December 28th, 2025 Member Meeting
Meeting to be held via video conference: https://communitybridge.com/bbb-room/mass-pirates-member-meeting/
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9913zZE02k
Reports
Decisions/Endorsements
TBR Cambridge ShotSpotter Efforts
The Black Response in Cambridge will host three community dinners and ShotSpotter presentations to increase awareness ahead of the relevant public hearing and policy order:
- January 22, Cambridge Community Arts Center. The presentation will be given by Prof. Spencer Piston.
- February 11. Cambridge Community Arts Center? The presentation will be given by a member of the campaign team.
- March ?
They will be followed by canvassing events in March.
Suggest we offer to assist with these events. This would include:
- posting the events on our web site;
- emailing members about the events during the months in question;
- calling our members in Cambridge (and surrounding communities) to ask them to attend events and help with canvassing.
We should ask TBR to sponsor them, as well.
United States Pirate Party Issues?
Projects/Events
2026 Campaigns & Voter Outreach
Leader: Jamie
Pirate News
Leader: Joseph
- Pirate news recording scheduled for every other Sunday, 7pm with go-live at 7:30pm. Unless changed
National Conference
Date: June 6th, 2026
Theme: boats and have fun
Commonwealth Bills to Review
The Mass. Senate passed An Act establishing the Massachusetts data privacy act unanimously. It has been referred to the Committee on House Ways and Means.
Other bills:
- An Act relative to unmanned aerial systems (H.3749 / S.2438)
- An Act relative to protecting Massachusetts residents against federal government surveillance (H.2687)
- Dignity Not Deportations Act (H.1588 / S.1122)
- Right to Repair Bills:
- Decrim Sex Work Bills from https://bswac.org/. Emailed Rikki and Desmond their thoughts on them as they are the most up to date on the issue:
- An Act to promote the health and safety of people in the sex trade (H.1980)
Here is an etherpad for people to offer suggestions.
Bills We Decided On
Endorsed:
- An Act to provide accountability in the use of biometric recognition technology and comprehensive enforcement (H.96/S.36)
- Civil Asset Forfeiture reform (H.1953)
- H.1973. An Act protecting personal security. We support the bill, and its senate counterpart.
- S.1731. An Act to promote transparency of facial recognition and driver's license photos. Not great, but we'll support it, because it sucks less than the status quo.
- H.1946/ An Act to implement the recommendations of the special commission on facial recognition technology. We support the warrant requirements, and the bills provisions for transparency and reporting.
- An Act to study the decriminalization of sex work (H.2467)
- An Act relative to safe reporting (H.1747)
- An Act relative to sexual assault by an officer (H.2634)
Federal Bills to Review
- Anti-File Sharing bills:
- Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (H.R.791) - ...more
- American Copyright Protection Act (Not yet posted) ...more)
- ... more on the bills at https://torrentfreak.com/fears-of-overblocking-unite-critics-of-u-s-pirate-site-blocking-bill/
- Kids Online Safety Act (S.1748)
- Pro Codes Act (H.R.4009 ...more
- American Music Fairness Act (H.R.861)
A reconsideration of Member Meeting Articles
We haven't adhered to our Articles of Agreement's Member Meetings section strictly since we have existed, specifically the [ https://masspirates.org/wiki/Articles_of_Agreement#4.2_Form Form] and Time sections. Meetings have met weekly and bi-weekly (our current form) and not twice a year each over six weeks.
Rework them to:
- Have a section on conferences (possible spring/fall, at least one a year)
- Rework the member meetings to be on-line at least once a month
- Set when elections for the pirate council is and that we can elect people at a conference or on-line by secret ballot
Working on a draft document at https://etherpad.pp-international.net/p/MAPPRevisedMemberMeetingsArticles
Other To Do
Upcoming Events
- 1/10/2026, 2-4pm, Cambridge/Somerville Pirate Meetup, 1369 Coffee House, 757 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
- 1/25/2026, 3-5pm, Cambridge/Somerville Pirate Meetup, Diesel Cafe, 257 Elm St., Somerville
- 1/30/2026, Nominations and candidate statements due
- 2/7/2026, 2-4pm, Cambridge/Somerville Pirate Meetup, Tatte Bakery & Cafe, 318 Third St., Cambridge
- 2/13/2026, Pirate Council ballots go out on Friday (or earlier)
- 2/22/2026, 1-3pm, Cambridge/Somerville Pirate Meetup, 37 Woodbine St., Somerville
- 2/27/2026, Pirate Council elections close
Participants
- Eli
- Jamie
- Steve
Observers
Summary
Reports
- Email update will go out in a day or two.
- Last pirate news posted
- Jamie scheduled several events in Jan/Mar for organizing.
- Individuals can make donations until the end of the year
- Candidates for pirate council should declare their interest in running, preferably by the end of the month.
- TBR is organizing a set of shotspotter events, to educate people about the technology. Jan 22, and Feb 11, 2026. We'll help sponsor the events, and assist with publicity
- No updates from the USPP
Projects
- 2026 campaigns and voter outreach is proceeding.
- Events in Somerville and Cambridge for outreach to potential candidates. If these go well, will continue, ideally in other cities and towns
- 2026 is the 20th anniversary of the Swedish Pirate party. Would be good to discuss on next pirate news, along with public domain day.
National Conference
- Boston. June 6th. Theme is boats and fun. Key thing will be finding a location. Joe suggested an event space near the US Constitution. US Salem (Quincy) was also suggested.
State bills
- Will defer discussion of these until later
- To review at next meeting
Federal Bills
- Sen. Warren has signed on to the KOSA bill
- There is a section 230 repeal act.
