Massachusetts Pirate Party http://www.masspirates.org/blog The Party of Open: Open Government, Open Culture, Open Innovation & People First Thu, 16 May 2013 03:49:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Vermorel for Parliament! http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/15/vermorel-for-parliament/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/15/vermorel-for-parliament/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 03:49:08 +0000 masspirates http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1353 Continue reading →]]> Véronique Vermorel is a French Pirate running in a special election for the French National Assembly.  She also lives in the Boston-area and is finishing up her internship for her business school.  Her district includes the US, which is pretty cool when you think of it.

She is running on a platform of increased government transparency, better support for startups, authors and artists as well as sharing culture.  We like her and think she is just what France needs.  If you have any French friends who are living in the US or Canada, please suggest that they check out her website or find her on Twitter.  The election is coming up soon, so please spread the word.

]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/15/vermorel-for-parliament/feed/ 0 Join us at Another World’s Fair, May 18th http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/10/join-us-at-another-worlds-fair-may-18th/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/10/join-us-at-another-worlds-fair-may-18th/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:42 +0000 jokeefe http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1347 Continue reading →]]> On Sat., May 18th, we will table at Another World’s Fair in Central Sq., Cambridge. The Another World’s Fair is part of Together Boston, and annual celebration of music, art and technology. If you can help us spread the Pirate message on the 18th, please fill out the form below.

Also we will be participating in the March Against Monsanto on Sat., May 25th, and the Boston LBGT Pride Parade on Sat., June 8th. Fill out the form below if you want to march with us.

Thanks!

Fill out my online form.
]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/10/join-us-at-another-worlds-fair-may-18th/feed/ 0 PirateCon 2013 set for June 29th http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/09/piratecon-2013-set-for-june-29th/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/09/piratecon-2013-set-for-june-29th/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 03:30:05 +0000 jokeefe http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1342 Continue reading →]]> PirateCon 2013, our 2nd annual conference, will be June 29th at the Community Church of Boston at 565 Boylston St in Boston.

Registration

Registration is $10 and is on-line. We are working on providing free wifi at the conference.

Talk Details

The following speakers have agreed to attend:

We continue to look for other speakers, so please send your suggestions to us at info@masspirates.org.

Spread the Word

Please spread the word about the conference by telling friends and family as well as putting up our poster and flyer.

]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/09/piratecon-2013-set-for-june-29th/feed/ 0 CISPA Still Threatens Civil Liberties http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/02/cispa-still-threatens-civil-liberties/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/02/cispa-still-threatens-civil-liberties/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 14:30:24 +0000 masspirates http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1324 Continue reading →]]> Posted on behalf of fellow Pirate Kendra Moyer

LATEST UPDATE

While CISPA passed in the House of Representatives on April 18th, as of Thursday April 25, 2013, the CISPA bill was effectively stalled on the Senate floor after proving too controversial and overreaching for a privacy sensitive public.

Michelle Richardson legislative counsel for the ACLU stated of  the bill that:

“I think it’s dead for now. CISPA is too controversial, it’s too expansive, it’s just not the same sort of program contemplated by the Senate last year.”

The bill passed in the House just the previous week after many of its corporate supporters made special trips to lobby in its favor.  While the bill will remain shelved for the near future, privacy advocates remain ever vigilant of the potential of losing more freedom to an ever growing surveillance state.  The on-line activist community had outdone itself in keeping the issue at the forefront of public attention and stopping the invasive legislation   Still, the struggle for basic freedom versus overzealous security will continue to dog privacy advocates at every level of society.

CISPA Still Threatens Civil Liberties

by Kendra Moyer

CISPA, The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, was introduced on November 30, 2011 and was passed by the House of Representative on April 26, 2012.  The bill stalled in the Senate in February 2012 after wide spread opposition surfaced.   CISPA floundered in the spotlight and under the onslaught of on-line petitions.  The diligent advocacy of political activists and organizations dedicated to keeping cyber-space safe for free and open communication initially defeated the bill.  Free Internet activists forwarded reasonable speculations that like The Patriot Act, NDAA, SOPA, and PIPA, CISPA’s underlying goal was increased surveillance of all citizens which would jeopardize free speech on-line.  The bill does not specify nor offer limits as to how personal individual information might be used once in the hands of government agencies.  The inherent secrecy and intimidation factor of the legislation is another backward trend for an American public accustomed to and expectant of free speech and rapidly losing ground.

A new draft of the CISPA bill, which previously aimed to guard the rights of free enterprise, has resurfaced and been re-submitted by the original authors, Senators Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersburger (D-MD) on February 8, 2013. CISPA, should it pass, is  one of a number of new laws designed to monitor Internet activity. CISPA amends the National Security Act of 1947 due to a lack of provisions for computer based crime. The bill serves to prevent cyber-attacks against state computer infrastructure and networks and to protect on-line merchants and customers from fraudulent activity.

CISPA’s far reaching perimeters threaten to curtail the freedom of law-abiding citizens by compromising their personal data. The premise of isolating broadly defined “threat information” or anything deemed dangerous to industry, national security, or specific persons, is again sparking an outcry from privacy advocates.  CISPA would create loop-holes in privacy laws that currently protect Americans, give companies legal immunity for sharing an individual’s personal information without consent, and makes it easy for corporations to hand over personal data from customers to state security agencies. Even more troubling, the bill would add additional Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemptions.  Sensitive information are already exempt from FOIA so CISPA’s anti-FOIA provisions would prevent adequate oversight of the law.

“Threat information” might be defined as anything ranging from copyright infringement to money laundering activity geared towards funding vaguely termed “terrorist activity” or hiding profits from illegal activities.  Julian Assange’s Wikileaks case and subsequent legal battles and Private Bradley Manning’s prosecution both resonate when evaluating the potential risks of this Orwellian legislation.  The legislation offers no protection for legitimate whistle-blowers.

Academic and computer security researchers would be restrained in developing needed technological innovations and investigating and identifying security threats under the vague language of CISPA.   Terms like “Cyber-security purpose” and “cyber threat information”, are both broad and vague enough to result in questionable legal application depending on the circumstances.  Simply researching certain “hot” terms or phrases in a search engine might constitute “red flags” and probable cause for becoming targets of federal investigations.

Language regarding digital piracy and copyright protection was included in the original draft of CISPA and was removed due to the outspoken activist community pinpointing the bill’s redundancies.  The Stop On-line Piracy Act (SOPA) was introduced in October 26, 2011 to abate digital piracy and protect copyrighted intellectual property and became very unpopular losing ground on the Senate floor in January 2012.

Regretfully, little has changed from the original version of CISPA to the latest draft.

The bill’s authors argue that CISPA, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 30, 2011, will protect the nation from a variety of cyber-attacks from hostile nations, identify thieves, and lone, disgruntled hackers. CISPA’s proponents envision worst case scenarios in which these hypothetical attacks might affect the nations’ banks, infrastructure, or core utility companies.

The most prevalent fear from opponents is that CISPA will widen the scope of national security agencies to conduct surveillance on the general population without warrants or probable cause.  The trend towards more aggressive and all encompassing state surveillance has both dampened and fired up some activist communities.

The EFF (Electronic Freedom Foundation) is dedicated to ensuring on-line privacy and free speech and actively opposes the CISPA bill along with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), Fight for the Future, and Avaaz.org through debunking and carefully interpreting the evasive  language included in the CISPA bill.

The phrase “notwithstanding any other law,” is included in CISPA and allows companies, including Facebook , to circumvent established legislation in place to protect consumers’ private information including the Cable Communications Policy Act, the Wiretap Act, the Video Privacy Protection Act, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which all protect privacy and personal information during on-line transmissions.  Facebook remains a strong supporter of the CISPA bill, though Microsoft has withdrawn its support due to privacy concerns and strident opposition.

The voices of awakened citizens are needed to fight the threats posed within CISPA.  All citizens wary of the infringement of  government into their personal lives are encouraged to call and write their state and local representatives and demand accountability for the lack of privacy provisions outlined in the latest CISPA bill.

SOURCES

https://www.eff.org/cybersecurity-bill-faq

https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9048

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036328/it-s-privacy-versus-cybersecurity-as-cispa-bill-arrives-in-senate.html

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/04/23/troubling-broad-foia-exemptions-not-limited-to-cispa/

]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/05/02/cispa-still-threatens-civil-liberties/feed/ 0 Privacy and Security Talk Tonight, 6pm, Boston http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/24/bu-privacy-security-talk/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/24/bu-privacy-security-talk/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:15:21 +0000 jokeefe http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1319 Continue reading →]]> Today, I will be speaking with Alex Marthews of warrantless.org, Gregg Housh and others at a panel on privacy and security in the wake of the Boston Marathon attacks. It will be at Boston University from 6-8pm today. It is free and open to the public.

It takes place at the 5th Floor Faculty Dining Lounge at the GSU 775 Comm. Ave., Boston. Please spread the word about it. You can also invite people to it on Facebook. Thanks!

BU Privacy Security Event

]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/24/bu-privacy-security-talk/feed/ 0 House Passes CISPA Again, Fight Moves to the Senate http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/22/house-passes-cispa-again-resist-it-in-the-senate/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/22/house-passes-cispa-again-resist-it-in-the-senate/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:00:53 +0000 masspirates http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1314 Continue reading →]]> Yet again the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), this time by a vote of 288 to 127. This time, some Congress members cravenly used the Marathon bombings as justification for passing CISPA.  The entire Massachusetts delegation did not vote as they were here due to Marathon bombing remembrance ceremonies last Thursday, but all voted against it last time and five of the nine voted against considering CISPA earlier.  Kennedy, Lynch, Markey, and Neals abstained.

We have long maintained that CISPA isn’t a cybersecurity bill at all. It is a spy on Americans bill.

This bill would obliterate our 4th Amendment rights on-line. Under CISPA, the government can ask your ISP to `voluntarily’ hand over everything you send over their network: your emails, downloads, web searches, account passwords. No warrant would be required, no judge would have to review their request to ensure that they have a reasonable reason for their request. Once the data is in the hands of one agency, it can end up being sent to any government agency or even a private company. Any company that hands over your data will not be held liable for its misuse. If you doubt that ISPs will willingly hand over your private Internet traffic, then please review the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program.

If this bill is passed in the Senate and not vetoed by President Obama, potentially anything you do on-line can be accessed by the government. While President Obama has said he will veto CISPA, he also said that about NDAA, and he signed that bill.

We have to kill this bill in the Senate! Please call or email both Massachusetts Senators and tell them to oppose CISPA and any other bills like it. The privacy you save may be your own.

1.  Contact your Senators

Elizabeth Warren
Facebook / @elizabethforma / (202) 224-4543
http://www.warren.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Mo Cowan
Facebook / @SenMoCowan / (202) 224-2742
http://www.cowan.senate.gov/contact

Also, do not give up trying to contact our members of the US House.  If they voted against considering CISPA, please praise them for their action.  If they did not vote, please remind them to support your right to privacy by upholding the President’s veto and urging our Senators to stop CISPA.  Thank you!

1.  Contact the US Senate Candidates who are Congressmen

Stephen Lynch - Facebook / @LynchForSenate

Ed Markey - Facebook / @EdMarkey

3.  Contact your Congressperson

To find out who represents you in Congress, please visit Where Do I Vote MA and enter your address.

]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/22/house-passes-cispa-again-resist-it-in-the-senate/feed/ 0 On Bombings, Sharing, Privacy and Security http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/16/on-bombings-sharing-privacy-and-security/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/16/on-bombings-sharing-privacy-and-security/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:30:20 +0000 jokeefe http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1302 Continue reading →]]> I want to express our condolences to the families of those killed yesterday in the Boston Marathon bombings as well as our hope for a speedy recovery for those who suffered physical and mental trauma. No one should endure such tragedies or have their lives or loved ones taken away from them in a split second. I wish I could say I was shocked by yesterday’s bombing, but after Oklahoma City, 9/11 and far too many mass shootings, I just cannot be.

I also want to add my thanks to all who helped, be they the onlookers near by, marathon volunteers, medical personnel, or public servants such as our firefighters, EMTs and police. My friend Rob Bazemore said it well:

Today is Patriots Day and the true American/Human spirit showed through by the number of people who rushed forward to help those in need.

No doubt others will help to identify who caused this tragedy by sharing their videos and photos. To say that the Internet has changed everything, is over used of course. But in this event, writer and friend Cecilia Tan shows us how it can help deal with such a tragedy:

For me one of the things that makes me feel better/less freaked out when things like bombings occur and my 9/11 PTSD is triggered is to get a complete picture in my mind of what happened and when. Turns out the Internet it pretty good for that. Unlike on 9/11, it’s so much easier to actively seek out newsfeeds, eyewitness accounts, photos and videos. Every person with a cell phone is a potential “reporter.” Within 45 minutes of it happening, using Twitter and a couple of feeds (Boston Globe, Reuters, Boston Police) I had a fairly complete picture of what went on. Which is astounding when you think about it.

The sharing of pictures, videos, first hand accounts and stories was tremendous and far out stripped what was available on news web sites.  The Internet has made this decentralized world possible.  While it leads to a sometime cacophony of sources, the evaluation of those sources is left to the individual and not a small number of reporters, anchors, producers and editors.  To me, this world is far more liberating.

We know there will be calls for more CCTV cameras, more capture of our communications on the net and more invasions of our privacy for fleeting security.  As Alex Marthews notes, we have already given up so much privacy to the national security state and yet this bombing still happened.  Those who run the national security state no longer have the right to say if only we had more surveillance we would have stopped this bombing.

As we gear up to fight these inevitable calls for more surveillance, we have to remember those bills that threaten our privacy now.  CISPA, which we have long opposed, is one that needs your attention today.  It would allow ISPs or mobile phone companies to send your Internet traffic to government agencies (hello NSA!) in order to stop cyber terrorists and Russian Chinese North Korean hackers.  At least that’s the excuse.  Yet CISPA was been amended in closed committee meetings, contains barely any privacy protections and isn’t even needed.

Tomorrow the US House will vote on CISPA.  Your Congress people need to hear from you that you oppose CISPA.  There three ways you can tell them (I recommend you use all three):

  1. The EFF and Fight for the Future have a web page to contact your Congress person and Senators.  
  2. Use the contact information we have below.
  3. Ask them publicly to oppose CISPA on their Facebook pages and on Twitter.

Thank you and please act today.

1.  Contact your Senators

Elizabeth Warren
Facebook / @elizabethforma / (202) 224-4543
http://www.warren.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Mo Cowan
Facebook / @SenMoCowan / (202) 224-2742
http://www.cowan.senate.gov/contact

1.  Contact the US Senate Candidates who are Congressmen

Stephen Lynch - Facebook / @LynchForSenate

Ed Markey - Facebook / @EdMarkey

3.  Contact your Congressperson

To find out who represents you in Congress, please visit Where Do I Vote MA and enter your address.

]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/16/on-bombings-sharing-privacy-and-security/feed/ 0 Say No to the CFAA! http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/08/say-no-to-the-cfaa/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/08/say-no-to-the-cfaa/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:00:32 +0000 masspirates http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1295 Continue reading →]]>

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is a law that has been repeatedly misused to go after net activists and handout draconian punishments. Aaron Swartz is but one example. Indeed the CFAA can be easily read so broadly that anyone under 18 who reads news on-line could be a criminal. Yet, the Department of Justice wants to make this bill even worse, and Congress seems willing to help.

We are asking you to help take a stand against the CFAA, and demand it be fixed. Three things you can do:

Aaron isn’t the only person to run afoul of the CFAA. Australian activist Asher Wolf, eloquently details how it was used to convict Andrew Auernheimer (Weev) for the crime of accessing an AT&T public interface and revealing that it wasn’t secure.  Many thanks to Asher!

THE TRAGEDY OF JAILING WEEV, THE INTERNET PROPHET OF DISCORD.

“Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfin’d,
Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o’er mankind.” ~ The Iliad, Book 9.
On November 20, 2012 a jury sitting in the Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey convicted Andrew Auernheimer of one count of conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. 1030(a)(2)(C)) and one count of identity theft (18 U.S. C. 1028(a)(7).In essence, Andrew Auernheimer – or Weev, as much of the Internet knows him – was found guilty of incrementing a number on a url – doing basic arithmetic – and has been ceremoniously chucked behind bars for the next 41 months of his life – as a result of speaking up to point out a security problem.

Weev was sent to jail on a trumped-up charge, for a crime that hurt nobody, not even a fly.

At his pre-sentencing press conference Weev read poetry by John Keats on the steps of the courthouse – ‘The Fall of Hyperion’, according to reports from onlookers:

“Who alive can say,
‘Thou art no Poet may’st not tell thy dreams?’
Since every man whose soul is not a clod
Hath visions, and would speak…”

The process of writing about Weev is a disorderly affair, which seems appropriate. Descriptions of his history vary. Versions change depending on who you ask about him. Even Weev’s own versions of his history changes from time to time. Perhaps it’s so difficult to write about Weev because we live in complicated times, and our tales – our histories are not so simple anymore. It’s as though I could write an epic novel in verse about Weev and yet, the truth would be still like a needle in a haystack.

A quote by Raymond Queneau, a French poet and novelist jumped out at me when I began to write about Weev: “the Illiad is the private lives of people, thrown into disorder by history.” The tale of Weev, meanwhile is the story of a man thrown into history by disorder. Some of that disorder of course, came from Weev’s own making. But the tragedy of this story is of a bright, young person, swept into the pathway of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act – a hugely over-reaching piece of legislation. Today, Weev has been sentenced to four times the years the Steubenville rapists will spend behind bars – for a “crime” that has no victim.

I spent a lot of time trying to think about how to write honestly about Weev. The act of writing about someone is essentially the art of attempting to bring order to a narrative of history. But before all ordering of items, first there is always chaos.

Originally I began trying to write about Weev by trampling across the internet in search of the “true history” of Weev. Dumb idea. It soon became apparent the amount of information generated by Weev’s escapades made determining a singular history almost an impossible task.

So instead, I will tell you about Weev, as I have come to know him.

Weev is a master of chaos, a devotee of the Discordian persuasion. He is a joker, a puck, an epic troll, a jester, and just perhaps an exiled prophet railing on the fringe of society, variously misidentified as a drug-addled, mentally imbalanced felon. Scratch the surface and you find a man who likes reading Proust, and listening to Wagner.

I initially got to know Weev when an Australian TV show was looking to interview trolls. They asked me if I knew any trolls they could invite on to the program. Weev immediately came to mind.

“Should we be concerned about Weev creating chaos on the show?”, the program’s research assistant asked me worriedly.

“I’m not actually sure. I guess… treat him like a live grenade?”

I’ve never really known how to respond to Weev. I’ve oscillated between the desire to mother him and an a repetitive urge to strangle him. I’m sure Weev would say it’s a sexual thing. One of my earliest responses was to claim “HE’S NOT MY FRIEND” loudly on twitter, when people linked us. I was scared, simply of being associated with him. Later, I was ashamed of myself.

Weev has become a friend. A good friend. Someone – who for all his offensive statements – is never inane, and for all his trickery is never dishonest.

Regardless of his flash-bang shock of his razor-sharp wit and inexplicable statements that variously offend most sub-segments of the world’s population, Weev is someone I genuinely *like* – despite his despicable outbursts – and let the record show, I don’t really, genuinely like many people at all.

Beyond the mouthy, chaotic prick trolling the universe there’s a soul fighting not to flat-line in cognitive dissonance – and Weev has had more than his fair share of fear, disappointment and sadness, unsettled adolescence viewing life through the lens of relentless intelligence.

Weev’s capacity to create chaos thru trolling is considered epic across the Internet – a person needs only to Google “goatse” (please don’t) to immediately experience a taste of the kind of abhorrent shock factor his trolling can create.

I spoke to Weev in the final days before sentencing. He was unrepentant.

“Our whole society is so stagnant and un-innovative now, because we spend this huge amount of resources trying to fight against entropy. And if there is one thing that is always true, it is that the principle of disorder is as strong or much stronger than the principle of order.”

“Trolling is using rhetoric divisively, I do not put a bigger definition on it than that. It can be small or large, important or banal, good or evil. Its a rhetorical method for fucks sake, and it suits me just fine.”

“Aren’t you scared of consequences?”, I asked Weev.

“No, I’m scared of stagnancy. Consequences are in the future and I only give a vague fuck about that. I’m more concerned about now, because stagnant things smell like shit, literally and figuratively. I don’t want to live in a place that smells like shit – and yet, now I am stuck in New Jersey. Joke’s on me!The trial – defies reflection. It is a living story and it is not over yet I suppose. I mean, they will not let me work. Dennis Yu, he made Yahoo Personals once. Now he has a company called BlitzMetrics, he handed me an offer letter. But my employment has to be pre-approved by pre-trial services. They’re kind of like a probation officer for people who have not yet been convicted of a crime. They simply won’t approve it. I have $2.66 in my bank account. I spent a lot of nights not eating. That is the worst part. The bail conditions make it impossible to work or live

It has been two years since they ripped me from my home. Anyways, I used to drive to the airport in Bentonville, AR, from my shack in Fayetteville when I was leaving town to go on a job. And on the way, I’d smell the honeysuckle. I always picked flights late at night, because if I left in the day, sometimes I’d cry. Maybe that is weird, but I am spiritually connected to that land, and I just didn’t want to see the landscape roll by in the daytime. The mountains, the land, the rivers… those Ozark hills are dear to me

They took me out of my home, two years ago, from a town where the rent floor is around $200, they took me out in leg irons and they brought me to a fucking shithole, on some fucking piece of shit criminal complaint full of lies written by some faggot FBI Agent.

I mean New Jersey is the single most unhappy state in the US. It looks like shit, and smells like shit. And they have not let me back to Arkansas in 2 years. I’m forced to stay in a place where the rent is $800 per month – and they won’t let me work. So yeah my life sucks now

Yeah I expect I’m going to fucking prison. It’s a fucking travesty. But whatever, I am in a war. You don’t fucking get into a war and not expect to be a casualty. This is a fucking war-zone. I am a fucking scrapper. You fight, sometimes you die”

“You felt like you took on the U.S. government?”, I asked Weev.

“Let’s just say I’d rather go to Valhalla than stay at home”, he responded.

“Weev – why does the government want to lock you up?” Something inside me is nagging at the idea that the only reason the authorities want to lock Weev up is “because he’s just too much gawdam trouble.” But it’s still not a good enough reason to put someone behind bars.

“They said in a search warrant once that they’d been surveilling me since 2001. I was 15 in 2001. I wonder what the fuck I could have done to be watched by the government from a young age. I got involved in a number of ideological movements…everything in the press that I’ve ever done ain’t shit compared to what never hit the press.”

“You going to tell me a little of what hasn’t hit the press?”, I begged Weev.

“Sure, but getting it credited to me could get me killed, could get my friends killed…”

And then Weev told me a story. It’s a Weev kind of story. The story of an epic trolling he’d undertaken on a ketamine high. The sort of incident that scrambled governments out of their beds at night. It was the sort of tale that made my jaw hang agape, and caused me to jump up out of my seat and pace nervously around the living room for half an hour after he’d finished telling me the details. If Weev had told me he’d hacked the the launch codes for intercontinental ballistic missiles attached to nuclear warheads – my teeth would have been chattering perhaps as much.

Weev backed up his tale with a link to a news article confirming he wasn’t making it up. He’s never been caught for the incident. Weev and I discussed the possibility of releasing the story – and I wish I could. But I’ve since consulted lawyers and after taking advice have decided it’s in nobody’s interest to know the details.

Weev finished his story with a flourish.

“And that was the best damn Apple I ever threw.”

“Where’d you dispose of it?”, I asked. Then hurriedly added: “don’t answer that.”

Confusion abounded. “Dispose of what?”, asked Weev.

“Your Apple computer. You tossed your computer into a lake afterwards, right?”

“OOhhh nOooo. I was referring to the story where Eris throws the golden apple and ends up starting a war. I’m a Discordian – I’m into throwing apples. I’ve started unfathomable amounts of shit in this world. Most of it – very few people know about.”

Eris and the Apple of Discord – the roots of the Trojan War. Eris, the goddess of discord who Peleus and Thetis failed to invited to their wedding. Eris, who stormed in and threw a golden apple onto the table – the apple which Eris claimed belonged to whomever was the fairest. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each reached for the apple…

It’s no wonder Weev identifies with Eris. His trolling always played society’s flaws back like a mirror. He’s an ubiquitous shit-stirrer. And the consequences of his small actions – though perhaps you won’t believe me – affect nation states.

“Do you think there’s any chance you’ll walk without a sentence?”

“Probably not, can’t imagine. There’s the pre-sentencing report. It said 41 months. So about 3.5 years? However thats just the guidelines, the judge can sentence me higher, up to the statutory maximum of 10 years – plus I’ve been a right mouthy bastard, so i imagine it might be ticked a little higher.”

My heart fell when I heard Weev had been sentenced to jail this morning, even though I was sure it would be the outcome… it is pointless injustice. The powers who hold freedom in their hands, have locked yet another of our best and brightest behind bars.

As a child my school teachers and parents somehow imparted the idea to me that best and brightest would without doubt be of the ilk that march in time, and sing in perfect harmony like an angelic school choir.

Yet as an adult I’ve come to believe that wisdom is often contained in spaces, places and individuals most difficult to access, most problematic to interact with. There are ideas in this world that are painful, difficult, offensive, and inexplicable to many – Weev spoke of those ideas. It doesn’t make him any less than the best and brightest amongst us.

Our governments continue to lock up the people who speak truth to power. Bradley Manning. Jeremy Hammond. Barrett Brown. The list goes on. Men and women who say things that offend the powers that be, end up behind bars or frozen in their tracks, awaiting verdict.

Our governments call them criminals, deviants, law-breakers. The authorities force the accused into the worst of situations, barred from financially supporting themselves while they await the verdict of a court. All this, is meant to shut us up. It’s meant to make us meek and mild, while the machine churns onwards.

Weev often spoke to me of martyrs and prophets. He taught me there is a defining factor amongst them all – outcast, persecuted for speaking truth to power. And now Weev – the filthy, prophet of discord, infinitely raging against the machine – has been martyred upon the pyre of the U.S. regime’s bloodlust for revenge against whistleblowers, technologists, journalists, hackers, and intellectuals.

I’m just that much angrier than I was yesterday when the cops bashed the last group of protesters, or dispossessed yet another home-owner, sold-out the people and the land in search of another dollar to line the pockets of Wall Street or bombed another country in search of natural resources.

Austerity is coming to the U.S.

You can see it already in the crumbling infrastructure. The emperors have no clothes. Change will come, and to be honest it will be a happier affair for everyone if the U.S. opts for reform rather than revolution.

Weev and his ilk are not the enemy. The discord they surf – the chaos of a world of inconsistent values and hypocritical, corrupt governance – is within the fabric of everything we have grown up with. The abhorrent practice of locking up people who turn a mirror on corruption, insecurity and abuse is as useless as trying to stop the sun rising in the morning.

Putting Weev behind bars is pointless and tragic. Jailing the most outspoken men and women amongst our generation won’t stop the leaks, the hacks, the news revelations, the whistleblowers – and most of all it won’t stop the rage of the malcontent, dispossessed youth from eventually tumbling down upon the heads of the bureaucrats who sold us out and then tried to lock us up when we complained.

Weev will fight for an appeal. And one way or another, eventually he’ll be free. And even in jail, I have no doubt, Weev will find a way to make himself heard.

And they can’t shut us all up. Fuck ‘em.

]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/08/say-no-to-the-cfaa/feed/ 0 Problems with the TransPacific Partnership in 10 minutes http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/02/problems-with-the-transpacific-partnership-in-10-minutes/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/02/problems-with-the-transpacific-partnership-in-10-minutes/#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:00:08 +0000 jokeefe http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1291 Continue reading →]]> The Real News has a ten minute interview that explains the problem with the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade treaty the Obama administration is negotiating in secret with all of the Pacific nations except China. Just like the ACTA treaty, corporations are involved in the secret negotiations. The EFF has the low down on the copyright implications of the treaty, but the patent provisions look particularly bad. The provisions that would allow corporations to sue countries, states and cities for potential damages for laws they adopt clearly put corporate rights over people’s rights.

]]> http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/02/problems-with-the-transpacific-partnership-in-10-minutes/feed/ 0 MPAA Chairman Former Senator, Chris Dodd, Joins Pirate Party, Announces 2016 Presidential Bid http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/01/mpaa-chairman-former-senator-chris-dodd-joins-pirate-party-announces-2016-presidential-bid/ http://www.masspirates.org/blog/2013/04/01/mpaa-chairman-former-senator-chris-dodd-joins-pirate-party-announces-2016-presidential-bid/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:15:17 +0000 jokeefe http://www.masspirates.org/blog/?p=1288 Continue reading →]]> Written by Zacqary Adam Green, Operations Officer of the New York Pirate Party and posted at Falkvinge.net.

On this day of April 1st, 2013, I’m pleased to announce that MPAA Chairman Former Senator Chris Dodd is now a member of the US Pirate Party, and we will be running him for President in 2016. Now, he’s not aware of this, and he’s finding it out right now just like the rest of you. But in a country where it’s legal for a former senator to be hired by the lobbying organization for one of his top 20 campaign contributors, itmust be legal to draft people into political parties and presidential candidacies without their knowledge or consent.

MPAA Chairman Former Senator Chris Dodd — who by Official Pirate Unbreakable Law may never, ever be referred to simply as “MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd” — has long been a proponent of copyright maximalism, of draconian anti-piracy measures that violate privacy and break the Internet, and of demonizing everyone who has ever watched a movie at a friend’s house as a “thief.” During his career in public office, one of Dodd’s top campaign contributors has been General Electric, the parent company of MPAA member NBC Universal.

On this historic April 1st of 2013, Former Senator Dodd has had a change of heart. He is now a full-blown, bleeding-heart blackbeard, not only supporting a complete abolition of all copyright, patent, and trademark laws, but demanding that Hollywood refund the American people for every dime they spent on the filmography of director Michael Bay. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon was a national tragedy on par with slavery,” he said in a statement this morning. “It is our moral duty to begin paying reparations to each and every American citizen lured into cinemas by that piece of garbage.”

The former senator may deny this change of heart or these statements, but don’t believe him.

Dodd has also announced his choice of Althing member Birgitta Jónsdóttir as his vice presidential running mate. As an Icelandic-born non-US citizen, you’d think Birgitta would be ineligible for the US vice presidency. But in a country where it’s legal for a former senator to be hired by the lobbying organization for one of his top 20 campaign contributors, it must be legal to run and elect a vice presidential candidate who was not born in the US.

Unlike other third parties, the Pirate Party is in this presidential race to win it. Rick Falkvinge has announced that he will be pulling a full half of his Bitcoin savings out of his secret underground lair, and donating them to the campaign. Instead of using these Bitcoins for traditional campaign techniques like advertising, we’re just going to straight up give them to people in exchange for a vote for Dodd. Because in a country where it’s legal for a former senator to be hired by the lobbying organization for one of his top 20 campaign contributors, it must be legal to accept unlimited foreign donations and use them to literally bribe voters.

We’ve also recruited hacktivists who’ve been involved in Wikileaks, Anonymous, and LulzSec to assist with, um, “election monitoring.” I mean, hell, in a country where it’s legal for a former senator to be hired by the lobbying organization for one of his top 20 campaign contributors, it must be legal to hack into electronic voting machines around the country to tilt the outcome of the election in our favor.

This is some of the most exciting news that the Pirate Party has ever been able to announce. We believe that today — April 1st, 2013 — will be a day that goes down in the history books as the day that the Pirate Party truly became a force to be reckoned with in the United States. Remember that date: the first of April. Chances are, we’ll all be celebrating this date for years and years to come.

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