Archive by month: June 2013

Get to know the Swarm

June 30, 2013

Screw Democracy. We're On a Mission From God!" How can you resist a title like that? Welcome to chapter 6 of Swarmwise by Rick Falkvinge, grand poobah of the Pirate movement world wide. Of course, this book is available for free on line. (Pirates share!) I read the first 5 chapters on my smart phone. Chapter 6 will be available (along with the first 5 chapters) at falkvinge.net July 1st. But if you prefer a copy made of trees, you can buy yourself one of those, too, and perhaps give it to one o...
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PirateCon is Tomorrow!

June 28, 2013

PirateCon 2013 is this Saturday. We have a great lineup with talks on open government, government surveillance and crowdfunding. We hope you can make it. It starts at 10am on the 29th and will be at the Community Church of Boston at 565 Boylston St in Boston. The closest MBTA stop is Copley on the Green Line. It ends at6pm and we will go out to dinner afterwards. Registration is only $10 and free for those under 18. If you haven't registered, you can register on-line or just show up a...
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Cameron D’Ambrosio Is Finally Free

June 28, 2013

Yesterday, the Essex County District Attorney dropped all charges against Cameron D’Ambrosio. We are extremely happy that he is finally free. A big thanks to everyone who helped to secure his freedom, especially First Officer Lucia and fellow Pirate Garret for leading the efforts to help Cameron and his family. There is a benefit concert for Cameron and his family on July 6th at The Crown in Lowell. It starts at 8pm.

Why the US needs a Party of Open

June 21, 2013

In December 2005, the New York Times published an eye-opening story: the National Security Agency (NSA) was given authorization to tap into the infrastructure of major phone companies, and eavesdrop on our phone calls. These were not your traditional telephone taps, involving probable cause, a judge, and a warrant; these were secret orders, authorized by a FISA court. The phone companies complied; for example, Verizon allowed the NSA to set up shop in its San Francisco office, and tap dire...
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Support the #MassWiretap Campaign!

June 19, 2013

At our June 16th General Meeting, we signed on to #MassWiretap campaign: We, the undersigned, call on the Massachusetts legislature to reject proposals to expand government wiretap powers. Listening in on phone calls and electronic communication poses "grave dangers to the privacy of all citizens of the commonwealth," in the words of our existing law. However, pending legislation would ignore that wise warning. It would permit wiretapping not just in connection with organized crime, or even for...
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Pirates Donate Computer to Cammy Dee

June 16, 2013

When First Officer Lucia found out from Cam's father and sister that the Methuen police took the D'Ambrosio's *only* computer as evidence in Cameron D'Ambrosio's charge of Communicating a Terrorist Threat, she sprang into action. Gathering up one of her old, but workable computers, she enlisted the help of Captain James and Quartermaster Steve in making the computer ship shape. After installing a new hard disk, they loaded a copy of the free Linux Mint OS, as well as Tor and other useful open ...
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NSA’s Turnkey Tyranny

June 10, 2013

The recent revelations by journalist Glenn Greenwald and whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have shed a welcome light on the mass surveillance program of Americans and people in other countries by the National Security Agency (NSA) and its private contractors. What they revealed was long suspected, and in some cases known, but no less a threat to our right to privacy and control over our own government: the logging of who you call, when you call, from where you call an...
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Boston Pride A Success

June 9, 2013

A big thanks to Lucia, Joe, Steve, Kendra, Sevan, Véronique and Kate for making our 2nd Boston Pride Parade a hit. While it rained earlier, the day was beautiful day. Our NSA vs Pirate skit needs some work, but we had fun doing it. We handed out about 2200 party or PirateCon 2013 fliers. We were proud to have French Pirate and parliamentary candidate Véronique Vermorel marching with us. Sevan and I put up some of the pictures we took.

Ridicule the NSA this Saturday!

June 7, 2013

We need you to help send a message on Saturday that we will not tolerate the NSA collecting the phone records of everyone in the US on a daily basis. We will ridicule the NSA during the Boston LBGT Pride Parade and before nearly a million people. Will you join us? The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) granted the blanket order to give the government unlimited authority to obtain such phone communications data as the cell phone tower location of each person on a call, the p...
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Cammy Dee Freed!

June 7, 2013

Yesterday, an Essex County Grand Jury refused to indict Cameron D’Ambrosio for the charge of Communicating a Terrorist Threat. He was released and we hear he is with his family. The Boston Herald reported that: "Essex County District Attorney spokeswoman Carrie Kimball-Monihan said there are no plans to attempt to bring lesser charges in district court. She said prosecutors will file a motion ending prosecution against D’Ambrosio at a future date." As far as we know, his Probable Cause h...
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