[pp.int.general] Some parting thoughts

[Glenn Kerbein]

All,
	I am stepping down as co-administrator of the US Pirate Party. I had a
falling out with the new administration (Ryan, Bethany, et al.);
surmounting issues were just straws that eventually broke the camel's
back. My tenure will be completed by the end of the month.
	Over the time that I've been here, talking with the other parties,
Andrew, etc. I have some thoughts.
	First and foremost: Unlike a majority of our counterparts, our body's
structure is unique. Here in the States, a non-profit corporation
[501c3] grants donors the ability to deduct a monetary amount from their
income taxes. We, however, are registered through the tax authority (the
IRS) as a Political Action Committee [PAC, or 527], which have
tax-exempt status. 501c3 corporations are strictly prohibited from doing
any lobbying or work with political parties and are forbidden from
endorsing a candidate.Along with these tax exemptions comes great
responsibility: each entity must provide arduous effort to not incite
nor infer any illicit acts; this includes filesharing.
	Many of our European counterparts want to outright deny any intelligent
reasoning why filesharing should become licit, nor how to compensate for
it. Simply saying "go ahead and do it, we can't stop you" only
exacerbates the issue. It leads to litigation like the PRO-IP Act, the
PIRATE Act, ACTA, any a slurry of other campaigns the entertainment
industry launches. In conclusion: we have significantly more trenchant
platforms to pursue than to vindicate illicit filesharers.
	Secondly, the direction that a few of the PPs have been going may not
be in the best of interests. I've spoken to numerous news outlets and
had many stories printed with my name in them. Only two stood out - one
on Ars Technica by Nate Anderson and the other on CrunchGear by Nicholas
Deleon [the latter being my favorite]. The others seem to have the
predisposition to link our name to a peach-colored website. I've said on
several occasions (and above) that we were not created to vindicate
filesharers, nor indemnify anyone in the employ of said website. The
opposite sentiment is a notion that the other news outlets are
predisposed to think, despite arguing with them. The press release PPNL
sent out only supports this.
	Granted - Exacting exorbitant fines is not a solution to mitigating
filesharing. Millions of dollars awarded to record companies suing
mothers in the name of bands (when the money itself does not go to the
bands in question) is outright outrageous. That's the issue we need to
be pursuing - not lobbying for increased uptime on The Pirate Bay.

	I may be leaving the party as an officer, but I'm not all gone. Being
relegated back to citizen status, I can participate in an unofficial
capacity. Should you need me, that's how you can get ahold of me.

-- 
Glenn "Channel6" Kerbein
United States Pirate Party
"Burn, Hollywood, Burn"
http://www.pirate-party.us/