UK Pirate Party Launches

[Ashwin Pande]

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/12/uk-pirate-party-laun.html

http://craphound.com/images/small_logo_block.jpg (http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/)


Now the party can really start. It's time for us to tell the world that we exist, to recruit members, raise funds and gear up to fight the General Election. The officers and web team have built the framework that the party needs to get going, now it's time for YOU to make things happen. Join the party, tell the media about the party,tell your friends about the party, take part in policy and news debates on the forum, join our Facebook group, donate or set up a regular payment to provide financial support, set up a branch in your constituency, school or workplace, join the specialist workings groups for members with key skills like lawyers and journalists and volunteer to take part in canvassing and campaigning in your constituency at the general election...

[CapnChaos]

Now the party can really start. It's time for us to tell the world that we exist, to recruit members, raise funds and gear up to fight the General Election. The officers and web team have built the framework that the party needs to get going, now it's time for YOU to make things happen. Join the party, tell the media about the party,tell your friends about the party, take part in policy and news debates on the forum, join our Facebook group, donate or set up a regular payment to provide financial support, set up a branch in your constituency, school or workplace, join the specialist workings groups for members with key skills like lawyers and journalists and volunteer to take part in canvassing and campaigning in your constituency at the general election...
...and then make them walk the plank! Yar!

[Thudpucker]

When are the carjackers going to get their own party? That's the one I'm waiting for.

Stop oppressing car thieves! Free cars for everyone!

[Ashwin Pande]

Yeah, my opinion of this is that it's just like a bunch of college kids going "Fuck the Government!"

Though I do agree that Copyright Law desperately needs to be revised and updated for the realities of the 21st Century and beyond.

[stevapalooza]

the floor recognizes the right honorable Salty Jack of Dead Man's Rock.

[tom daylight]

what a farce. copyright law isn't the most important challenge facing our nation now. the dreadful state of the economy, the public finances and the bloated, unreformed public sector are. sorting any of that out will involve replacing Labour with the Tories. simple as that. anything else is basically just a distraction.

the other two policies they list (surveillance and freedom) are broadly shared by both the Tories and the Lib Dems. presumably what will happen is the few candidates they can afford to put up will all lose their deposits and the party will be gone again in a couple of years.

If they'd formed at a more prosperous time they might be in with a slim chance of gaining ground. But it isn't going to happen now.

[Andreas]

If it were solely about copyright issues I might agree with you, but unfortunately there's a tendency among Western democracies at the moment to monitor all electronic communication of its citizens (and all communication by cell phone). And in the case of Britain even to control their every movement by putting cameras on every street corner. So there's a general theme of citizen rights being restricted by Western governments (by politicians who really have no competence at all when it comes to the internet). And finally limiting what kind of information you can access via the internet. Which isn't so different from what the Chinese and the Iranian governments do when you think about it.

Andreas

[tom daylight]

But it is solely about the copyright thing, because they're in broad agreement on the other issues with all the main parties other than Labour. There is no other matter on which I can see the so-called Pirate Party has a different position from the Tories or the Lib Dems.

[Andreas]

I'm only aware of the issues in Germany and there's a massive disparity when it comes to what the catch-all parties and the pirate party want. It's one thing to say you're for citicens' rights like the catch-all parties do, but their actions tell a different story.

Andreas

[tom daylight]

I'm only aware of the issues in Germany and there's a massive disparity when it comes to what the catch-all parties and the pirate party want. It's one thing to say you're for citicens' rights like the catch-all parties do, but their actions tell a different story.

Andreas

But the exact same could be said of fringe parties like this one. It's just the nature of politicians that their actions don't exactly match their words.

[Andreas]

But the exact same could be said of fringe parties like this one. It's just the nature of politicians that their actions don't exactly match their words.

There are such things like a constitution and a system of checks and balances. And a generation of self-aggrandizing politicians who think that the established rules do no longer apply to them, and that they can do whatever they want without any oversight. The moment they put their own personal agendas and prejudices above the constitution it's time to pension them off.

Andreas

[Ashwin Pande]

And then you read something like this :

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/another-court-deals-major-blow-to-dvd-copying/


Another Court Deals Major Blow to DVD Copying

A California appeals court on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling that paved the way for a $10,000 DVD copying system called Kaleidescape and other products from the company with the same name.

The decision (.pdf) by the 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose, California, was the second court in two days to rule that companies are bound by the entire Content Scramble System licensing regime, which prevents duplicating DVDs.

Late Tuesday, a San Francisco federal judge ruled that RealNetworks’ DVD copying software was a breach of the Content Scramble System license, which is required for DVDs and computers to play DVDs. The license allows DVD players to descramble the encrypted code on a DVD, but the license prohibits the duplication of a DVD. Both RealNetworks and Kaleidescape claimed a loophole in the CSS license allowed the copying of DVDs.

In both cases, Kaleidescape of Sunnyvale, California, and RealNetworks, of Seattle, claim that the CSS license issued by a partner of the motion picture studios — the DVD Copy Control Association — did not require, as the studios alleged, that a DVD be in the machine to play back the movie. Hence, a copy could be made, they claimed.

Kaleidescape did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The DVD Copy Control Association, which brought the case on behalf of the motion picture studios, said the decision means that Kaleidescape cannot produce DVD copying machines. “We look forward to returning to the trial court to obtain an injunction requiring Kaleidescape to comply with its contractual obligations under the CSS license agreement and specifications,” the group said in a statement.

The cases were being closely followed by the content and electronics industries. If decided differently, they could have opened the door to a host of electronics companies to produce DVD copying machines — which would be a blow to Hollywood’s control of the encrypted DVD. Still, both cases could make their way up the appellate ladder, and the final outcome might not be known for years.

The lawsuits represented Hollywood’s worries that RealNetworks’ RealDVD, Kaleidescape and other fledgling DVD-copying services might ruin the market for DVDs. The studios were fighting to keep from going the way of the music industry, which years ago lost much control of the unencrypted CD to peer-to-peer file-sharing services. Consumers may place their CDs into their iPods, yet both decisions remain unsettled whether the same is true for the DVD — although producing DVD-ripping services was found to be illegal in Tuesday’s federal court decision and in previous decisions.

Wednesday’s state appeals court decision did not immediately block Kaleidescape from marketing its wares. Instead, it ordered a lower court to review the entire CSS contract to determine whether Kaleidescape’s DVD copying machines are in breach of contract.

A lower state court had ruled that, because some of the terms of the contract were forwarded to Kaleidescape after the deal was signed years ago, the company was not obliged to follow them – including specifications that the DVD be in the machine during playback.

The state appeals court noted that Kaleidescape knew full well that other terms of the contract were forthcoming. And no other electronics concern had ever made such an argument before, until RealNetworks followed Kaleidescape’s tactics and made similar arguments in a federal court.

“We conclude that the mutual intent of the parties at the time the license agreement was signed was that the DVDCCA would grant Kaleidescape permission to use CSS in exchange for the payment of an administrative fee and Kaleidescape’s promise to build its system according to specifications that DVDCCA would later provide,” the appeals court ruled. “This promise is express and complete on the face of the license agreement.”

In the RealNetworks case, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel on Tuesday said RealNetworks could not market RealDVD because it was in violation of the CSS license, the same one that Kaleidescape acquired.

Patel, however, took an additional step, ruling that the RealNetworks’ software violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. That federal law prohibits the trafficking of devices that circumvent encryption technology designed to prevent duplication – in this instance the DVD.

The Kaleidescape case dealt almost exclusively with California contract law. A ruling in favor of Kaleidescape likely would have presented a showdown between prevailing interests — California contract law and the DMCA.

Though it troubles me less because the dvd will become obsolete in a few years so they're wasting money in trying to blackball an outdated technology. Money which they should be spending in figuring out how to realistically work with internet sharing technology while still keeping the copyright intact and the creators and distributors receiving their due.

Although I believe the process and system of what is due to whom will have to be revised very soon.