Pirate Party
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Iceland resists Pirate Party push for early elections
Following the pseudo-resignation of its Prime Minister, whom the leaked Panama Papers tied to an offshore holding company, Iceland's ruling coalition remains in turmoil. Despite appointing a new PM on Thursday, the government is facing calls for early elections. And, to make matters worse, the opposition Pirate Party is surging at the polls with more than half of Icelanders reportedly willing to vote for them over the current coalition.
Politician wants Iceland to become 'the Switzerland of bits'
Birgitta Jónsdóttir was sitting in the audience at the Icelandic Digital Freedom Conference when John Perry Barlow, a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation called for Iceland to "become like the Switzerland of bits." Six years later, Jónsdóttir is trying to make that dream a reality. She was elected to parliament in 2009 and has proven to be one of the most tech savvy and outspoken members of Iceland's government. Last year she was one of three members of the Pirate Party elected at a national level, and she is spearheading efforts like the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, which focuses on protecting whistle blowers, journalists' sources and ensuring the freedom of information. Some of this work has been done in conjunction with the controversial organization headed by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks. While the implementation of many of these ideas has been far from perfect, the country has made great progress towards becoming a safe haven for data, in the same way that Switzerland has become the defacto repository for wealth -- whether it was gained honestly or through less that noble means. And Jónsdóttir has pledged that she will continue to fight. Especially after discovering that she, herself, was the target of surveillance by the US Department of Justice. For more on Birgitta Jónsdóttir check out Motherboard's excellent profile here. Photo courtesy of re:publica 2014/Flickr
Wikileaks to be hosted by Swedish Pirate Party, apparently Angelfire wasn't really working out
You know, we can't get enough of that Swedish Pirate Party. Not only is it fighting tirelessly for freedom, truth, and government transparency, but it just happens to have the most bad-ass name of any political party that we know. And now, deputy party leader Anna Troberg has announced that it's agreed to host WikiLeaks' servers from an undisclosed location, somewhere in the country. This isn't the first time the organization has stepped in to aid a beleaguered website -- you might recall how it announced that it would provide bandwidth for the Pirate Bay way back in May. For the time being, it looks like Julian Assange and co. (or at least their data) has found a safe haven, although it remains to be seen just how tolerant Sweden will be of the whistleblowers. Good luck, kids!
Swedish Pirate Party launches ISP to raise funds for its impending shutdown trial
As a fan of Swedish electoral politics, you're obviously aware that the Pirate Party (or "Piratpartiet") has been bedeviling officials in that Nordic country since 2006, doing crazy things like hosting the Pirate Bay's servers and launching the Relakks commercial darknet -- all the while flying the flag for privacy rights, copyright reform, and state transparency. And now? Northern Lights TV has recently posted an interview with Gustav Snipe, CEO of Pirate ISP, the party's very own service provider. How long can an ISP that refuses to monitor traffic or keep user logs keep the Swedish government at bay? We'll probably find out soon enough: it's already providing beta access in Lund, with plans to go nationwide at the end of the summer. Video after the break.
Pirate Party lights up Relakks, first commercial darknet
You know, the Pirate Party isn't really doing itself any favors by launching a commercial darknet (read: anonymized network), but then again, who are we to judge? It's not as though we're beyond temptation to kick its wheels and tempt fate with slightly dubious intent (hey, it's not our fault the Media Center didn't record 30 Days this week). The reality of the situation, however, is that the RIAA / MPAA's consistently absurd legal firing line is certainly enough to drive many "nefarious" (read: intimidated) users running for cover from legal embroilment -- hence Relakks. The network hits up its users for about $6.50 (€5) a month for service, which basically moves your data over VPN to servers in Sweden in order to cleanse its origin and proxy your traffic through a Swedish IP address. We might call it clever, but it's not much more than an encrypted proxy run by the peeps most likely to ensure your privacy, be you behaving naughty or nice online. While we suggest the latter, something tells us Relakks isn't going to get too uptight about you being the former, either.[Thanks, Mac & Fredrik]
