Pirates & Hackers: 3 Tales

by dunk Thu Apr 16, 2009 22:15

Reason for todays Somalian pirates taking to the high African seas - EU illegal dumping of nuclear waste

Johann Hari: You are being lied to about pirates (Monday, 5 January 2009)

Some are clearly just gangsters. But others are trying to stop illegal dumping and trawling

Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labelling as "one of the great menaces of our times" have an extraordinary story to tell – and some justice on their side.

Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied – and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively, without torture. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century".

...the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

The independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johan....html
johann hari blog : http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1428

Democracy Now:
Analysis: Somalia Piracy Began in Response to Illegal Fishing and Toxic Dumping by Western Ships off Somali Coast
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/14/analysis_somalia_...ponse

So this dumping, waste dumping, toxic dumping, nuclear waste dumping has been ongoing in Somalia since 1992.

by . Sun Feb 15, 2009 22:31

http://trial.thepiratebay.org/

follow this situationist mania: The pIRATEBAY kicking out the JAMMS as they go on trial

by atomised Sat Sep 22, 2007 00:13

from: http://thepiratebay.org/blog/86

TPB files charges against media companies
Thanks to the email-leakage from MediaDefender-Defenders we now have proof of the things we've been suspecting for a long time; the big record and movie labels are paying professional hackers, saboteurs and ddosers to destroy our trackers.

While browsing through the email we identified the companies that are also active in Sweden and we have tonight reported these incidents to the police. The charges are infrastructural sabotage, denial of service attacks, hacking and spamming, all of these on a commercial level.

The companies that are being reported are the following:

Twentieth Century Fox, Sweden AB
Emi Music Sweden AB
Universal Music Group Sweden AB
Universal Pictures Nordic AB
Paramount Home Entertainment (Sweden) AB
Atari Nordic AB
Activision Nordic Filial Till Activision (Uk) Ltd
Ubisoft Sweden AB
Sony Bmg Music Entertainment (Sweden) AB
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Nordic AB

Stay tuned for updates.

Related:

http://digg.com/tech_news/ThePirateBay_org_files_charge...nies/
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070916-leaked-me....html
http://www.mediadefender-defenders.com/threads.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/17/1226245

The Email Trove

http://www.mediadefender-defenders.com/threads.html

by redjade Thu Jan 25, 2007 22:43

Gottfrid: Our users have to do their own thinking. We are doing what we can, but the Pirate Bay is only the medium.

Script Girl asks: Can’t you quit your anti-copyright bullshit and just admit you’re really only in it for the money?

Peter: We can’t, because it’s not true.

Gottfrid: it would be a very bad project to be in it to make money, concidering how great the risks are. The Pirate Bay was running on a zero budget for a long time.

Peter: We also have our background in the Bureau of Piracy originally. There were ideology there. If we didn’t believe in this, we wouldn’t have done it.

[....]

Anton asks: You will probably not be able to buy the “country” Sealand. What will you do with all the money you have received in donations? Will you keep them now?

Peter: No. We will buy an island with them if we can’t buy Sealand.

Gottfrid: There are almost always islands for sale on various places in the world. I guess we’ll have to announce our independence on one of those instead. But we’ll have to deal with that after the budget is done.

Peter: The idea is that when we’re done talking to Sealand, and then I would like to point out that we are still negotiating, is that we decide on what we want to buy. Then we will get money for that island specifically.

more at
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-in-the-hot-seat/

The Pirates' Bay
http://thepiratebay.org/

Buy Sealand
http://buysealand.com/

The Principality of Sealand
http://www.sealandgov.org/

by redjade Fri Jul 28, 2006 01:31

A French court has ordered Greenpeace France to take down a web page with a Google Map that shows locations of commercial, genetically engineered corn fields in France. Greenpeace argues the online maps should not be censored because an EU law requires the French government to make the crop site information public anyway.

Greenpeace responded by carving a giant 'X' crop circle into one of the genetically engineered corn fields the courts say can no longer be Google-mapped.

more info and links at
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/27/france_greenpeace_....html

by erqwnqr Mon Jul 24, 2006 14:57

The Home Office wants to give the police and the courts sweeping new powers which could see suspected hackers and spammers receiving the cyber equivalent of an anti-social behaviour order (Asbo).

The proposed Serious Crime Prevention Order is intended to combat organised crime where the police do not have enough evidence to bring a criminal prosecution. It would enable civil courts to impose the orders on individuals, even if they had not been convicted of a crime.

[....]

Asbos give the courts almost unlimited powers when imposing conditions on the person receiving the order. Under the Home Office proposals, the courts would have almost unlimited discretion to impose the order if they believe it probable that a suspect had "acted in a way which facilitated or was likely to facilitate the commissioning of serious crime". In a civil court, hearsay is admissible evidence, and the burden of proof is lighter than criminal courts.

read: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39279134,00.htm

by redjade Mon Jul 17, 2006 23:29

India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) passed an order to ISPs Friday to block several websites. The list is confidential. Indian ISPs have been slowly coming into compliance. SpectraNet, MTNL, Reliance, and as of Monday afternoon, Airtel. State-backed BSNL and VSNL have not started yet but likely will soon. The known list of blocked domains is *.blogspot.com, *.typepad.com and geocities.com/*.

more at
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/17/report_indian_gove....html
[Monday, July 17, 2006]

by erqwnqr Sun Jul 09, 2006 00:53

'' ABC is apparently in talks with cable and satellite TV companies to disable the fast-forward button on future DVR products:

"ABC HAS HELD DISCUSSIONS ON the use of technology that would disable the fast-forward button on DVRs, according to ABC President of Advertising Sales Mike Shaw, with the primary goal to allow TV commercials to run as intended. ''

go read
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/07/abc_wants_to_disab....html

by erqwnqr Tue Jul 04, 2006 00:17

Sweden threatened with Trade Sanctions by the US over the Piratebay
06.22.06

Hollywood, The MPAA and the US government demanded action from the Swedish government. If Sweden decided not to give in to their wishes the US would impose trade sanctions.

According to IT prosecutor Hakan Rosswall the USA pressured the Swedish government and threatened to blacklist the Swedes within the WTO (World Trade Organization).

more...
http://torrentfreak.com/sweden-threatened-with-trade-sa...ebay/

by io Sat Jun 10, 2006 17:16

people behind this site take the attitude that exercising your rights doesn't make you a pirate. This sort of reflects the legal & political background in the Spanish state where "pirate" is no longer a cool word. Little test for you to do too - "am I a pirate"
http://www.nosoypirata.com/soyunpirata.php - the ten questions are really quite simple - Do you download stuff? Do you make hundreds of copies & then go to the street or pay someone else to go to the street and sell them? Do you have 100, 1000, 10,000 or more than you can count of CD's or Movies burnt in your gaff? are you an owner of a TV company & pay all your performer right monies religiously? Do you live on a boat in the Caribbean? If you do the test you'll see you're not really a Pirate . You're just a "p"-irate. (?)

http://www.nosoypirata.com/

by erqwnqr Fri Jun 09, 2006 18:43

Intellectual Property Notice and Disclaimer from CaptainCopyright.ca

[....]

Links from Other Websites
There may be circumstances where access to our website is provided by a hypertext link located at another website. Although Access Copyright encourages and appreciates links in your own Web pages to www.captaincopyright.ca, Access Copyright has no responsibility for the content of such other sites and Access Copyright does not endorse, authorize, approve, certify, maintain, or control these external Internet addresses and does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy or timeliness of the information located at such addresses.

Permission is expressly granted to any person who wishes to place a link in his or her own website to www.accesscopyright.ca or any of its pages with the following exception: permission to link is explicitly withheld from any website the contents of which may, in the opinion of the Access Copyright, be damaging or cause harm to the reputation of Access Copyright. Specifically, permission to link is explicitly withheld from sites featuring pornographic, racist or homophobic content. If you link to or otherwise include http://www.captaincopyright.ca on your website, please let us know.

http://www.captaincopyright.ca/Ipnotice.aspx

by redjade Wed Jun 07, 2006 23:36

Lex Barker

The map you posted came out immediately AFTER the US Presidential 'election' of 2004.

This map i have uploaded is from 2006 - the red states represent the states where Bush is supported by 50% or more.

Amazing how much has changed in less than 2 years, eh?

Also, part of 'JesusLand' in your map is Ohio

Now, go read about the 2004 'election' in Ohio....
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the...tolen

2006

by Lex Barker Wed Jun 07, 2006 22:48

Jesus land

by iosaf Wed Jun 07, 2006 16:15

which many people don't seem to get - on either "simplified side" of this very complex debate.

I'll give you one example:-

Your telephone book entry. Under EU law this is a fully protected database entry, no-one may copy or reproduce your telephone book entry giving your name, adress, and telephone number in exactly the same way as it was first published without written consent of the owner of the database and paying a charge. In the US your telephone book entry is available to all under "fair use", anyone can reproduce it as first published without first seeking permission, and some would argue here comes the downside - without revealing who they are. This allows for US based companies to "trace" people and sell "personal information" without either the original publisher of the information or the individual concerned knowing or legally having to know. If the EU had database laws as "fluid" as the US we could have quite plausibly seen a European "Google", instead the largest database in history is based in the USA and still fights lawsuits against European lawyers over "data-infringement".
(2 examples from the last 24 hours) http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,3935...0.htm
http://www.lexpress.fr/info/economie/infojour/infos.asp...43905


There are no two simple sides to this complex debate. But its a complex debate which is incredibly important for all our futures. Learn about it. Don't just discuss it in terms of "listening to music".
:-)

by DennisL Wed Jun 07, 2006 15:36

Why don't corporations have a right to copyright data? Most information is free, however owning a personal source of information is not free (books).
About other art-forms...I think that the prices we are forced to pay are ridiculous. But I do acknowledge that the people who fund and pay for the art deserve to benefit if it is popular. I am pro-filesharing but I would like to see a concerted effort on behalf of consumers and companies to reach a compromise on the prices we pay. A film for €5, with the extras and the commentary, downloadable from the company? That would be something I would pay for. But €20 for a DVD...no thanks!

by erqwnqr Sun Jun 04, 2006 23:49

Bernie writes on his blog:

'As Steve Gillmor puts it, the Bush Administration "wants (Microsoft), Google, Yahoo, and every other cloud to retain our attention data, the breadcrumbs we leave as we move about the Net, for up to two years rather than the weeks or months the providers currently hold on to the data. And 'wants' is a nuanced word." As on-going discussions suggest, the Bush Administration is trying to determine whether ISPs will voluntarily agree to keep certain information or whether legislation is required. Look to Ireland for the way the legislation may unfold.'

http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes/2006/06/serial_leake....html

-=-=-=-

'the Board of VeriChip Corporation, wants to implant his company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. ... he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it."'

http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes/2006/06/personal_tag....html

Gardaí Chipping of Afghans Could Prevent Future Hunger Strikes

by erqwnqr Sun Jun 04, 2006 19:00

Hundreds of people waving signs and skull-and-crossbones pirate flags demonstrated in Stockholm on Saturday against a police crackdown on a popular file-sharing Web site with millions of users worldwide.

article
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SWEDEN_FILE_SHAR...27-22

photo
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060603/481/a19...a670b

'We want an apology from the police and from the Justice Ministry, and we want our servers back'

by Keith Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:18

For those of you who glanced at my post and didnt read it all let me explain. I think file sharing is great I didnt say file sharing should be removed i said it needed to have some control. Such as what Peter said tracing the IP addresses of abusers and that kind of stuff.

As regards the computer viruses perhaps i should have said those who write them just to destroy other peoples computers are the losers and the ones who should be jailed.

by hmmmmm Sun Jun 04, 2006 01:10

is really quite dim. We looked at this years ago during the "freenet" debacle (which correct me if I'm wrong - relied on brazilian internet legal tolerance) http://www.indymedia.ie/article/60770
& i remember in much earlier days of the internet, a group called "network23" attempted to leave a message line (as did the spanish sindominio) open without censorship as an early experiment in what then was still being called "cyberpunk". Everyone was very disappointed at the results - the early equivalent of "spam-bots" offering pretty much the same as they do now.

The internet allows not only for people to get music, but also to build nuclear bombs, or make homemade explosives, or order drugs, or sell their internal organs, or fix a date, or...
study better, learn, access resources which are geographically impossible for them to visit, use services, make friends. Many of the better uses of the internet haven't even been broached yet.

We can talk for years about whether the "internet" is helping us be "better" or "worse". The printing press allowed for mass production of pornography just as it faciliatated the first bibles which was "bettering" or "worsening"? At end It is not the technology or tool which ought be subject to "moral intervention" - it is the person using it, (even if that sounds a bit NRA'ish). The only real problem I have with the internet is finally : that it has facilitated 24/7 capitalist transactions. I am more worried at the prevalence of sexual predators availing of cheap holidays to 3rd world countries now clearly associated with that "market" than at the availability of certain images on the internet which is in any case - monitored.

by Peter - Stupid Question Response Team Sun Jun 04, 2006 00:14

Going off topic a bit their Keith? but i'll take up your challenge Keith, just for shits and giggles.
If you remove current file sharing, you will in effect force digital child porn into using high tech encryption techniques, private networks, u allow these sick predominately middle aged married men to continue their quests undetected. Most file sharing software allows tracing of IP, back to your ISP, and bingo your traced and tracked. In other words current technology allows cops to find pedophiles, albeit none techie pedophiles quite easily, where without this tempting file sharing service they would be untraceable without some child victim coming forward, or usually about 10 years later ratting them out..
And on number 2, the kind of loser who spends time writing computer viruses, is the same ‘loser’ that is trying to save your machine from being infected. I wrote a number of viruses within my programming and software development courses back in the early 90’s, under direction from my professor. Reason, to understand how serious a threat they are or what you could face in the future, you need to know how they work, to be able to think like a script kiddy or now a days more the professional virus writer for corporate attacks. We were given the task to infect and format, delete, sniff, insert incriminating documents (porn) on to our class mate’s computers by what ever means possible. The second reason for hailing virus writers to a certain extent is that they show how poor the development standard of many application are, and force companies to spend time on security and good design. M$ was renowned through the 90’s for releasing unstable, bloated poorly designed and tested applications. Only recently, in last few years have they decided to own up to the responsibility of releasing patches and fixes without forcing their users to pay for it, all thanks to those evil virus writer.

by anon Sat Jun 03, 2006 23:44

you should stop downloading the child porn if you have a problem with it.

by Keith Sat Jun 03, 2006 22:55

Although i support file sharing i still think it needs some regulation. go onto bearshare and see how many child porn downloads come up when you search for anything. That kind of sharing needs to be stopped. I challenge anyone to disagree.

i also think that the people who attacked the police site should be jailed for at least 10 years, as should anyone who uses viruses in this way. i personally cant understand the kind of loser who spends time writing computer viruses. i think anyone who has gotten one on their computer will agree.

by eeekkkk Sat Jun 03, 2006 20:15

see slashdot.org
boingboing.net

by @ Sat Jun 03, 2006 19:22

so he has got off with a photo of him in today's Swedish commercial press (sitting in a darkened room side profile holding his brainy head in his hand staring at his laptop) & a caution. I think this is really wonderful news, that a teenager can be brought back on track without cross examination or trauma - hopefully the Swedish state or establishment will be able to find a useful employment or outlet for his now proven talent. But obviously his attack being the first to be traced was simply an example of jumping on the bandwagon - the real clever clogs are still out there - unpunished & the Swedish cop site is still "off-line".

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,8358....html

the little underage rascal

by the irony Sat Jun 03, 2006 17:45

heh! So if I search google's cache for torrent links on the pirate's bay and download torrents which are themselves just a coordination of linking, would the swedish police also shut down google?

by Simunga Sat Jun 03, 2006 17:41

They got the site back up already - www.thepiratebay.org

Their search engine is still down but it looks like most their torrents are still there with all the comments and everything. You can search the site using google or whatever search engine if you just type in what you're looking for and add - site:thepiratebay.org

by iosaf Fri Jun 02, 2006 17:17

(1) To Put it very crudely :- Sweden's security servers are fucked. It was not just an overload, several viruses went into too & its front page on all Swedish newspapers vewry clearly linked to the Pirate Party http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,8350....html
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,8355....html
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,8351....html
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,8355....html

So clearly linked in fact, that you can vote in an online poll about which site you'd like to see back up by Monday, at time of writing the Pirates have over 93% and the Police have 6%. & the minister for these things Laila Freiveld, in Stockholm has taken to questions in Parliament on the whole issue. She's an interesting woman, in the comment updates to the article by which I told you all about the Pirates when they began, you'll see she closed down an extreme right website (under lobbying pressure) during the Muhumad cartoon row, ( & joined the list thanking her but mindful of what apalling vistas such government action might mean in the future) http://indymedia.ie/article/73718
http://indymedia.ie/article/73718#comment137814 But she's not the only one on the Swedish government floor taking it, their minister of Justice Thomas Bodstrom, is being "wobbled" by the opposition for not being prepared for such an attack (see above swedish links)

Ironically on day 2 of the IGC we all talked about virus alerts and listened to Carlos Jimenez, director of "Secureware" tell us all that we've only a few years of practical use left in "anti-virus" software. [Secureware is one of the lesser known anti-virus companies, but also one of the first to start up, he's got the contracts for several states, NATO and the Human Genome]

(2) the 8th Internet Global Conference http://www.igcweb.net/default.php has ended in Barcelona with 2 very opposing suggestive models of internet "governance" emerging, for the moment one is being termed "Liverpool faction" & the other "Barcelona faction". The Congress has no power (thank God) and though neither faction won, it all seemed to me a repeat of the last WSIS congress (c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/72984 ) Put very simply there is an anglo-saxon model (Liverpool) which is capitalist led and wants more and more control and monitoring and an end to file sharing, & there is a "Latin/Nordic" model which though not exactly free of capitalist influence wants extension of internet and information systems to the _whole global community_ before any decision are made in restrictions, & will continue to support "the penguin". http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/linux.html That means also encouraging the "e-government" programs promoted by the Spanish state, Catalan Generalitat, Finnish Government and Brazil. (For the Cervantes Don Quixote 400 year celebrations, the whole regional government of Castille & la Mancha moved to opensource software, much of it designed by young Spaniards, it saved the state lots of money in licensing and proved give the hackers a job & they'll win you "design awards". Of course an important part of that will be building "supercomputers" all over the shop, we've had one in Bcn for a while now, & it really is yummy. Because many people might just think of computer boxes and their bigger cousins "the server", we need to set them up ( in Brazil &c.., ) but we also need to break the hardward monopoly of the US on supercomputers.

that's sweet......................really it is.

"try plugging it in again"

by erqwnqr - { Sam Hicks knows about the big foot } Fri Jun 02, 2006 16:06

.torrent of
Chomsky Speech at West Point
http://www.chomskytorrents.org/TorrentDetails.php?Torre...=1388

But, how do I do BitTorrent?
http://chomskytorrents.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23

When you download this Chomsky speech you will be simultaneously sharing it with others - everyone shares, everyone receives, everyone gives - all decentralised.

If you start downloading this .torrent now - I will be sharing Chomsky with you and 10 other people who have the same file. and as you download it you will also be sharing with others, even if you do not have a complete version. Bittorrent is very cool! If you have a high speed connection, try it. :-)

Chomsky at West Point, US Military

by nn Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:57

the website of the swedish police www.polisen.se is down.
the police say they suspect it is because of an overload attack and that it comes as a revenge attack because of the raid against The Pirate Bay

by seedot Fri Jun 02, 2006 01:28 seedot at indymedia dot ie

The image is from a entertainment blog that i found when reading about PirateBay. The story says Forbes believes the move will just improve the tech yet again. But the ads are from Google giving guides on how to pirate. Elsewhere on the page I saw broadband and torrent site ads

Piracy: it just makes sense ;-) - at least thats what the net sems to tell us.

Beware - the link requires an ad blocker or loads of time to waste.

Screengrab: what the net tells you to do

by k Thu Jun 01, 2006 18:07

SHITE - one of my fave bittorrent trackers Karagarga gets it in the head too as a result of The Pirate Bay raid.

by erqwnqr - {Bill Flood is a Hanso Head} Thu Jun 01, 2006 16:59

latest links and info available at:
http://82.99.25.142/

anakata and TiAMO

by erqwnqr - {Lawrence Peck knows his electromagneticism} Thu Jun 01, 2006 00:55

Eyes on the Prize is the most important documentary ever made about the Civil Rights Movement--but copyright restrictions have kept it from the public for the past 10 years. This film is too important to lose. Help us bring it back to a nationwide audience: Find the film in a library and organize a screening in your city or town.

more info: http://www.downhillbattle.org/eyes/

go to your favourite bittorrent dealer to get Eyes on the Prize - I'll be sharing my bandwidth with ya, comrade

More background info:

Eyes on your copyrighted prize
http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/col/leon/2005/01/05/pri....html

About Eyes on the Prize
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_on_the_Prize

for all your Chomsky™ branded copyright violations....
http://www.chomskytorrents.org/index.php

two video .torrents i share 24/7.... will you help me?

by iosaf Thu Jun 01, 2006 00:00

at the 8th Internet global Conference, [ http://www.igcweb.net/default.php ] but today's commercial media coverage was a little overshadowed by guest speaker Amparo Moleda the president of IBM (Spain) who naturally proposed more capitalist secure exploitation of the internet.
It really is very peculiar that those who fight file sharing, and free downloads have rarely stopped to think about even the long-term capitalist sense of what they oppose. At essence a small global financial sector (entertainment & movie makers & TV whose "wealth weight" are measured in billions [like the Irish state] are attempting by repeated class actions in the USA and thereafter the EU to hold to ransom an emergent market & sector whose "wealth weight" is measured in trillions. In many ways we're back perversely to the US law suits on "non-infringing use" which allowed the hardware manufacturers of Japan to launch the VCR. the VCR meant that anyone of us could infringe copyright, (& US copyright was subject to the US supreme court decisions) but the Japanese corporations succesfully proved that a VCR could also provide the consumer with "non-infringing uses". I don't have the time to go into here & now in more depth....... Maybe another time...........
We must all continue to fight against these laws which restrict our right to share music & other information on a non-profit basis. Laws which presently originated in the USA and mesh a web of greed and control and avarice with all other types of "use restriction" { such as medicines & drug production, genetic analysis, or provoke dubious patent challenges &c... } Though of course we can't blame the USA for all "© / ™ / ®"
Many of the laws we must now recognise are out-dated in concept and actively restrict our global development (be it economic or social ) found their first trans-national ratification in the 1885 Berne convention on reciprocal performance rights for composers. (That convention at least allowed for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to earn money from his outstanding commercial success in western Europe.) But parallel to that, there was precious little protection for income and fees and right to recognition as author for writers or journalists - hence the birth of journalist unions pretty soon after...

this article explained the launch of the swedish pirate party referred to in the article above :-
http://indymedia.ie/article/73718

by erqwnqr - {Dick Cheever to be revealed in the next orientation film} Wed May 31, 2006 23:26

Press Release
The Pirate Party critizises the police for faulty search and seizure

Today the Swedish Police raided The Pirate Bay, one of the worlds largest bittorrent trackers, seizuring computers and other property. Despite the fact that in repeated cases Swedish courts has judged The Pirate Bays activities as legal, the police choose to yield to pressure from the media companies.

Acoording to one of the site's operators, the police wishes to test the legality of the site's activities.

"What company would accept this treatment?", asks Rickard Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party. "What company would accept that the police interrupted their whole operation, before it was proven that said operation was illegal? The case is that The Pirate Bay has not commited any crime. They are disliked by major American media companies, that is correct. But it is not illegal to be disliked, and it is definitely not a reason for the Swedish Police to march in and close one of the mayor gathering sites for youths."

"This is exactly the kind of raids that the Pirate Party wants to stop", Rickard finishes. "When society sends the police on it's youths because they listen to music and watches film, then it is not the youth who are misbehaving. Then it is society that needs to get a grip."

About the Pirate Party:
The Pirate Party is the largest of the new parties in the 2006 elections to the swedish parliament, riksdagen. The party was founded on the 1st of january and stands for a open information society: shared culture, free knowledge and a protected private life. It does not take a position on other issues.

http://www2.piratpartiet.se/

it is possible to make a PayPal donation to their legal def fund

by erqwnqr - {Liddy Wales was her sister, not mine} Wed May 31, 2006 23:18

link to above post is: http://thepiratebay.org

-=-=-=-=-

Swedish police raided 10 different locations in Sweden and seized servers in a massive crackdown on torrent site Piratebay.org today.

Reports from a wide range of online Swedish news sources claim that up to 50 police officers were involved in the raids in Stockholm, Gothenburg and several other locations around the country. Computer equipment from homes and workplaces of three people involved with Piratebay - aged 22, 24 and 28 - has also been seized to further help the investigation.

. . . . . .

The recently formed Pirat Partiet (the Piracy Party) – www.piratpartiet.se – is up in arms about the raid. Pirat Partiet is actively promoting more open and consumer friendly copyright laws and is running for government in the 2006 elections. Todays raids on Piratebay are likely to promote them further.

The Swedish police have allegedly also closed down the Pirat Byrån website, an organisation that promotes piracy and happens to have its servers located at the same site as Piratebay. It is unclear if this is actually the case, but at the time of writing Pirat Byrån's website was unavailable.

READ:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/31/piratebay_raid/