[pp.int.general] update from the swiss pirate party

[Simon Rupf]

Hi list

Just to keep you updated and share the fun: In Switzerland we tried to  
ride the wave of sudden media attention and our board has created a  
new political meme: Digital policy (Digitalpolitik in German,  
Politique Numérique in French) [1]

They did that by writing an open letter to the federal council (our  
head of state) in which we declared that "Switzerland must act on  
digital policy". They even got some federal assembly members (our  
national parliament) of different parties (Liberals, Socialists and  
Greens) to sign it. [2]

But this Friday evening the real fun started: The federal council  
released a press statement concerning the protection of the  
"cyberspace". [3] Which is probably more a reaction to the recent DDoS  
attacks on PostFinance (which, by the way, is not technically a bank,  
just financial services of the government owned postal service), then  
our open letter. That statement by it self is hilarious: They used the  
prefix cyber fourteen times!

Since it is at least indirectly a response to our open letter, we of  
course had to reply. [4] The "Wir tappen im Dunkeln / We grope in the  
dark"-Part is a quote of our minister of defense to a journalists  
question, not from the statement itself. [5]

We will try to keep up the digital policy meme and define it more  
closely for the public in the next weeks. Basically we want to take  
current political topics, give it a pirate spin and define that as  
digital policy. By doing that we are showing the public, that there is  
a need for our party, because no other party can explain digital  
policy to them. Of course we have to act fast, since other parties  
might soon jump the train too. Lets hope there first takes on it will  
be as clumsy as the federal councils response.

Enjoy
Simon Rupf

[1] http://www.digitalpolitik.ch/ (German) &  
http://www.politiquenumerique.ch/ (French)
[2] http://www.pirateparty.ch/switzerland-must-act-on-digital-policy
[3] http://www.news.admin.ch/message/?lang=de&msg-id=36731 (German,  
French & Italian)
[4] http://www.pirateparty.ch/we-grope-in-the-dark
[5]  
http://bazonline.ch/digital/internet/Da-tappen-wir-im-Dunkeln/story/17562186  
(German)