German Police Seize Pirate Party Servers Days Before The Election… Because Anonymous Was Chatting?
from the oh-come-on dept
Early this morning, news started breaking that the German police had seized the German Pirate Party’s servers. The timing was interesting, in that it happened just two days before an election, which certainly seems questionable. The details, so far, suggest that the action wasn’t against the party, but due to a French complaint, because Anonymous was using the Etherpad installation on the server, PiratenPad, to communicate and plan. If you’re unfamiliar with Etherpad, it’s a pretty popular online collaboration tool. I’ve used it for other things, including preparing notes for conferences. It’s ridiculous overkill to seize an entire server because of the way some people were using Etherpad. It makes no sense, and shows (once again) how law enforcement seems to overreact to things they just don’t understand.
Filed Under: anonymous, etherpad, france, germany, pirate party, seizure
Comments on “German Police Seize Pirate Party Servers Days Before The Election… Because Anonymous Was Chatting?”
The underlying intent is probably to harm the Pirate Party in the elections. Little do they realize that this will only serve to encourage more voters to vote for the pirate party after seeing them as the victims of government more wrongdoings.
Re: Re:
sp … of more government wrongdoings.
Not Hard to Understand
It’s ridiculous overkill to seize an entire server because of the way some people were using Etherpad
I think you’re making the assumption that the stated reason was the real reason.
Re: Not Hard to Understand
It will only backfire. People are now aware of these wrongful seizures and they will view the pirate party as victims of more government wrongdoings and that will only further highlight the need for electing the pirate party. Governments are seriously so stupid sometimes.
Re: Re: Not Hard to Understand
You’re laboring under the assumption the gov is that stupid (and, let’s be honest, they might be) but what if they’re not?
What if the ‘Pirate Party’ has already been secretly subverted, and whoever gets elected as a Pirate Party representative will tow the line and do the same science-damned thing every other politician does–which is “screw the public”?
Then, these “stupid” actions from the government serve the interest of those really in power and get their hand-picked puppets elected as Pirate Party reps.
(Set and natch.)
Re: Re: Re: Not Hard to Understand
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
or
What if the government knows that you will think the ‘Pirate Party’ has already been secrectly subverted by doing this act, so they didn’t subvert it knowing that you won’t won’t vote for the pirate party because you don’t trust it– thus lowering turnout, manipulating elections, and continuing to screw the public.
If all we’re going to do is throw what-if’s and hypotheticals around I think this discussion would be better suited for alex jones’ website instead.
Re: Re: Re: Not Hard to Understand
That sounds vaguely familiar. A home grown, grass roots, counter movement to an established political system. Subverted by those already in power and turned into a mockery of it’s original goals. Next we’ll see radicalized morons at the helm of the group who re funded by zealot billionaires that prefer the status quo.
Re: Re: Re: Conspiracy of Conpsiracies
You have been reading an old Text from the “Dark Horde” about the Conspiracy of Conspiracies haven’t you? 😉
[found late 1990’s and I repost every so often]
CONSPIRACY: Cliques Of Normals Secretly Performing Insidious Rituals Aimed at Controlling You!
“The details, so far, suggest that the action wasn’t against the party, but due to a French complaint, because Anonymous was using the Etherpad installation on the server, PiratenPad, to communicate and plan.”
I think the most important point here is that if this were any mainstream party, this likely wouldn’t have happened. The government may have reacted, but not the way it did here.
But, either way, it’s still good publicity for the pirate party. You can’t buy this sort of publicity, this sort of publicity is very valuable. Things often have unintended consequence.
Re: Re:
I hope you’re right, but I fear the average voter will just hear that the police siezed their servers, and they must be some kind of terrorist enablers.
Re: Re: Re:
Looks like you’re wrong. Things are different now.
“In response to the takeover of its servers, the German Pirate Party has been tweeting up some sturm und drang today, and its “#servergate” hashtag is the second highest “trending” tag in Germany.
Not surprisingly, the main German police website is now down, as is the website of federal investigators (the BKA). As one Anon put it in a tweet, “#Anonymous to german police: ‘Let me introduce myself…’ #servergate #PoliceMeetsCocks.” “
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/german-police-seize-pirate-party-servers-looking-at-anons-toolkit.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
The first time I clicked on the Twitter link just now I got the message that the Twitter servers were too flooded to render the website (forgot the exact message). Only upon refreshing did the rendition show up.
Not only did the government fail at preventing Anonymous from attacking (they still conducted their attacks, though I disapprove of their activity), they actively brought more attention and publicity to the pirate party and further advanced their popularity. Their intent may have been to retard the efforts of the pirate party, but the result was that it only enhanced their efforts. The pirate party actually used this to their advantage to campaign for better laws and due process and to advertise themselves as the party to deliver such. Expect the pirate party to receive even more votes. It’s called the Streisand effect.
Yeah... sure.
Considering the Etherpad app is opensource, why didn’t Anonymous just set up their own server with SSL connections? What a load…
Election ?
In germany or france ?
Re: Election ?
The election the German Pirate Party is talking about, is for the B?rgerschaft of Bremen.
missed me now ya gots to kiss my....
ass
Quite honestly, given how Germany has ruled on hacking tools in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if some officials were conflating the Pirate Party with Anonymous. After all, they’re both ‘crooks’, so they have to be collaborating, right?