The Pirate Party UK expresses serious concern at the judgement handed down today in the so-called "Newzbin2" case (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp & Ors v British Telecommunications Plc). Major film studios have successfully been granted an injunction against British Telecom, forcing BT to block internet users from accessing the Newzbin2 file-sharing site. This is the first case where a UK ISP has been ordered to restrict their service in some way to prevent users from accessing a third party, external service.

On July 8th, the Pirate Party Russia lost its case in court against the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The Pirate Party filed a lawsuit with the Zamoskvorezky Court in Moscow lamenting the inactivity of the ministry who «failed to issue a document confirming the submission of a notification of intent to form a political party».

The judge M.V. Musimovich acknowledged that the document issued to us by the Ministry in which we are called «sea bandits» and «convicts» constitutes such notification. That means that there are no hurdles to us creating a party except for our name, «Pirate Party of Russia».

The Czech Pirate Party launched a web site www.piratskefilmy.cz, where people can find 20,000 links to more than 5,800 movies. The movies themselves are not located on the web site. By publishing the links, the Pirates are bringing attention to the absurd case of a high school student in Liberec who has been harassed by the Czech Anti-Pirate Union and the police. Publication of links on the Internet is not a crime. The number of links on the web site of the Pirate Party exceeds roughly ten times the number of links on the Liberec student’s web site.

In the morning of May 20th 2011, German police confiscated a number of servers of the German Pirate Party which are provided by AixIT in Offenbach, for a French investigation.The action follows a request for help issued by French authorities.
On that matter, the Board stated:

The Board of the Pirate Party of Germany will support, within it's legal obligations, the French authorities in their investigation. Access to the technical infrastructure has been provided as far as necessary for the investigation. Thereby, the targeted search for specific datasets should be established.

Pirate Parties from around the world, including the Pirate Parties International members from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Serbia reaffirmed their commitment to whistleblowing worldwide. Concerned about freedom of information, opinion and press, the Pirate Parties have decided in a joint resolution to make Wikileaks available on a worldwide distributed mirroring infrastructure. The mirrors will guarantee that the release of US diplomatic cables can continue and previous publications will stay online.

This week's Pirate Party of the Week is the Pirate Party of Catalonia.

What are your expectations for the upcoming elections? Dou you think you can enter into Parliament? Tell us about the specifics of the election system.

To enter the Catalan Parliament we need at least 3% of the votes. Counting the last elections, that is aproximately 80.000 votes, also it depends on the participation levels, usually low.
We can do it, and we want to; however, it's not going to be easy at all, we must work hard and make a lot of noise.

This week's Pirate Party of the Week is the Pirate Party of Russia.

Will the Pirate Party of Russia participate in any upcoming elections? Please tell us about your expectations for the next elections you will participate in.

We will participate, but not in national elections, we'll start at the local level. To participate in national elections we need to be registered as a political party, and for that we need 45 thousand registered members and approval from the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice approval is impossible to get without support from the ruling "elite", thus, participation in federal elections in Russia can only be achieved through coalitions with active parties. If we get this support and achieve registration, we'll of course be aiming to take part in all elections.

On 22 and 23 20:30 October in Munich in Muffathalle © oPirates a party will take place by Richard Siegal. ©oPirates is an artistic experiment that deals with issues of our society that touches the Pirate Parties as well:

In what way does the body inhabit the community? How does the body react to politics? Which language does the body create when it comes in contact with the others? How is the longing for community expressed in everyday life, and what form will it take in the mastered performances of physically highly sensitized dancers? What are the limits of exchange and sharing? Is it possible to be oneself and to share oneself at the same time?

Avast, Pirates!

We are looking for a port to dock to for our next big assembly!

The Pirate Parties International calls for offers to host the next annual PPI conference and General Assembly.

According to the statutes of the PPI, the General Assembly of the PPI meets once a year. That means the next PPI conference will be held in 2011. The board of the PPI is now looking for Pirate Parties that want to host the next conference and General Assembly.

You can find a list of requirements for your offer and more information on the conference on our wiki page: http://wiki.pp-international.net/Conference-offers

Dear Pirates,

The PPI Translation Task Force (TTF) needs your help.

Do you speak more than one language? Do you want to help Pirates from all over the world? If so, please join the TTF and help us translate.

The TTF aims to provide translation services to every Pirate and Pirate organization that needs them. Among other things, the Task Force plans to help with:

• The translation of current Pirate news from all over the world into English,
• Translations of large-scale international projects into as many languages as possible (e.g. ACTA and INDECT),
• The localization of print materials for use by Pirate Parties worldwide.