[pp.int.general] Germany Arrests Paul Watson

Wed May 16 00:55:08 CEST 2012

I'm with Gareth here.

This Watson guy is total nutjob.
On May 15, 2012 11:38 PM, "Gareth Nelson" <gareth at garethnelson.com> wrote:

> Someone else may not step up and say it so I will.
>
> I'm not a party leader or official of any of the pirate parties, just
> a regular member of the UK Pirate Party who should probably be more
> active.
>
> With that out of the way, i'd like to condemn your view here very
> strongly in public.
>
> First and most important - pirate politics are about civil liberties
> with particular attention to information freedom issues evolving out
> of the over-the-top enforcement of an increasingly burdensome
> copyright law that holds back technological development and culture.
>
> Environmental issues are important of course and there is some overlap
> (for example, holding back eBooks and downloadable movies and software
> with stupid DRM measures or requiring multiple physical copies of a
> particular copyrighted work is bad for the environment when it means
> producing more physical optical discs and so on, alongside the general
> wasted resources - why burn up fossil fuels delivering physical DVDs
> and Blu Rays etc)
>
> Essentially, it's a huge stretch to say that environmental issues are
> part of our civil liberties or anything like a core part of pirate
> ideology, even though I imagine most pirates will have fairly green
> views due to simple intelligence and foresight or the widespread
> anti-corporate bent amongst some of our brothers and sisters. (By the
> way, this is one of our strengths - most pirate politics is neither
> left or right and can work within both contexts as simple defence of
> free market and libertarian principles as applied to copyright laws
> and data privacy or as a defence against the perceived unjust power of
> corporations to control our culture and government and we have a mix
> of supporters from across the political spectrum who have all managed
> to agree on our core and rational ideals of freedom and our interest
> in preserving and protecting our culture).
>
> One issue that really is a civil rights issue that comes to mind is
> drug prohibition and cannabis legalisation in particular. While I
> myself personally consider the use of recreational drugs to be a
> stupid idea for the most part, I take the libertarian view that people
> have the right to do as they please with their own body. But I still
> opposed the proposal a while back to make the legalisation of cannabis
> part of PPUK's formal platform despite the obvious philosophical
> compatibility.
>
> My reason for opposing the cannabis proposal directly leads into the
> second reason why I oppose your views here. As drug legalisation is
> both a controversial issue and is not part of our core important
> agenda, it would be unwise to turn off potential supporters by
> formally supporting it. I believe the best policy for pirate parties
> in representative democracies is for candidates to look to the party
> only for core pirate ideals and to local voters (and thus, hopefully
> future constituents) for what issues matter to actual citizens.
>
> As another personal example, I am an autism rights activist (not so
> active these days, but a quick google will give you plenty of info on
> my past) and have spoken out many times against the practice of using
> autism as a "get out of jail free card", as I believe that to have
> rights in society we must also abide by our responsibilities. If
> autism grants immunity from criminal law on the theory that autistics
> are somehow incapable of being law-abiding citizens then autistics can
> not expect to have full freedoms either.
>
> So when I was first looking into joining PPUK and heard that the party
> was considering officially condoning support for the "free gary
> mckinnon" nonsense I very nearly did not sign up - I can not in good
> conscience lend my support (even indirectly) to any cause that could
> risk impairing my freedom and human rights and have repeatedly held to
> my conviction that Gary McKinnon should be treated the same as any
> other citizen charged with the same crimes he was charged with.
> Otherwise, if autistics are legally exempt from prosecution for
> cybercrime offenses then the most rational thing to do would be to
> prohibit internet access to autistics as we will be judged incapable
> of understanding and abiding by the law in this area.
>
> Only after PPUK dropped the support for the Free Gary campaign could I
> lend my support. There are many many other potential issues such as
> this which could turn away much-needed allies. We will never know if
> for example the above issue turned away another potential strong ally
> with much to offer simply due to short-sightedness. Some people would
> not have bothered to express their concerns as I did and would see a
> cause they strongly disagree with and never look at the party a second
> time.
>
> As our movement is already considered fringe by most and is only
> recently starting to make strides such as the recent electoral
> successes in Germany it is very unwise to turn off potential allies by
> adding issues which they may not agree with like this.
>
> A review of Paul Watson's activities show him to be essentially an
> animal rights extremist (not animal welfare, animal rights - the
> latter being far far more controversial and including other extremists
> such as PETA). These are the type who consider meat eaters to be
> literal murderers and respond with massive over-reaction, sometimes
> resorting to outright murder of their fellow man. I for one consider
> such people traitors to the species but that is my opinion and mine
> along and I would never expect a pirate party to officially condemn
> them as that is not the appropriate place to fight this battle.
>
> Paul Watson has been involved with some of the following, which at the
> very least you can see could be turn-offs to otherwise potential
> allies and friends:
>
> Assault of a police officer
> Anti-immigration politics
> Far too many marine sabotage incidents to list - again, this is simple
> terrorism and I would argue comes close to literal piracy in the
> original meaning of the term (attacking people on the sea), absolutely
> not the mental association we want people to have in the media
> Various charges of attempted murder
>
> This man does not even deny being a terrorist: "There's nothing wrong
> with being a terrorist, as long as you win. Then you write the
> history."
>
> With regard to the most recent case, what i've been able to find
> myself so far shows that there are conflicting stories and some
> possible video evidence showing his innocence, and therefore this most
> recent case may be one of undeserved charges and the associated
> injustice. That still does not mean any of us should openly support
> this man and his cause, whether you think it noble or not, is still
> extremely controversial and not related to core pirate ideals.
>
> Having said all the above, I urge you to in future keep your personal
> support of this man and his cause seperate from your work with any
> pirate party or PPI, the negative PR can only harm our cause. I hope
> you can find the maturity to realise that your other ideals and causes
> need not be linked to pirate politics and doing so may in many cases
> cause more harm than good. I appreciate your stating that this is not
> an official viewpoint of your party, but that matters little to the
> media circus and to copyright maximalists who would love to associate
> our movement with criminality and terrorism for cheap character
> assassination.
>
> Politics is sometimes a dirty game, our opponents will use any "dirt"
> they can to compete, so we should not fuel them.
>
> Although this all may come across as an attack, I offer the above only
> in the interest of helping one cause that we obviously do both share -
> that of pirate politics.
>
> Best Wishes
> Gareth Nelson
>
> ---
> “Lanie, I’m going to print more printers. Lots more printers. One for
> everyone. That’s worth going to jail for. That’s worth anything.” -
> Printcrime by Cory Doctrow
>
> Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
> See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
>
>
> On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Travis McCrea <me at travismccrea.com>
> wrote:
> > Okay, I know that many of you may have problems with Paul Watson and his
> organization, but I have spoke out before about how similar our causes are.
> We are both fighting the same battle in different arenas, as far as I am
> concerned. Paul Watson was recently arrested for something he was accused
> of doing years and years ago.
> >
> > Right now Germany is preparing to extradite him unless the courts block
> it.
> >
> >
> https://my.seashepherd.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=572&srctid=1&erid=3711258here is the email plea, I never email this list about non-pirate related
> topics, and I find it annoying when other people do. However, this is
> important and as I said, I do view this as a pirate issue. Without an
> environment we cannot live, which seems to me like a violation of our civil
> liberties.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> >
> > Travis McCrea
> > Deputy Leader, Pirate Party of Canada
> > Chief Administrative Officer, Pirate Parties International
> > Captain, United States Pirate Party (PNC)
> > Member, Washington State Pirate Party
> >
> > Canada: 1(778)709-4859
> > US: 1(206)552-8728
> >
> > Twitter: @TeamColtra
> > Facebook: fb.me/teamcoltra
> > Blog: http://travismccrea.com
> >
> > The views expressed in this email represent my own personal values and
> not the values of the Pirate Party, the Pirate Ideology, or any of my
> associations.
> >
> >
> > ____________________________________________________
> > Pirate Parties International - General Talk
> > pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
> > http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general
> >
> ____________________________________________________
> Pirate Parties International - General Talk
> pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
> http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general
>
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