Slashdot Mirror
Wikileaks Now Hosted By the Swedish Pirate Party
oskii writes "During his visit to the the Swedish capital Stockholm, Wikileaks spokesman Julian Assange has struck a deal with the local Pirate Party. The party, which participates in the national elections next month, will host several new Wikileaks servers to protect freedom of press and help the whistleblower site to carry out its operation."
Now fucking us out of due process to combat copyright violations is a "matter of global security."
Their heart's in the right place, but could they possibly have a worse strategic approach?
While it's a nice publicity stunt for the Pirate Party (with the Swedish elections coming up in little more than a month), WikiLeaks may also gain from it. Swedish politicians may well be pressured by the US government, or by others depending on what WikiLeaks publishes in the future, to close down those servers like they did with The Pirate Bay. But now that they are hosted by the Pirate Party that would be seen as a direct attack on a political opponent, with the obvious effects on public opinion. That will likely make them think twice before ordering a shutdown, which probably wasn't the case with The Pirate Bay.
And yes, government representatives giving direct orders to police and prosecutors is illegal in Sweden. But in practice it happens all the time due to widespread patronage and cronyism and few legal checks against it.
Looks like the RIAA finally got that army of copyright enforcers they've been looking for.
As a political entity, wouldn't the pirate party have some sort of international obligation to comply when other federal governments ask them to remove information?
...but he also needs to be held accountable if things go wrong.
Look, when you have "Swedish" and "Ass" in the title, I want it to be about a chick, dammit.
I feel so bad for Bradley Manning, the 22 year old that is taking the shit for all of this. Some douchebag congressman wanted to execute him. Why is getting truth out so bad guys?
This is just intelligent load-balancing. Offload enough of the responsibility to enough political or apolitical parties and regardless of what happens, there's multiple legal or quasi-legal entities hosting it. This is essentially a guarantee that the data will exist in several locations no matter how many you try to take down. It's always somewhere that you can't get to.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
Somehow I don't think the principle sticks when you're not talking business.
Still, given how confusing and lengthy the Swedish legal proceedings have been for The Pirate Bay trial, maybe the concept here is to jam so much into the system people forget what the charges were by the time sentencing rolls around.
....Julian Assange has officially changed his name to Captain Hook.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
Wikileaks is the future, plain and simple. Governments will not be able to legislate restrictions on the internet forever. Pandora's box is essentially open.
This approach to data-distribution and careful evasion of embarrassed (or harmed) governments is bound to remain, as it's a natural capability of the internet. Nations under-represented on the world stage (or more principled in their respect of free speech) will continue to host those responsible for sites like Wikileaks, and fully-distributed, and virtually untrackable, delivery systems are certain to take hold for the proliferation of this type of information.
The law is no substitute for tight security, despite years of governments being trained to the contrary.
So, how does it sound when you mix the Swedish Chef with the Talk Like a Pirate day?
Barg, Bhiber be bembers?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
You mean media whore....
.. he gets upset when he isn't getting enough attention.
A whistle blower would go through the data and make a something that at least resembles a case. He doesn't want to do any real work, like analyze the data, strip out names to protect innocent parties, or provide only truly relevant data. Instead, he prefers to vomit data and let other people make sense of it.
Assange suffers from attention deficit disorder
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
Sorry, you must be new here.
The truth is not nearly as important as their truth, or my truth, as told to me, by me (and others).
Beyond self-deception, there are many who are drawn to the idea of being a sort of "information royalty." The idea that you know more than others, and deserve to know more, because you're special, is very attractive.
Then there's the reality of tactical and strategic advantages. Sometimes you're just better off knowing more than others (information asymmetry), and sometimes you're just better off with others dead. It's a matter of personal assessment. I'm not talking about morality here, just power. For most of us, killing someone else would be something that we would at least say is unthinkable. For some of us, punishing someone for telling the truth would be in the same boat. Both of these proportions may be significantly smaller than you or I would hope.
It's obvious to me that by aligning with a particular political party, Wikileaks is publicly announcing the abandonment of any semblance of editorial neutrality. Their Noble effort to bring additional transparency to the world is now forever tainted.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Let us say there is a secret US military document. Say this document has complete details of a plan to attack Canada two months from now. Someone in the military leaks it out and Wikileaks publishes it on a server hosted by Pirate Party. Questions: 1. Who should be jailed? (a)The military guy who leaked it (b)Wikieaks chief (Assange) (c)the Pirate Party chief (Falkvinge)? 2. What if the plans were to take out an Iranian nuclear facility? Would your answers change? 3. What if the plans were to take out a North Korean chemical weapons facility? Would your answers change? 4. What if the plans were to take out an AlQaeda hideout? Would your answers change?
Assange is handing out free ammunition for those who would like to legislate tighter restrictions on internet freedoms. Tying itself to a particular political party will only make that easier.
At one point I held onto the romantic, idealistic hope that a Pirate Party could take hold here in the U.S. eventually. I think this publicity stunt will effectively keep that from happening.If a PP on American soil starts to gain any ground, they are going to be immediately lambasted and hung out to dry as terrorist supporting, anti-American, extremists because, hey, look, the Swedish branch helped embarrass the U.S. Military.
Ah well, time to start looking for a new source of hope in the States.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
So explain to me then how Dick Cheny and Robert Novak conspired to "leak" the name of a CIA operative that was actively engaged in operations, compromised her and everyone she had contact with, but that wasn't treason?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
It's more just falling in line with the party, and offering another level of protection for the site.
The reason that Sweden's Pirate Party got political support in the first place was because Americans pushed political pressure on the Swedish government to take action, thus causing the first raid on The Pirate Bay. When the public got wind of this, there was massive public outcry saying that they shouldn't allow American corporate interests (and American copyright law) dictate what the Swedish government did. So all of a sudden there was a ton of political support for people that opposed American-style copyright.
This is a political move not to equate wikileaks to the Pirate Party, but instead to show that the Pirate Party operates as a safe haven for information so it cannot be tampered with by foreign interests (most notably, the American government and American corporations, who seem to believe that they are the authorities to determine what copyright law SHOULD be rather than the constituents of these so-called democracies).
This just falls in line with what the party represents. I think that the Swedish people would sooner resent America for trying to impose its beliefs on their democratically elected governments than they would be worried of the consequences of staving those companies off. It's not like America is about to bomb them because they run filesharing sites. And if they did, then Sweden would have an entire international body of allies who would object.
Karma: Non-Heinous
It's true, the Pirate Party equivalent to the Tea Party- only the constituencies are different (left-libertarian-leaning computer geeks vs. xenophobic social conservatives). Both parties are simply reactionary political movements fixated on some bogeyman - The Tea Party has Obama and the Democratic Party to whip themselves into a rabid froth while the Pirate Party is nothing more than a backlash against the excesses of the 'MAFIAA' cartels. Just replace 'Sarah Palin' with 'Corey Doctorow,' 'Ayn Rand' with, I dunno, 'Neal Stephenson,' and 'The Rapture' with 'The Singularity,' to get an idea of the parallels in their cultural and intellectual underpinnings. The only thing missing is a sinister, shadowy organization with deep pockets issuing the marching orders, as with Koch Industries and the Teabaggers, but I won't be surprised if the political pirates are also getting jolly-rogered by some rich people with an agenda.
Now we have someone to bomb! /kidding
Well... /halfkidding
By aligning itself with a political movement, we now have a political entity of a foreign state aiding and abetting our enemies. I don't think we're going to be invading Sweden any time soon, but now we have someone to yell at when people are killed thanks to this info getting leaked out. Heckuvajob, Swedes... the Afghan informants' blood is on your hands now!
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
but in Sweden they face the huge risk of their servers getting borked.
A while back, in a post on a previous thread regarding Julian Assange shortly after the Afghanistan files were leaked, I posited the question, "Why is Julian Assange still alive?".
I had assumed that if he did indeed have dirt on the US military establishment he would be pushing up daisies in some backwoods of Virginia.
Now I know that he is simply a very cautious, very smart player that is using EVERYTHING at his disposal to protect himself and what he does. The people he is aligning himself with are NOT idiots and they themselves are protected by laws that other nations are somewhat obligated to respect (the repercussions of ignoring these protections would probably be worse then any damage leaks might cause--think Barbra Streisand). He now has political AND journalistic protections. And don't forget about the "Insurance" file. Not a fucking clue, and I am not going to begin to guess.
( http://leakmirror.wikileaks.org/file/straw-glass-and-bottle/insurance.aes256 )
I am starting to like this guy.
From every mountain top let freedom ring! Freedom of information needs to be ringing out more than most other freedoms. I only hope the folks at Wikileaks and in the Pirate Party are safe from the more sinister forces that might be put upon them.
**IT DOES NOT MATTER** what he "leaked"
You heard it here first people: if bsDaemon came across documents that showed the US Military was shoveling terrorist suspects into ovens, he'd ignore it and continue to do his job. Or maybe not that... maybe if he came across documents showing that we were burning women and children to death with phosphorous weapons, he'd just ignore it and continue to do his job. Okay, maybe not that...
Of course the line is drawn somewhere. To pretend otherwise is ***FUCKING INHUMAN*** and a good way to end up doing a lot of evil shit for the paltry reward of state loyalty.
PRQ - the network cum ISP created to serve the Pirate Bay (and still doing so) - has been hosting much of Wikileaks since 2008.
Lots of people give the Pirate Bay guys shit for being a bunch of thieves hiding behind big words, but when it comes down to it, they walk the walk too. A lot more so than the MAFIAA has.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
An interesting question & answer chat with Julian Assange, who founded WikiLeaks was published (in English) by Dagens Nyheter, the biggest morning newspaper in Sweden, today.
It gives some insight into his thinking as well as the seriousness of their task — two of their contributors have already been assassinated.
Trusted Computing FAQ | Free Dawit Isaak!
I wish the 'Pirate Party' would stop calling itself that. Piracy is seriously wrong - there's nothing glamorous about it. By equating song and movie downloading with piracy, they surrender the argument to those who say they're a bunch of thieves.
And wikileaks should have been more careful about what they leaked. Their sloppiness doesn't help the cause of peace, freedom, or justice either.
Now that the pirates and leakers have combined forces, the mud on one will stick to to the other. Aside from the heightened press attention for the pirate party, I can't see how that's good. And the heightened press attention will be bad if the real message doesn't get out.
Assange is employing a multi-layered defense strategy and he seems to be quite smart in his plans and execution.
However, this is just bidding for time: through his actions Assange made himself an enemy of the USA and also of the NATO coalition on the ground in Afghanistan. While I don't believe Poland will actively pursue his arse throughout the world, I am pretty sure the Americans will get a benevolent help from almost all NATO partners. Ouh, did I mention Sweden is part of the Partnership for Peace framework since 1994?
I'm a journalist by trade and education and I can assure you his revealings were not of the Woodward & Bernstein kind. A responsible journalist is always protecting the sources and editing sensitive data (be it sensitive for national security ofr for the safety of innocents). Assange did nothing like this, and people are currently dying in Afghanistan because of that.
For all I can see, he's just a narcissistic enemy of the United States, and he'll be soon meeting his fate (which I assume involves some Gitmo holidays).
Catalin Braescu
Ofaly.com
The Attitude that I can break the law in you country because I am not there and you can not touch me. It bodes very poorly for the internet. And I sure any extradition treaty that results will make no one happy.
* aside from two people, one already dead over a year before the leaks, and another a fscking confirmed double-agent.
This whole "oh noes, informers are endangered!" crap originated from Washington Post, then got quoted by New York Times (I believe), then went viral without any substantiation. Can you say "information warfare?"
Go check the documents yourself, and stop repeating this bull.
I do wonder which Australian party would offer to host WikiLeaks in parliament and get radical on improving (read "creating") free speech in Australia.
My first thought was The Greens, but they have too many other issues on their agenda to risk their political future on this where the legal system is not conducive to free speech, not even in parliament.
Pirate Party of Australia were free enough from other issues to put everything into such issues, but they are in their infancy and unprepared to run in this election. Sociallist Alliance are crazy and altruistic enough to do so, but are equally unelectable.
Free speech just isn't valued here by the people nor the law, not even in parliament. Should a person, even an elected official make a statement in parliament which the other politicians don't like : they will be asked three times to recant their words before they are officially recorded in the hansard.
It's time to get angry Australians! Do it now, before the issue of free speech is put to rest 1984 style once "the filter" is put in place.
Perhaps in his opinion he is upholding his oath, and helping to uncover high level traitors inside the organization he belongs to. I do not know the man, but this is how I read it. He's being as patriotic and brave as he could be.
What you are proposing is known as the "nuremberg defense", where any order must be followed, even if it is clearly wrong/illegal/unethical.
Bullshit then, bullshit now, and you know the military doesn't take to being put to task on anything illegal, even though it is commonplace, because the fix is in.
Besides that, I think you are really naive about this, and a number of other subjects (just noting you are a prolific and opinionated poster here, but always seem to be just a little too uniformed). Example, do you really think no one in the intel or mil community is profiting from opium sales in Afghanistan? You do realize opium was almost wiped out under the taliban, but now is back to record levels, and especially in areas more "pacified" than not? This is a "coincidence" in your view? Do you think that all the cash monies being dispersed are always in an above board ethical fashion? Do you think all the killings really follow ethical rules of engagement? Do you really think all the orders being given to the lesser ranks are to fight a questionable war, or could they perhaps be to prolong said war in order for certain ..people..to profit handsomely, people with ties to the mil/industrial complex? Have you noted the upper political officer echelon invariably gets rewarded after retirement with cushy jobs in said complex? Are you asserting the corruption, thievery, graft, bribery is not a fully and universally practiced art in these two wars, and that those in positions of authority are not deeply involved? And that in "normal channels" little to none of this corruption is being exposed? That your position that this is a basic white versus black war is really a multitude of shades of gray, and that a lot of the "bad guys" speak English as a first language? Do you deny the "legitimate" Afghani government is so corrupt they make Chicago politicians look like choirboys? Or do you deny all of this?
If you admit it, as you should because it is all facts, now you know why something like wikileaks is needed, because a corrupt system can not investigate itself, it just isn't possible.
If you deny all of the above,I question your rationality and critical thinking skills and level of research. And wikileaks needs people like the accused, who tempt fate and exhibit significant courage to do what they see as right, even if it puts them into serious peril.
Without Googling, just as a test, what was the top news story in the major US papers and sites on September 10th, 2001. If you can't answer that immediately..I would question your depth of research, memory, analysis and motivation. Your motivation in particular.
I will now turn off my internet and declare the day complete.
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
citation needed
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
Seems like somewhat the ones that care about that moved to the other side of the ocean. In the original place that phrase got changed to "we, the government", "we, the corporations", or even "we, the army", and the people there seems to be happy with that.
The Pirate Party is a fringe 1 issue group and not a conventional party. Besides your simplistic idealism does not work in the real world when you have the USA claiming it can kidnap or kill anybody anywhere even its own citizens for national security purposes and parts of the US government (military parts at that) are trying to label wikileaks as a really serious security threat. This is not ticking off a nation, this is ticking off a HUGE empire who has flagrantly violated international law just recently. The Pirate Party of Sweden is probably the LAST stronghold of actually free speech outside of actual US enemy nations.... which would seriously look bad if any form of partnership was formed... as well as raise legitimate legal issues.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
> The very first virtue is no snitching.
Which correctional institution did you learn that "virtue" from?
Not quite. Members of parliament there, as in many countries, have immunity from prosecution. But the Pirate Party is not, as of yet, represented in the Swedish parliament. There's a 4% of the popular-vote threshold for entry.
That said, Sweden has much more powerful transparency laws than most nations. Prior restraint on publication is banned, with the exception of cinema* and matters of national security. This can be challenged in court of course, like every democratic country they have due process. Every government document is public (per the constitution) unless explicitly classified, and has to be handed over, without question or delay. (E.g. anyone can waltz in to Rosenbad, the executive offices, and ask for a copy of the Prime Minister's e-mail from the last week). Classification requires explicit action (which again can be challenged in court) and is limited to national security, personal privacy, documents which are still under preparation, and a few other fairly obvious exceptions.
Source protection is exceptionally strong; If a classified document is leaked, it is illegal (unconstitutional, even) for the government to investigate, much less prosecute, the source of the leak. The only exceptions are essentially if the leak constitutes espionage or treason, or if it was an intentional violation of confidentiality (the latter is difficult to prove in court). In short, their government is severely limited in its powers to stop even its own leaks, much less leaks of information pertaining to foreign governments.
(* Cinema releases have to pass a ratings board that has the authority to cut footage or even ban releases. It's fairly inactive, today they only cut a few minutes of footage in total every year, almost exclusively for violence, not profanity or nudity. I believe the last movie that was banned from cinematic viewing altogether was the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 36 years ago)
The US DoD has recently notified the FMV military procurement agency of the Kingdom of Sweden, that it is no longer in its power to deliver advanced AMRAAM air combat missiles for the Swedish AF Gripen fighter jets.
There is no equally capable or better alternative to the AMRAAM on the market, not even in development and the petite JAS-39 Gripen fighter jets are toothless without them. Sweden's existing AMRAAM hedges run out in a few years time due to expiring shelf life plus practice firings and then jackpot for Moscow! Since Sweden is a declared neutral country, there is no NATO obligation for the USA to protect them.
Sweden made a decision to hurt US national security and the USA replied in kind. Swedish people can start lamenting about the freedom of press when first batches of russian military invasion land on their shores, eager to loot their blonde wives and Volvo cars. One could assume they will eventually realize "ugly americans" were better ruffians, then the russians!
Dagens Nyheter
wow, there's a flashback to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. hey, that's an idea--Lisbeth Salander would make the perfect mascot for WikiLeaks!
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Here is the theme music for the Pirate Party in any country and in fact the whole World.
http://api.jamendo.com/get2/stream/track/redirect/?id=600480
Even countries that have extradition treaties with the US have the caveat that the law that the person is being extradited for should be one that is a law in the country doing the extradition. It's not that they're breaking the law, it's that they're breaking an AMERICAN law that isn't a SWEDISH law.
Karma: Non-Heinous
That would be known as "political suicide."
Karma: Non-Heinous