German police have confiscated the popular Etherpad deployment at Piratenpad. The Etherpad deployment was being used for structured debates around the protests in Spain so this is a major cause for concern from a libertarian perspective. We believe the polices main reason for the raid is because PiratenPad was being used by the group “anonymous” to organize an attack. The server is currently in possesion of the German authorities.
We entirely support PiratenPad in it’s struggle, we believe that Etherpad deployments and really-real time collaborative document editing should be a right for all people, great and small.
The main cause for concern is that all Etherpad deployments are used by various groups completely openly so we can assume that all German Etherpad deployments are now at potential risk of being impounded by the police. Please be vigilant and help support your Etherpad deployments as they are used every day to draft new laws in countries such as Lybia and Tunisia.
Thank you very much for your support and your kind words <3
That’s only a small part of a larger problem. Along with the Etherpad install in question the confiscation of this server also took down several websites of the German Pirate Party.. This poses quite a problem, less than two days away from a major election in one of Germany’s 16 states.
Please tell OSZE that Germany might be in need for election observers for the first time since WWII …