PIRATES GO TO BATTLE

With the might of a whole generation behind them, today the Dutch Pirate Party goes to war for a free internet. By dragging BREIN to court, the Pirate Party finally has the chance to put forward arguments to strike the court injunction that was unilaterally imposed on it last Friday by Dutch entertainment industry organisation BREIN.

After the legal harassment continued even on Saturday night, when BREIN sent an email at 20:15 demanding extra measures under threat of draconian penalties, the Pirates are anxious to finally get their day in court. The penalties imposed by the court are 4 times higher than those ordered upon the large commercial ISPs XS4ALL and Ziggo, demonstrating that the ideas of a (yet) small political party are deemed more dangerous than for-profit companies.

The Pirate Party is highly disappointed that the judge ruled thusly and has allowed BREIN to rewrite their claim in order to avoid the preemptive legal request of the Pirate Party to be heard in court, were BREIN to come with a so-called “ex parte” injunction request. The Pirate Party sees this course of action as a direct attack on democracy and justice.

“It is time that the industry attack dogs understand that you can’t trample on people’s freedoms for your own monetary gain,” Pirate Party board member blauwbaard says. “Today we’ll try to explain to the judge how giving BREIN one blocking instrument causes them to stretch it in unjust ways to stifle free speech and the free flow of information. Paraphrasing Victor Hugo, nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

At this weekend’s Pirate Parties International convention, where delegates of over 60 Pirate Parties world-wide convened, representatives of the Dutch Pirate Party made a statement about the ongoing affairs. The Dutch Pirate Party calls upon all pirates and freedom-loving landlubbers to stand up and support our fight against censorship. Because as Martin Luther King might have said it, were he alive today, “freedom on the internet is indivisible, a threat to freedom of the internet anywhere is a threat to freedom on the internet everywhere.”

Arrr!