'Swedish pirates say that the battle for freedom of information is to be fought in the European Union'

The Swedish Pirate Party is to stand in this summer's European elections to battle for the freedom of information.

By Christian Lindhardt
17 Mar 2009

Restrictive rules for patents and copyrights result in the detrimental monitoring of citizens, according to the Swedish Pirate Party, which is fielding 20 candidates in this summer's European elections.

If the politicians want to prevent ordinary citizens from sharing films, music and other forms of culture, they have to constantly expand the ability to monitor – because as soon as the authorities close down one culture-sharing facility, another pops up very quickly,« says Christian Engström, who is the primary candidate for the party.

Monitoring has already gone too far, Engström feels.

There is a law on the way in Sweden which is already in force in Denmark. Rights owners to a film, for example, can demand the name of the person who pays for an internet connection if they are able to track a person uploading or downloading films illegally, Engström says.

EU battle
The Swedish pirates say that the battle for freedom of information is to be fought in the European Union because: “It is here that most of the legislation in this field comes from.”

The party does not, however, want to get rid of all forms of rights to books, music and film. The dividing line should be between commercial and non-commercial use.

Companies should be able to take out a patent on a television advertisement, but private citizens should be able to use books or music for their own use,« Engström explains.

Choose Swedish government
The Pirate Party also intends to act on the national Swedish political agenda, where it hopes to be the deciding factor in choosing a new government. In other words the party hopes to be able to decide which wing of the Swedish Parliament it should board, and which wing should be able to raise governmental flag.

The issues that we represent are unfortunately not represented – or only marginally represented - as a result of ignorance, and we hope to be able to tow the legislative groupings in Sweden into the 21st century,« the party says on its home page.

In its first national elections in Sweden in 2006, the party became the third largest party – that is third largest below the electoral threshold – with 0.63 percent of the votes.

Polska Partia Piratow
Sweden is not the only country where pirates have gone marauding. There are pirate parties already established – or in the process of being established – in 20 other countries. Partido Pirata Español is the Spanish version. Piratenpartei Deutschland is found in Germany and the Polish pirates are called Polska Partia Piratow.

The Swedish party was founded in 2006 under its current chairman Rickard Falkvinge.


~ see also: Pirate Bay to launch VPN service ~

Tool - 'Parabola'

'The death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live'

From Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus by Helen Branswell

"...The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn't die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter's part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.

On Friday, the company's director of global bioscience communications confirmed what scientists have suspected.

“It was live,” Christopher Bona said in an email.

The contaminated product, which Baxter calls “experimental virus material,” was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine — including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly — at a facility in the Czech Republic.

People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. That is a dangerous practice that should not be allowed to happen, a number of experts insisted.

Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in dire consequences.

While H5N1 doesn't easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people.

That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created.

There is no suggestion that happened because of this accident, however.

“We have no evidence of any reassortment, that any reassortment may have occurred,” said Andraghetti.

“And we have no evidence of any increased transmissibility of the viruses that were involved in the experiment with the ferrets in the Czech Republic.”

Baxter hasn't shed much light — at least not publicly — on how the accident happened. Earlier this week Bona called the mistake the result of a combination of “just the process itself, (and) technical and human error in this procedure.”

He said he couldn't reveal more information because it would give away proprietary information about Baxter's production process..."

~ more... ~

'Properly follow proper protocols'

Another great video from The Onion:


Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

[ hat tip to 'Whistler' ]

Homeland Security finds appropriate home in...sanitarium!

Home, Sweet, Homeland Security

John Hinckley slept here. Most people remember the psychiatric patient who shocked the nation when he shot President Reagan in 1981. So perhaps it's ironic that the nation's premier defender against terrorist acts, the Homeland Security Department, will be moving in. The National Capital Planning Commission has approved the final master plan for DHS' new headquarters at the site of the former Saint Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington.

The blueprint for redeveloping the former psychiatric facility into a secure site includes 4.5 million square feet of office space and 1.5 million square feet of parking. The campus, expected to be complete in the next eight years, will be home to 14,000 of the department's 26,000 DHS employees, beginning with the U.S. Coast Guard. The Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will follow in phases.

Saint Elizabeths, built in 1855, was the first federally operated institution for the mentally ill. The plan seeks to maintain the site's historic character and reuse many of the existing buildings. The planning commission's approval is contingent on several factors, such as construction of an access road by the General Services Administration.

- Elizabeth Newell

And a tune to go with this (thanks to Psychedelic Tourist) :

Metallica - Welcome home (Sanitarium)



[ many thanks to 'Evil T' ]