I'm still flabbergasted that the UK Parliament got away with passing a bill
which gives ridiculous powers to the Secret Service. The real cringe factor
in that Bill is the bit where a spy can go to an employee and demand the
company's encryption keys - if the employee refuses, it's 2 years jail - if
the employee tells anyone else in the company, it's 5 years jail. What...
the... fuck... ??!?!?
But then it shouldn't be too shocking - Poms are historically accustomed to
living with less privacy than English-speakers elsewhere.
It shocks me that the House of Commons actually passed the damn thing. If
they tried that in Australia or New Zealand, it would have been tossed out
pronto. Politicians would have been endlessly bombarded with mail, phone
calls, email and personal visits from indignant voters. Ditto for the US,
whose 'rebel streak' (perhaps partly due to early Irish concentration) is
one of its many saving graces.
Viva la Freenet! :)
I'd love to see the UK spooks trying on their 'key escrow' laws with Freenet
node operators :)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mikus 29" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2001 3:34 AM
Subject: Re: [freenet-chat] Which is why . . .
> In response to the recent implications that America is the source of the
> problem, I'll present this to counter that "we" are not as much to blame
as
> those who accept, blindly, the invasions across the ocean. "We" are not
> quite so lethargic about invasions of our privacy, and resistance of a
> "Police-State".
>
> Mikus
>
> >NO HIDING PLACE
> >
> >SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE -- But the LIBERTARIAN nerds, known in this
> >field as "cypherpunks", fought back in the name of freedom from
> >the all-seeing eyes of Big Brother government. In the United
> >States they have had some success, thanks to the native distrust
> >of government; in Britain they have had almost none.
> >
> >http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/04/15/magazine1.html
>
> A few other bits from this (rather lengthy) bit of reading...
>
> We seem to have such fear of crime, and such a mute acceptance of the
> seizure of power by the authorities, that we are actually comforted by the
> thought that we are being watched all the time. This, in the current
climate
> of paranoia and high technology, is dangerous. Our right to live a
> law-abiding life without interference is now utterly compromised. The
> Englishman's home is no longer his castle, it is his virtual interrogation
> cell.
>
> ...
>
> Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras are the final turn of the screw.
> There are now 1.5m(million) of these operating in Britain, and some, as in
> the London borough of Newham, use facial recognition software that
> automatically identifies target individuals. Some of these cameras are
> visible, but many, in pubs and clubs, are not. In time, it is thought
these
> cameras will be linked in a nationwide web. They will become, as Dr
Stephen
> Graham of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne has suggested, the "fifth
> utility", after telephones, water, gas and electricity. "These networks,"
he
> writes, "have long since merged and extended to become technologically
> standardised, multipurpose, nationally regulated utilities, with virtually
> universal coverage. I would argue that CCTV looks set to follow a similar
> pattern of development over the next 20 years, to become a kind of fifth
> utility."
>
> "We have far more of these cameras that any other country," Graham tells
me,
> "though Germany and the US are now catching up. Why? Well, I suppose we
have
> fewer constitutional and political fears about invasions of privacy.
>
> ...
>
> Soon, some have suggested, we shall have to record our entire lives on
audio
> and video just to establish an alibi, in case we are implicated in a
crime.
> Indeed, not to make such a recording may one day be treated as a cause for
> suspicion.
>
> Do we care? In Britain, apparently not. We accept CCTV cameras out of fear
> of crime, and as a result we have more than any other nation in the
> world...........
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