filesharing shows that there are many people that don't share establishment views on copyright, and privacy issues are a genuine concern for many.. Topics like the introduction of identity cards, and repeated incidents of loss of private data on millions of people have created an awareness that privacy matters and that blanket surveillance is not a good thing.


It's the people's job to watch the government, not the other way round... though governments it seems have a habit of forgetting that. Our best service is to continue to raise the awareness of the issues and make people aware of where the country is heading - and just as importantly that there are alternatives - that we can build an open, trusting creative society fit for the twenty-first century.

Awareness comes from the press, from advocacy groups like the excellent  Open Rights Group, from industry, - and now of course from The Pirate Party.  Britain is not lost.. just in dire need of a new map and a new direction....

Technorati on: UK,copyright,surveillance,The Pirate Party,Piratpartiet,

Surveillance & censorship...

What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
- Aristotle

We know where you are....

As I sat on the bus this morning I noticed a little sign telling me the bus has video cameras recording "for my safety". I am being watched. we are.. Pretty much all the time. The phone company knows where my phone is... My credit card says where I spent money, and a thousand cameras are waiting for a bite of my day.

But what can we do? Serendipity provided at least part of the answer in the form of a really informative piece from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Locational Privacy. which discussed among other things how we can have position related services without actually revealing our position. A neat trick.

We know where you are... But not who you are. ..A kind of cryptographc equiivalent to Heisenbergs uncertainty principle.

Pirate Party ... it's official

While I've been off sailing the high seas, the Pirate Party have been taking big steps forward in getting the Pirate agenda on the map in the UK. In case you've forgotten that's:

• Reform of copyright and patent law. To legalise non-commercial file sharing and reduce the excessive length of copyright protection, and to ensure that when creative works are sold, it's the artists who benefit, not monopoly rights holders. We want a patent system that doesn't stifle innovation or make life saving drugs so expensive that patients die.
• To end the excessive surveillance, profiling, tracking and monitoring of innocent people by Government and big businesses.
• To ensure that everyone has real freedom of speech and real freedom to enjoy and participate in our shared culture.

So what's new?

From the top...

• The Pirate Party is now just that - a registered political party.
• ...with elected officials...
• ..and a leader, Andrew Robinson
• that you can join
• The Pirate Party is also getting into the news... including this article in the Telegraph and this nice one in the Guardian
• PPUK is also on Facebook. (Yesterday the group passed the 5000 mark) .
• ...and Twitter

If you are interested in fairer copyright, the right to privacy and want to halt the march of the surveillance society then check out the homepage and get involved....

Arrrrr.....

..or one of the other International Pirate organisations near you.