<HTML dir=ltr><HEAD><TITLE>[pp.int.general] US Pirate Party and Andrew Norton</TITLE>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I always suspected Andrew Norton to be a MS troll. But perhaps that is too much honour: he really is a disgrunteled old man who loves flame wars.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>Anyway, my prime concern is to improve the EU decision making process, which a non-US issue. The EU presently is an intellectual property "policy laundering machine". Our EP members, Christian and Amelia can help to change that.</FONT></DIV>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net on behalf of tyler durden<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sun 1/3/2010 14:29<BR><B>To:</B> pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net<BR><B>Subject:</B> [pp.int.general] US Pirate Party and Andrew Norton<BR></FONT><BR></DIV></DIV>
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<P><FONT size=2>Hello there, I apologize that this is my first post to the list, but I<BR>felt I couldn't be quiet anymore, and that international intervention<BR>in the US Pirate Party might be necessary.<BR><BR>Firstly I'd like to point out Andrew Norton's recent statements to<BR>this list is NOT in line with any sort of consensus with other members<BR>of the US Pirate Party. He is not a spokesperson for the USPP, is not<BR>an official officer, and really has no business communicating the<BR>status of the party through quasi-official announcements. Some of the<BR>disagreements and contentions people have with Andrew is explained at<BR>this post, <A href="http://pirate-party.us/content/party-unity">http://pirate-party.us/content/party-unity</A> but I will try<BR>to explain some additional details here.<BR><BR>The Andrew Norton's recent history with the US Pirate Party has been<BR>unprofessional at best and treasonous at worst. His actions have very<BR>much divided the USPP to the point of disfunction and a possible split<BR>might be in the works.<BR><BR>During the most recent Pirate Party elections where Ryan Martin was<BR>running against Channel6, Andrew Norton (K`Tetch) took it upon himself<BR>to administer the election procedures. Many people were raising<BR>objections to Andrew Norton's voting process - 1: he had no authority<BR>to do so, as he had resigned from the US Pirate Party and<BR>PP-International, and 2: He developed the rules in secret and<BR>announced it 24 hours before voting was to begin, and 3. The voter<BR>requirements he specified were highly contested by many active members<BR>of the party because it required that in to vote you had to have a<BR>website/forum account for more than a month. A lot of people were<BR>disenfranchised from the voting process because of this regulation.<BR>Despite this, Ryan Martin won the vote and reached an agreement with<BR>Channel6 to split up the officer positions.<BR><BR>There's more. During the election process, a minor sql injection<BR>vulnerability was discovered in the 3rd party polling script<BR>BallotBin.com that allowed users to hijack other user's polls. That<BR>vulnerability was communicated to the company via email in which the<BR>company thanked the person who discovered the vulnerability for<BR>finding and reporting it. After the election results were in and the<BR>election closed, there was a demonstration of the vulnerability in<BR>which the candidate "Eugene Debs" was humorously added to the ballot.<BR><BR>A little while later it was discovered that one Andrew Norton took it<BR>upon himself to notify law enforcement of the supposed illegal hacking<BR>of ballotbin.com's server. Andrew Norton of course is not a lawyer, a<BR>computer security expert, or a representative of ballotbin.com. When<BR>asked why he would take it upon himself to snitch out another<BR>associated pirate party fella to the authorities for simply<BR>investigating the security of an election system, he commended "best<BR>buy some astroglide".<BR><BR>Read the logs of Andrew Norton confirming that he had reported the<BR>incident to the authorities: (full logs @<BR><A href="http://andrewnorton.pastebin.com/m72e92319">http://andrewnorton.pastebin.com/m72e92319</A> )<BR><BR>""K`Tetch> Speaking of, I sent an email, the other day, to the parole<BR>offices in Chicago. Goign to file a report for that little mess about<BR>you did with the election form.<BR><K`Tetch> best buy some astroglide, tylerknowsthis<BR>...<BR><K`Tetch> that a fucking moron that has no brain, and just wants to<BR>destroy everything is going to prison for being an arsehole, yes, I<BR>can sleep soundly"<BR><BR>I am reminded of the various vulnerabilities found in Diebold election<BR>systems years ago. The people who reported these vulnerabilities were<BR>highly regarded by members of our community as fighting for democracy<BR>and exposing corruption. BallotBin.com which ran the party's election<BR>thanked us for reporting the vulnerability.<BR><BR>So what's up with Andrew Norton snitching out other members of the<BR>pirate party community ? When asked, he replied something about the<BR>duty to uphold law and order (what is he a cop?)<BR><BR>How far will that logic go? What happens if someone starts trading<BR>URLs to various torrents on pirate party IRC channels? Will Andrew<BR>start reporting people for copyright infringement?<BR><BR><BR>The whole situation is very disturbing and gives me absolutely no hope<BR>for the US Pirate Party. Although I support Ryan Martin as<BR>administrator for the party, and I like his ideas, writings and<BR>contributions to the project, there is a very bizarre right-wing<BR>reactionary element to some of the people involved with the project<BR>that sickens me. I do not see the US Pirate Party as being a vehicle<BR>for bringing about any sort of institutional or systematic change that<BR>is necessary, nor do I see it's political analysis being relevant to<BR>people who are struggling in this country. I am in the process of<BR>writing an article critiquing the US Pirate Party over the past few<BR>years and am open to comments from the international community.<BR>____________________________________________________<BR>Pirate Parties International - General Talk<BR>pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net<BR><A href="http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general">http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general</A><BR></FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>