German Police Seize German Pirate Party Servers 121
fph il quozientatore writes "The German police have seized today the servers from the German Pirate Party after an attack on the French company EDF. Apparently they are looking for evidence of allegiance with the Anonymous group. In completely unrelated news, the website of the German police was down this afternoon."
Police Seize Pirate Party Servers? (Score:2, Funny)
This would've been better if Police Pocket Pirate Party Processors Punctually.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Police Pocket Pirate Party Processors Punctually.
Postulating Past Prank Participation
Re: (Score:1)
the parent and parent of my parent are awesome.
Re:Police Seize Pirate Party Servers? (Score:5, Funny)
Police procure Pirate Party processors. Probably probing protester pact.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Police Seize Pirate Party Servers? (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the same as confiscating all of Googles servers because somebody used Google Docs for an illegal purpose. The police did not even try to contact the party before taking their servers. And they did not just take the server that might have been used for an illegal purpose, but all servers at the site.
The timing is interesting, as the DDoS attack that allegedly was planned on this public EtherPad installation took place months ago. And now - two days before election day in a federal state - they confiscate almost all their servers.
Re: (Score:2)
Reminds me of a Joke (Score:5, Funny)
In Heaven: The cooks are French, The policemen are English, The mechanics are German, The lovers are Italian, The bankers are Swiss.
In Hell: The cooks are English, The policemen are German, The mechanics are French, The lovers are Swiss, The bankers are Italian.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
No, in hell the barmen are swedish and so are the bar-prices.
Barman: Are you sure you sure you should be having ANOTHER beer? you have already had ONE!
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Proper Precuration Prevents Pissed Police Presence.
Mayhem only begets mayhem (Score:1, Insightful)
This is what happens when you hack for the sake of hacking. I don't know if the German police really had reason to believe that Anonymous was related to the pirate party, but when you open Pandora's box, these things can be expected.
Re:Mayhem only begets mayhem (Score:5, Interesting)
So when some group attacks some company we seize the property of a random pro-liberty group?
Is that your understanding of democracy?
Re:Mayhem only begets mayhem (Score:5, Insightful)
Pro-pirate is not pro-liberty. Look up the meaning of the word "pirate" that these guys are trying to emulate.
They are not trying to "emulate" the term Pirate -- The pro-copyright corporations began using the term as a derogatory label (hopefuly having negative connotaion), the term stuck, and so we throw it in their faces.
These are pro-liberty only in the sense that they wish to have more liberty to break the law and enable others to break the law.
The "law" is unjust. Copyright is not required, per constitution, it is allowed, solely for the betterment of society as a whole. It is an outdated and over-broad, in the time that it was first allowed the founding fathers thought thought it should last only around 10 to 14 years. Now, in an era when not only big businesses have copy machines (nearly any one has many), the laws have been twisted to harm society, and extended for TWO GENERATIONS. My lifetime +70 years -- Beyond the life expectancy of my children!
If they actually wish to change the law instead of merely breaking it, then they should boycott the media that is copy protected. That is do not steal the music/games/video but instead refuse to listen/play/watch.
Yes, we want "free" stuff, like our freedom of speech and freedom of expression back. We don't want the restriction of only being able to legally share information that is over 100 years old. Freedom to sing songs publicly and share knowledge and information with our neighbors. The black people of America, and their supporters, had to stand up for their rights when Jim Crow was the LAW. Occasionally this means breaking the fucking unjust, oppressive, ridiculous law -- you dolt! Rosa Parks; Ring any bells!?! (sorry, excuse the rage -- ignorance is abhorrent to me)
As long as they continue acting like common thieves they will get zero respect from the public but if they start a boycott that catches on then they'll start making headway. But this won't happen since the vast majority of pirate party supporters just want the free stuff.
When your civil rights are abused it is your duty to peacefully protest -- What a better way to protest peacefully than to participate in the free sharing of ideas and information with your friends. No one is "stealing" anything. The only thing that has been taken away is the freedom to sing, say, write, or copy anything you want. We allowed aurthors a limited monopoly over their works to keep the greedy publishers in check. Now, the publishers force contracts on the authors or else the work doesn't get published, and these contracts take the rights of the authors and give them to the publishers.
We've tried the civil protest route... Hell, it this case We Have A POLITICAL PARTY, and yet the pockets of the corporations are deeper still than our own. Not participating in the society we helped create is not an option. If you can think of any more peaceful a protest than having a network connection and two computers duplicating 1s and 0s, please, FUCKING LET ME KNOW!
If it weren't for free sharing of ideas human society and the very languages we use that enable us to be more than just emotional animals would not have formed. It is in our very nature to share knowledge and information, to outlaw such things is the very definition of a police state. (Now, there's a fucking term it would do you well to look up!)
Re: (Score:1)
I could not have said it better myself.
It is such a shame when governments use any excuse to protect there bribe money...and you can't say the the RIAA and the MAFIAA and such are not giving lots of money to politicians who act for them in the government.
Re: (Score:1)
The term "pirate" for an unauthorised copy predates copyright. Hardly something we can blame on the modern media cartels. And why would they use that term? The public perception of a pirate is Jack Sparrow or the Dread Pirate Roberts. Even the piratical villains like Long John Silver are
Re: (Score:2)
The term "pirate" for an unauthorised copy predates copyright.
That sounds completely, 100% bogus. Please feel free to prove me wrong with a strong citation.
Re: (Score:1)
Online Etymological dictionary entry for pirate: [etymonline.com]'Meaning "one who takes another's work without permission" first recorded 1701;'
Statue of Anne [wikipedia.org] considered the first copyright statute dates back to 1709. Strictly speaking the term predates the first complete copyright act, rather than any form of copyright restriction such as printing guild rules and the like, so apologies for imprecision in my language.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Your post is totally hyporcritic. You put freedom of expression and copyright in the same context, which is totally wrong: copyright has nothing to do with the freedom of expression; you are free to express yourself as much as you want, perhaps more free than any other time in history. Enjoying the works of others without their consent is not freedom of expression, it is a violation of the rights of other people to make their works available in the way they see fit.
The only reason you wrote the above is tha
Re:Mayhem only begets mayhem (Score:4, Insightful)
I can not post a video to youtube expressing my like or dislike of a few short clips of a moive/song....
I can get hassled by the "owners" of a large metal object in the middle of a public park (the bean in chicago), for taking pictures of it, to share with those that are unable to visit the free park.
Suppose that you have an idea for a new way to produce energy that you worked really hard all your life on. Wouldn't you like to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor?
Make a working prototype, and patent it. This has nothing to do with copyright at all. Also no patents on ideas, methods, or other non physical goods.
illegally enjoying digital goods is no different than stealing? in both cases, someone is derived from something. When you steal something, the owner is deprived of the item, when you pirate something, the owner is deprived of the value of the pirated item.
But the stream of 1s and 0s does not it's self have value. It can be recreated at any time for marginal cost(you could argue that if I did download it from a server of the artist, that I should be responsible for the bill for the bandwidth used to do that. That would be fair, so here is the $0.002 that I owe for the 2MB song. I would be unable to otherwise aquire the "thing" how did I do any harm? In fact i may end up helping if i like it and share it with many friends, and some of them have the means/will to buy it, but would not have otherwise known about it. There are a great many music artists making a decent living while giving all their songs for free on the internet in high quality.
Now I would not say that there is not a place for copyright, patents, trademarks, "freedom of expression", and whatnot, but there needs to be some balance there. 140 years (unless assigned to a company that lives for 400) is a bit extreme, why should you make money all your life, and for the entire lives of your children just because you thought something. I think lots of things at work everyday (Custom HVAC equipment), but yet the company only gets paid when the gear is sold to the customer. Maybe we should try leasing out or gear with terms like,
"A fee of no less than the value of 1oz of gold on ${DATE} shall be paid for every person hour that this equipment provides service. If this is a process application, the fee shall be the value of .25oz of gold on ${DATE} per hour of service. If this is a datacenter application, the fee shall be the value of 2oz gold on ${DATE}, per server per hour of service. All fees shall be provided at the first of the month, and shall be no less than 60 hours of service per month for 140 years from date of purchase or final comisioning which ever is later, and shall start on date of shipment to authorized agent."
If we tried that we would be laughed out of the market.
You do know why no restaurants sing "happy birthday" don't you? right because it is under copyright and they would need to pay up to sing it.
Mod parent up, please! (Score:2)
I burned through my mod points just yesterday. Dangit. :(
Re: (Score:2)
Make a working prototype, and patent it. This has nothing to do with copyright at all. Also no patents on ideas, methods, or other non physical goods.
But patenting only the result of the work, instead of the work itself, will not make you any money. Others will copy your idea and make other products similar to yours.
But the stream of 1s and 0s does not it's self have value. It can be recreated at any time for marginal cost(you could argue that if I did download it from a server of the artist, that I should be responsible for the bill for the bandwidth used to do that. That would be fair, so here is the $0.002 that I owe for the 2MB song. I would be unable to otherwise aquire the "thing" how did I do any harm? In fact i may end up helping if i like it and share it with many friends, and some of them have the means/will to buy it, but would not have otherwise known about it. There are a great many music artists making a decent living while giving all their songs for free on the internet in high quality.
You don't understand what value means. Have you ever wondered why a physical product has a certain price? it's not only because the materials cost a certain amount of money. It's not only because of the paychecks of those involved in creating it. Value it's about what one things he/she deserves to profit for his/her effort. We value physical
Re: (Score:2)
Rosa Parks was at the end of a century long battle for civil rights for the non-white minorities, do you really want to wait for a century 'til copyright and privacy erosion gets so unbearable that facing jail time isn't a deterrent anymore? I don't know if you noticed it, but the US were on the verge of a civil war in the 60s, I doubt this would end well today, especially without the Soviets that require our government to pretend they're the good guys and that they actually have any interest in our liberti
Re: (Score:3)
" I don't see many modern activists with the same attitude. "
Yeah, they all comment anonymous.
Re:Mayhem only begets mayhem (Score:4, Insightful)
You clearly have no clue what the Pirate Party is about. It is not pro-pirate, as defined by the MAFIAA; it is anti-IP. The concept of Intellectual Property is fundamentally abhorrant, and severely infringes on peoples intellectual liberties. This is about far more than the copying of movies, it is about the liberty to think freely. To invent or create freely, without being mired in lawsuits, where the parasites who "own" some idea demand rent for any and everything.
One may be the first to have an idea, but chances are nearly certain that they won't be the last. Granting the first-to-file or first-to-invent (which is more often not debatable), an unlimited monopoly is starkly in opposition to the public good. It puts a huge damper on what could otherwise be exponential progress, in order to enrich a select few.
Granting a monopoly on an idea is extremely detrimental to society.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Go read Against Intellectual Monopoly by Boldrin and Levine [ucla.edu].
You're probably just assuming I"P" is beneficial. It isn't.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe some of the more "radical" PP proponents consider IP-laws a horror, but please try to see the whole party, not just its fringe groups.
Most PP members don't want to throw IP-laws out the window (some of them are actually protecting YOU, the customer. At least they still do, don't count on it after the next change), but they want a reform back to the balance IP-laws were supposed to grant, to balance the interests of producer and customer. Until the advent of IP-laws, inventing and content creating was
Re: (Score:2)
Rights are often signed away (work-for-hire) before the work is created. So it's the content creator's employer who owns the copyright. They could fire the guy the day after he hands the sheet music in and he'll never see another penny. (But they're protecting the creators from having their work stolen!)
This is why copyright extends for so long and keeps getting extended
Re: (Score:3)
What's in a name? Have you looked at party names throughout the times? When has a party ever stood true to its name? Most of the former communist parties had "people's" somewhere in their name. Have you looked up the meaning of "people" and how little it had to do with how these parties acted?
The name "pirate" was adopted when the copyright holders started their blanket accusations of everyone who dares to think invasive copyright and reduction of consumer rights is a bad thing must be interested in "pirati
Re: (Score:1)
Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
Idiots on both sides.... But we can say: the police started it...
Taking down the central server of political party just 2 days ahead of elections is not nice.
CU, Martin
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Taking down the central server of political party just 2 days ahead of elections is not nice.
...but if the PP-G is smart, they have a great opportunity to get some more people to vote... tweet: SEIZE-BACK... RETRO STYLE! Actually go to a booth and vote Pirate Party! #servergate
But then in German of course. Maybe from #6 they can become #5.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Sigh (Score:5, Interesting)
Also many sources say that shutting down all servers of the political party was really exaggerated and that there will likely be legal consequences. It might sound like a joke, but Germans are a bit sensitive when seeing the police raid a political party. I think that this accident will, rightfully, help the pirate party.
Re: (Score:2)
Uhh... their primary stated purpose is copyright reform. They certainly aren't calling themselves "Pirate" parties in solidarity with the Somalis.
Re:Sigh (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
well they would be called the parrot party, but Monty Python already killed that one.
Re: (Score:2)
I hear there are a lot of pirates in Pittsburgh.
Re:Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a hint for people who are innocuous: don't call yourselves "pirates."
It's pretty common for insults to be adopted as terms of pride: "yankee" and "redneck" come to mind, along with all sorts of racial slurs, and sometimes the word even becomes the official name of the group, as with "Methodist." So the Pirate Party is following in an old and largely successful tradition. Also, since it's self-evidently absurd to equate copying bits on a hard drive with armed robbery on the high seas, they might as well have fun with it; how else are you supposed to respond to something so over-the-top?
Re: (Score:1)
hot damn, i'm gonna go start the Yankee Redneck Methodist party right now!
Re: (Score:3)
It's successful if you do it to mock the people who call you that, and they get it.
If you do it because you think people in a far-off land who called themselves that are pretty cool, and the people who don't understand where it comes from think you're doing it because you think stealing stuff is cool, then you have begged for the adverse publicity and antipathetic attitudes of the general population around you.
Re: (Score:3)
Perhaps the Tories should heed that as well, considering the origin of the term as irish outlaw or brigand. Or perhaps the rather disparaging origin of Whig as cattle driver.
Appropriating disparaging names has a long political history.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Nazis (Score:5, Funny)
What a bunch of Nazis!
Re: (Score:3)
This is why you don't host servers in the same country as the government that you're challenging.
Re: (Score:3)
It was Anonymous that was using the german pirateparty etherpad server for their coordination.
The takedown was ordered from France... the police was not after the Pirateparty but Anonymous.
Re: (Score:3)
Why not just ask the Pirate Party to take the pad offline?
I don't buy it. The police don't shut down phone exchanges just to stop a drug deal. Sounds like a scapegoat to me.
sarah silverman can rule over me anytime (Score:3)
all i have to say about this is thank god. i welcome our new jewish overlords.
Re: (Score:1)
Mel, is that you?
Johnny Depp to play Jens Seipenbusch (Score:1)
The movie will be 15 minutes long, with soundtrack by Andy Warhol's Velvet Underground. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Seipenbusch [wikipedia.org].
Seriously, I'm not sure there is not enough here (unless it's in the German language, second link) to tell whether this is newsworthy or whether Jens lives in his mother's basement and sent a wormy email.
im sick of the mom basement stereotype (Score:2)
some of us live in our own basements thank you very much. not all basements are 'moms' basements
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Johnny Depp to play Jens Seipenbusch (Score:5, Insightful)
Not newsworthy?
The servers of a party that has online liberty as one of its core agendas have been seized, with an allegation of being involved in an attack against some French nuke power company (who, in turn, has been accused of rather questionable security and even more questionable garbage disposal). From what it looks now, ONLY this party's servers, despite being most likely nothing more than the equivalent of a TOR exit node that has been abused.
And all of that a few days before an election.
Sorry, if that's not newsworthy, I guess personal liberty and its limitation by certain "interest groups" really isn't an issue for nerds anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Cui bono?
From such a move, i.e. launching a false flag op and pretending it is so when it ain't, there is only one possible beneficiary: The Pirate Party. Who else would have an interest to accuse "the powers that are" of trying to suppress a small party? No, not even the opposing parties do, why would they want to give the limelight to a party that is their direct competitor for votes?
Plus, the people interested in the PP are usually young, internet-savvy and put a very strong emphasis on civil liberties a
Re:Johnny Depp to play Jens Seipenbusch (Score:5, Interesting)
Leaving the individual and your rather cheap ad hominem at him aside: The Pirate Party is one of the few smaller parties here in Germany with the potential to bring really disruptive change to the political landscape; Not so much through their own share of votes, they do not usually fare all that well in elections, but because they almost single-handedly brought matters formerly at the fringe of public interest - freedom of information and expression in the digital age, a sensible approach to compensating artists, governmental transparency and accountability - to the centre of attention for all parties. And by now they have left the initial image of an anarcho-nerdy kindergarten behind. People above the age of twenty are beginning to recognise them as a serious political movement.
And now, two days prior to a state election (that in and of itself is not really important considering it is "only" about a rather small city-state but that is closely watched as a barometer of public opinion for the next federal elections) police take their whole infrastructure offline under very questionable circumstances. I am biased as I am both German and a Pirate Party supporter, but I do consider such an act newsworthy even for such a diverse audience as slashdot's.
Hmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
how about an eleven foot pole? (Score:2)
you can take a ten foot pole, and then find the cardboard from a roll of paper towels, and kind of stick it in the end.
Re: (Score:2)
I have a very tasteless analogy to the "HAN SHOT FIRST" meme on my mind now... I guess I'll refrain from posting it.
Re: (Score:1)
it's the law of protestant reform.
vote tends to self tends to ponzi scheme tends to deeds tends to stess tends to protestants.
Mentioned it once. Think I got away with it (Score:3)
Then try a Belgian or a Dutchman. Then maybe a Frenchman or a Russian.
Brits are off, I'm afraid.
Re: (Score:1)
why too stressed?
see I rember the protestant reform like it was yesterday... Oliver's Army staying just round the corner, white niggers everywhere.
Martin Luthor getting the Lyrics down... oh come on... ye faithful. get ye arse in gear.
I wonder, is there any mention of any kind of prediction relating to the good old catholic deed dooing lot and their bloody ponzi schemes anywhere lurking on the English Parliament website?
red blue red blue... oh such a card choice if only I could stop thinking of myself for o
false flag (Score:2)
if your system is hackable, someone can hack in and make you look like a criminal.
Just like the good old days (Score:5, Insightful)
Point a finger at your competition/enemy and make some unfounded claims about 'crimes against the state', and the police come in and take care of the problem for you.
This remind anyone of something? Like Poland late 1939?
Re:Just like the good old days (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Or today, anything on Fox News.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm not sure that they were scapegoated as being the reason Germany lost WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_legend [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3)
And yes, I can say that because I'm German. Victoire intact! *marches off to the west to make France a part of France*
"Allegiance" to an abstract idea, eh? (Score:1)
Why do governments love chasing what they can't catch?
Re:"Allegiance" to an abstract idea, eh? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why do governments love chasing what they can't catch?
Because you can do it for as long as you want, and no particular results are expected. See "war on drugs" - there is no metric that is commonly used to show that "the war" is successful or not.
For a cubicle dweller it would be equivalent to reporting to the boss every day that "I'm working on it" year after year, and still being paid in full for delivering nothing but appearance of effort.
Re: (Score:2)
Why do governments love chasing what they can't catch?
Because then they can continually ask for more money to catch it. Duuh.
Servers seized (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Some notes about this (Score:5, Informative)
The summary is very uninformative. This needs to be mentioned:
- The reason for the seizure was topic of speculation all day long. It was very soon suspected that the reason was abuse of the "piratenpad", a publically available etherpad installation operated by the pirate party. Apparently this platform was used to coordinate a DDoS attack against the french energy and utility company (according to Wikipedia the largest of the world) EDF. Pirate party later stated that a SSH key for there webserver was posted on the piratenpad. See http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Polizei-kapert-Server-der-Piratenpartei-1246963.html [heise.de] (german).
- This service was only running on one of the servers but the police took all servers nethertheless which includes their mail and other important infrastructure.
- The seizure was not the result of some german investigation but rather a reaction to a judicial assistance request by the french police.
- As well-known german lawyer Udo Vetter points out (http://www.lawblog.de/index.php/archives/2011/05/20/ein-akt-der-deutschen-behrden/ - german) the german police was not required by law to react in this way. Furthermore political parties are somewhat protected by law and it is very arguable that the measures taken were adequate as required by law.
- There is a state election in the German state of Bremen on Sunday. The pirate party is running there. This seizure is of course very unfortunate in light of this. This has promptly caused conspiracy theories that the reason for the seizure might be political.
Re: (Score:2)
And The Beat Goes On (Score:2)
There's a concept! Search people just because they just might be guilty of something. No concept of probable cause need exist these days.
Newsies (Score:2)
So the present political party in power... (Score:1)
... is using its power to attack another political party - using the police to carry out their goal to destroy its opposition... Sounds like the present US administration to a T. Maybe they have been taking lessons.