<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Thomas Gaul <<a href="mailto:thomas.gaul@piratenpartei.de">thomas.gaul@piratenpartei.de</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">21 May, 2011 12:56:14 GMT+02:00<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">pp-leaders <<a href="mailto:pp-leaders@pp-international.net">pp-leaders@pp-international.net</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Cc: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Sebastian Nerz <<a href="mailto:sebastian.nerz@piratenpartei.de">sebastian.nerz@piratenpartei.de</a>>, Christopher Lang <<a href="mailto:Christopher.Lang@piratenpartei.de">Christopher.Lang@piratenpartei.de</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>Help for PP-DE</b><br></span></div><br><div>Dear Pirates,<br><br>today I am asking you for help on behalf of PP-DE.<br><br>As you have noticed our server had been taken down by police forces on<br>order by court.<br><br>There had been no formal note from France to Germany asking for help<br>yet. Alas, German justice did decide to take down our servers. Beside<br>this illegal action German justice system violated our Constitution<br>(Article 21 Grundgesetz). Sorry for having a link by hand.<br><br>We would like to ask you to write to the German Embassy in your country,<br>writing a similar text like the one our Australian friends did:<br><br><blockquote type="cite">Dear Mr. Ambassador, I write to you with regard to events that have<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">transpired on Friday, the gravity of which have led me to question<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">the democratic integrity of the Federal Republic of Germany.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">On Friday morning, May 20, German law enforcement officers seized the <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">information technology and communications infrastructure of the <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Piratenpartei, a legal and officially recognised political party. The <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">seizures have transpired irrespective of the fact that the Party is<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">not suspected of any illegal activity.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Media reports suggest that the seizures have occurred as a result of <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">investigations by the French law enforcement organisations into an <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">alleged distributed denial of service attack, and event which itself <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">occurred several months prior to the seizure. French investigators<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">are of the opinion that one of the servers, which provides<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">collaborative services and tools that may be used by the general<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">public, may have been used by an individual or individuals in the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">planning of the alleged attack. Indeed, it should be noted, that we<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">as a party also use services provided by the Piratenpartei which were<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">affected by these seizures.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">German law enforcement officials have not however, seized only the <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">server in question, but instead all servers used by the Piratenpartei <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">for communication and organisation.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The gravity of this situation in where a legal and officially <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">recognised political organisation is paralysed in itself is deeply <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">troubling. It is however compounded by the fact that this event has <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">transpired two days prior to elections which are being held in the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, in which the Piratenpartei is<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">participating. The seizure of essential campaign organisation and<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">planning infrastructure is expected to severely hamper and paralyse<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">the electoral campaign of the Party.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Both the timing, in its proximity to the election in the State of <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Bremen in relation to the investigation of an event that transpired<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">some months ago, and the sheer enormity of the seizure of the entire <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">organisational and planning infrastructure, where only a small amount<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">of data located on a single server is required, raise significant<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">concerns about the political impartiality of German law enforcement<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">officials and the sanctity of democratic institutions and processes.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">I write to you to pose the following questions: will an inquiry be <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">held regarding the actions of German law enforcement officials, with <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">regards to their proportionality and whether they have interfered<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">with the rights afforded under Article 21 on the Basic Law for the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Federal Republic of Germany?<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">What undertakings will the government of Germany take to ensure that <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">such interference in the political process does not occur again? I<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">thank you for your time, and look forward to your response.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Kind Regards,<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Rodney Serkowski<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">President, Pirate Party Australia<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><br>If you do so, please inform us.<br><br>Sorry for being brief again. Busy times in Germany!<br><br>And many thanks to PP-AU who started the initiative.<br><br>Best to you and many, many thanks for helping PP-DE.<br><br>Thomas Gaul<br><br><br>-- <br>internationaler Koordinator - international Coordinator<br>Piratenpartei Deutschland - Pirate Party of Germany<br>Pflugstraße 9a, D-10115 Berlin, Germany<br>Phone 030/27572040 - Fax 030/609897-517<br><br><br>Vorstand: Sebastian Nerz, Bernd Schlömer, Rene Brosig, Marina Weisband, Wilm Schumacher, Matthias Schrade, Gefion Thürmer<br><br></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>