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"The Pirate Party recently gained a seat on Berlin's parliament, something that has never happened before for the group. While these guys are serious about their internet rights and battling censorship, they do know how to have a good time, including "Pony Time". After the break is a translated version of this article. I'm sure you will all get a kick out of it. Thanks to Anon for the Englishification! Pony break with the Pirates Berlin deputies relax with children's TV series By Philip Banse * * * * * * "My Little Pony," a nearly 30-year-old animated series about the friendship of a handful of ponies, is incorporated into the Rules of Procedure of the Pirate Party in the Berlin state legislature. When discussion gets heated, any pirate can move to look at an episode of the children's TV series, in order to calm things down."

"People in Germany, the biggest bankroller in crisis-hit Europe, are demanding President Christian Wulf quit after he threatened a newspaper which broke news of a home loan scandal in which he was embroiled. ­As disillusionment with the political establishment sets in, support appears to be shifting to a new party that has no official stance on the EU or its troubles, as RT found out in Berlin. It looks like an ordinary scene at one of the many bars in Berlin. But there is one thing which makes this party totally different from the rest. This is a convention of a political party - the Pirate Party of Germany. The guests at this gathering are all drawn from the party's 18,000 members. Dmitry, who is tired of the mainstream, is one of them."

"Police in Germany have confiscated servers belonging to the Pirate Party as part of a criminal investigation. On Friday morning, at the request of the French authorities, German police officers seized a number of Pirate Party servers in Hesse Offenbach. The move led to widespread disruption of the part's IT infrastructure as several websites and a communication platform for members were shut down. A spokesman for the party said that neither the party itself nor any of its subsidiaries is under investigation and the party is distancing itself from any criminal wrongdoing. Early indications are that police are investigating the PiratenPad facility made available on one of the servers, according to the Pirate Party and the Etherpad Foundation. PiratenPad is a Web application that uses Etherpad software to allow users to freely contribute to and edit documents. "

BERLIN - With laptops open like shields against the encroaching cameramen, the young men resembled Peter Pan's Lost Boys more than Captain Hook's buccaneers when they were introduced Monday as Berlin's newest legislators: They are the members of the Pirate Party. Asked if they were just some chaotic troop of troublemakers, Christopher Lauer, newly voted in as a state lawmaker for the district of Pankow, replied with no lack of confidence, "You ought to wait for the first session in the house of representatives." By winning 8.9 percent of the vote in Sunday's election in this city-state, these political pirates surpassed - blew away, really - every expectation for what was supposed to be a fringe, one-issue party promoting Internet freedom. The Pirates so outstripped expectations that all 15 candidates on their list won seats - seats are doled out based in part on votes for a party rather than for an individual. Normally parties list far more candidates than could ever make it, because if they win more than they nominate, the seat must remain unfilled. These men in their 20s and 30s, who turned up at the imposing former Prussian state parliament building, some wearing hooded sweatshirts, and one a T-shirt of the comic book hero Captain America, were no longer merely madcap campaigners and gadflies. They had become the people's elected representatives.

"Wie sieht der ideale Pirat aus, was muss er mitbringen? Marina Weisband: Der ideale Pirat ist ein Mensch wie jeder andere auch. Potenziell ist jeder ein Pirat. Was ihn unterscheidet, ist, dass er kritisch denkt. Dass er keine Angst hat, Ideen zu entwickeln, die in der Gesellschaft noch nicht verankert sind. Er verlässt sich nicht darauf, dass irgendjemand es schon macht. Wenn er Veränderung will, führt er sie selbst herbei. Der Pirat weiß, dass er mitbestimmt und dass seine Meinung wertvoll ist."

BERLIN - With laptops open like shields against the encroaching cameramen, the young men resembled Peter Pan's Lost Boys more than Captain Hook's buccaneers when they were introduced Monday as Berlin's newest legislators: They are the members of the Pirate Party. Asked if they were just some chaotic troop of troublemakers, Christopher Lauer, newly voted in as a state lawmaker for the district of Pankow, replied with no lack of confidence, "You ought to wait for the first session in the house of representatives." By winning 8.9 percent of the vote in Sunday's election in this city-state, these political pirates surpassed - blew away, really - every expectation for what was supposed to be a fringe, one-issue party promoting Internet freedom. The Pirates so outstripped expectations that all 15 candidates on their list won seats - seats are doled out based in part on votes for a party rather than for an individual. Normally parties list far more candidates than could ever make it, because if they win more than they nominate, the seat must remain unfilled.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Among the posters plastered around Berlin ahead of a regional vote on Sunday, the bright colors, unconventional photography and thought-provoking slogans of the Pirate Party stand well out from the pack. "We have the questions, you have the answers," reads one, and "The Internet in the hands of the users" another, reflecting the party's grass-roots, populist agenda. Dismissed by many as too kooky to take seriously, the Pirates for the first time have a chance of winning a seat in a state parliament -- the party is polling ahead of the Free Democrats (FDP), the junior coalition partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel's federal coalition, at around the 5 percent threshold for entering the assembly. First-time voter Ruben Doehrer, 18, is among those who say they will flock to the Pirate Party on September 18.

Meet Jan Hemme: mild-mannered public relations executive by day, Pirate by night -- specifically, a strategist for Berlin's Pirate Party. This new political movement, with roots in the tech culture, is shaking up politics across Europe and hopes to make some noise in the coming U.S. elections.

"Police in Germany have confiscated servers belonging to the Pirate Party as part of a criminal investigation. On Friday morning, at the request of the French authorities, German police officers seized a number of Pirate Party servers in Hesse Offenbach. The move led to widespread disruption of the part's IT infrastructure as several websites and a communication platform for members were shut down."

"German police downed the servers of the German Pirate Party in an operation instigated on behalf of French authorities, the Party said on Friday. According to a statement put out by the Piratenpartei Deutschland, police "confiscated a number of servers of the German Pirate Party which are provided by AixIT in Offenbach, for a French investigation"."

" In cooperation with French officials, German police have raided the offices of the German Pirate Party and confiscated all of the organization's servers in connection with an alleged future attack currently being planned by hacker collective Anonymous. French investigators requested the aide of German authorities after tracing one of the tools used by Anonymous, an open source text collaboration tool known as PiratenPad, to the Pirate Party's systems. It is currently unclear, however, why all of the organization's servers have been taken offline if the investigation does not reach beyond PiratenPad."

"German law enforcement authorities have confirmed a take-down of Pirate Party servers on Friday. The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) German federal police told ZDNet UK on Monday that it was involved in the investigation. The operation saw German Pirate Party (Piraten Partei) servers taken offline, disrupting operations. Prosecutors in Darmstadt led the German side of the operation, said a BKA spokeswoman."

"The German branch of the Pirate Party, which campaigns for civil rights on the Internet, has been raided Police in Germany have reportedly seized a number of servers belonging to the German Pirate Party, as part of a French criminal investigation. The servers, hosted at AixIT in Offenbach, were confiscated on the morning of 20 May, following a request by the French authorities. However, it is believed that the investigation only concerns a single public service on one of the party's virtual servers."

"Acting on a French request for assistance, German police today confiscated German Pirate Party servers-apparently hoping to search the prominent collaboration tool widely used within Anonymous to select targets for attack. Authorities appear to be concerned about a possible attack on French energy giant EDF. The German Pirate Party said in a statement that it does not believe itself to be a target of the investigation and expressed willingness "within its legal obligations" to aid French police:"

"This morning German police confiscated the servers of the Pirate Party, currently the sixth largest political party in Germany. Details of the raid are still scarce, but initial information indicates that the raid was targeted at a service running on the Party's servers. The timing is unfortunate with the Pirate Party participating in the upcoming election in Bremen this Sunday."

«J'ai vu ce qu'étaient les Pirates en Belgique. Plus "bobo" qu'eux, tu meurs. Ce sont des gens qui ont leur Facebook, leur Twitter et pensent que tous ceux qui ne sont pas dans ce monde sont des ringards absolus. Mais c'est bien que des gens remettent en cause ce que nous sommes. Cela veut dire que la société bouge : si les Pirates existent, c'est parce qu'ils n'ont pas trouvé de place ailleurs et ils ont des choses à dire.»

The Pirate party gained a number of seats in Berlin's elections, but a radical online agenda faces more challenges in the UK reddit this Comments (78) John Naughton guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 September 2011 19.05 BST Article history 'The bovine way in which the Commons passed Lord Mandelson's digital economy bill does not exactly engender confidence in the British political class's understanding of these matters.' Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images The fact that the Pirate party has won 8.9% of the vote in the Berlin state elections - thereby giving them 15 seats in the legislature - has given rise to some head-scratching in psephological circles. And not without reason: it isn't often that a political party takes a relaxed view of filesharing, advocates radical reform of intellectual property laws, opposes state surveillance in all its forms, evangelises about open source and then has electoral success in the real world.

"Another surprise on Sunday could be the Pirate Party, a German branch of the party that emerged in Sweden five years ago to campaign for reform of copyright and better privacy in the internet age. Polls show the Pirates winning 9 per cent."

"ous nous sommes fait l'écho vendredi dernier de la déconnexion des serveurs du Parti Pirate allemand, à deux jours d'élections législatives. Voici le texte (amputé des formules de politesse) de la lettre que le Parti Pirate français vient d'envoyer à l'Ambassadeur d'Allemagne à Paris en réaction."

"n response to the raid on the German Pirate Party's servers on Friday 20th May, the following letter was delivered to the German ambassador to the UK this morning."