Andrew Norton (Pirate Party)

Andrew Norton
Chairman of the US Pirate Party
Assumed office
28 January 2015
Preceded by Lindsay-Anne Brunner
In office
May 2007 – September 2008
Preceded by Joshua Cowles
Succeeded by Glenn Kerbein
Chair of the Board, Pirate Party UK
In office
28 January 2015 – 18 June 2015
Preceded by Jack Allnutt
Vice Chairman of the US Pirate Party
In office
November 2013 – January 2015
Succeeded by Lindsay-Anne Brunner
Coordinator of Pirate Parties International
In office
September 2008 – August 2009
Preceded by New position
Succeeded by Patrick Mächler
Samir Allioui
Personal details
Born 24 June 1980
Liverpool, England
Nationality British
Alma mater University of Liverpool
Website http://ktetch.co.uk/

Andrew Norton (born 24 June 1980) is a British roboticist, politician and researcher. He is a former Coordinator of Pirate Parties International, a previous[1] Chairman of the United States Pirate Party and a previous Chairman of the Board for Pirate Party UK.

Early life and education

Norton was born in Liverpool, England. He was educated at Liverpool Blue Coat School from 1991 to 1998 and assisted as an IT technician for four years before studying Robotics at the University of Liverpool.[2]

Professional career

Using his knowledge of robotics, Norton took part in various robot combat competitions in the UK and the US, first as a competitor and later as a safety inspector. His team, Liverdyne Robotics, held the UK Middleweight title from 1998 to 2000.[2] Norton helped run over 70 independent robot combat events around the UK from 1999 to 2003. He also appeared in series 3, 4, and 5 of British robot combat TV show Robot Wars. He also worked on several seasons of Comedy Central's BattleBots.

In the late 1990s Norton worked as a commercial copyright enforcer for a London-based record label, however he resigned from this role in 1999 over protests with the industry response to Napster and MP3s.[2]

Norton has been employed by the Dutch news website TorrentFreak for several years, and is their lead researcher and Community Manager. He is also currently a P2P systems researcher and is the assistant director of Electronic Frontier Forums, a series of lectures and panels given at Dragon Con each year. In 2003, Norton moved to Georgia, US.[2]

Political career

Norton was introduced to politics in the late 1990s by current Leader of the Liberal Party and family friend, Steve Radford. He joined the Conservative Party, but left when he moved to the United States in 2003. In 2004 he worked on the election campaign for two Libertarian Party candidates for a state house seat in Washington state. However, the campaign was not a success.[2]

Norton became part of the United States Pirate Party in October 2006 shortly after its founding, and was made International Coordinator. In March 2007, Norton became Chairman of the party and served in this role until September 2008. In September 2008 he stepped down from Chairmanship to become the first Coordinator of the then-fledgling Pirate Parties International. He left this role in July 2009, handing the role over to a team of Patrick Mächler and Samir Allioui.[3][2] He has since criticised the direction of Pirate Parties International.[4]

In 2011, Norton joined the Pirate Party UK as a member, and has worked as part of the press team since then. On 28 April 2013, he became a Governor of Pirate Party UK. On 28 January 2015, Norton became Chairman of the Board of Pirate Party UK.[5]

He rejoined the Board of the US Pirate Party on 14 July 2010 as the party's Legal Officer. In November 2013 he became the Vice Chair of the US Pirate Party, continuing in this role until January 2015, when he resumed the role of Chairman. Since June 2013 he has also been the Vice Chair of the Georgia state Pirate Party.[2][6]

Works

Norton was the editor of and contributor to No Safe Harbor, a collection of essays about Pirate politics.[7] He is also an occasional contributor to publications such as TechDirt[8] and SERVO Magazine.

Books

References

  1. ↑ https://blog.pirate-party.us/leadership/
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Andrew Norton". Pirate Party UK. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  3. ↑ Norton, Andrew. "Signing off". Pirate Parties International. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Norton, Andrew (13 March 2015). "PPI Became A Pirate Chimera". Pirate Times. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "The Board". Pirate Party UK. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "Leadership". United States Pirate Party. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  7. ↑ Masnick, Mike. "Chat With 'No Safe Harbor' Editor This Week". Techdirt. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  8. ↑ "Article history for Andrew Norton". TechDirt. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
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