"Yo-ho-ho! And a bottle of rum! "I do not know about you, but when I hear the word pirates I always think of men with shabby clothes, teeth rotten from chewing tobacco, often with a missing leg or arm, with the typical pirate hat and a bottle of their favorite rum in hand, looking for the treasure of Captain X on a remote island. In recent years we have started talking again about pirates, but they do not even remotely resemble the characters from my favourite children's books.

Today's pirates are among us, they are interested in the things that affect our contemporary daily lives and have ideas on how to change them. The first pirate party in the world was established in Sweden six years ago. Since then pirate parties have been established in 56 countries worldwide, and 21 of them are now officially recognized. In Europe they have already elected two Members of the European Parliament, 15 Members of the local Parliaments and 194 municipal councilors. A few days ago in the Greek media the news appeared that the establishment of a Pirate Party is also expected in the country. GRReporter contacted Anestis Samurkasidis, owner of an e-commerce company, who explained what drove the pirate flag to the warm Mediterranean.

In a deliberately provocative move the Czech Pirate Party has launched not one but two movie download portals. The sites, which offer links but don't host any infringing material themselves, are being launched to protest the plight of a high school student facing a 5 million euro damages claim for linking to copyright works.

In many countries around the world people are falling foul of laws originally penned for the analog world, but which are now being applied to a rapidly developing digital landscape. In the sphere of file-sharing and digital media the effect is particularly pronounced, as a teenager from the Czech Republic has found to his peril.

The 16-year-old from Liberec was accused by the Czech Anti-Piracy Union of posting links to infringing material on his website, acts which the Union claim have caused damages of more than 5 million euros.

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The Free software foundation has already started a campaign against DRM with a website found:http://www.defectivebydesign.org/.

As well it has been declared as the 4th of May this year 2011 and every year as the Day Against DRM.

The DRM (Digital Rights Management) is been reference to technologies that withdraw/restrict the user from his/her rights against Movies, Music, E-Books, Books, Software and other Digital Stuff like that.

We invite you to spread this day in every way.

More information about the "Day Against DRM " can be found here.

More discussion on the topic...

Wrapping up the last of the United Kingdom's notorious copyright infringement "pay up" letter cases, a UK patent and copyright judge has had a major revelation. Just because some lawyer cites an Internet Protocol (IP) address where illegal file sharing may have taken place, that doesn't mean that the subscriber living there necessarily did the dirty deed. Or is responsible for others who may have done it.

"What if the defendant authorises another to use their Internet connection in general and, unknown to them, the authorised user uses P2P software and infringes copyright?" asked His Honour Judge Birss QC last Tuesday.

The House of Representatives in our country Cyprus is examining an amendment of the Copyright Law under which the following will be achieved:

• The burden of proof will be transferred to the defendant and hence it will be for the defendant to prove that the items in issue are not infringing.

Bettahar Hatem, professor of computer science at the University of Technology of Compiegne, killed Wednesday by gunfire in the Tunisian town of Douz in Tunisia, according to a witness and his family. To view the video click on the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u7gXNekPis.

Internal sources from Tunisia confirm that jailed Pirate Party member Azyz Ammami has been beaten by police officers. Furthermore, he was forced to take a pro-regime lawyer rather than one of his own choosing.

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You may see some videos from the Tunisia Republic in which people are fighting for their freedom and also the freedom of the Pirate Party Members of Tunisia. To view the videos click here or to download the videos and watch them click here (file size 1.31GB). The Pirate Parties International already sent a letter for the freedom of the members of Pirate Party of Tunisia.