-Caveat Lector-
the thrust of all the new legislation has it that if they don't like
your personality they say it is disordered and therefore illegal
in breach of the mental health laws.
this is an entirely new thing to class a personality disorder
as treatable mental illness.
the problem we have is that they didn't publish the definition
of a personality disorder in the parliamentary acts, white papers
or notes ... :)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Richer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 6:34 AM
Subject: [CTRL] England turning into a surveillance state
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
>
> England turning into a surveillance state
>
> http://www0.mercurycenter.com/business/top/031893.htm
>
> BY DAN GILLMOR
> Mercury News Technology Columnist
>
> LONDON -- It's always a bit weird to celebrate Independence Day in the
> nation from which my country rebelled. The British who note it take the
> occasion in good humor.
>
> But I wonder how many think at all about the degree to which they are
giving
> up fundamental rights, some of which they adopted from their former
> colonies. At the dawn of the Information Age, the nation that gave us the
> Magna Carta -- one of the seminal documents of liberty -- seems poised to
> become a surveillance state.
>
> I'm a fan of the British people and their culture, but today I'm
especially
> glad to be an American.
>
> The Magna Carta's basic principle, that not even the king was above the
law,
> hasn't been repealed. But law in the United Kingdom has become a blunt
> instrument, a sledgehammer against liberty.
>
> >From pervasive video cameras in public places to Draconian laws giving
> authorities almost unlimited ability to spy on citizens, the British
> government flouts basic notions of individual privacy. Yet there's
> surprisingly little outcry as encroachments on liberty grow more
pronounced.
>
> It doesn't seem to matter which political party is in power. Labor and
> Conservative governments alike have enacted laws that would send American
> liberty watchers into apoplectic diatribes.
>
> Walk down a street here and cameras follow your moves. At last count, more
> than 300,000 video cameras were keeping tabs on public places, including
> streets, housing developments, shopping districts and parking lots. It's
all
> in the name of curbing crime.
>
> I was here a year ago, when Parliament was debating the notorious
Regulation
> of Investigatory Powers Act, or RIP, proposed by Prime Minister Tony
Blair's
> Labor government. It passed, to the dismay of an array of civil
> libertarians.
>
> RIP gives the government unprecedented power to tap people's
communications.
> Among its worst features, the law threatens the security of encrypted
> information, with jail time for anyone who refuses to turn over an
> encryption ``key'' when authorities demand it.
>
> Most recently, the Blair government has been leading the charge for a
> European Union proposal that would allow individual governments to order
> telecommunications providers to store seven years worth of customer voice
> and data communications -- and give police access to those records. Again,
> it's all to reduce crime, say apologists for this over-the-top idea.
>
> Fighting crime also is behind the government's plan for a massive
expansion
> of a national database of DNA samples. It would include not only DNA from
> criminals, but also DNA from people who volunteer to give genetic
> information during police investigations. One legislator has suggested
> taking DNA samples from all newborn babies.
>
> As the Independent newspaper reported in May, however, half of the police
> asked to give samples -- to distinguish their DNA from other people's DNA
> found at crime scenes -- refused on privacy grounds.
>
> There's some other dissent, largely from editorial writers and civil
> liberties groups, but it doesn't seem to have made much of a dent. The
> British people seem to have accepted the idea that they will be
pervasively
> spied upon. Sadly, they seem to have happily traded liberty for temporary
> safety.
>
> None of this is to suggest that the United States is a consistent paragon
of
> respect for individual rights. The recently departed Clinton
administration
> was the most hostile to civil liberties since Richard Nixon and his thugs
> ran the government, and the Bush administration isn't looking appreciably
> better in most respects.
>
> Yet the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision that will reverberate for years,
> said last month that police were not entitled to use new technology --
> heat-sensing devices in this case -- to effectively spy inside people's
> homes without court order. Those of us who'd almost given up on the
court --
> strongly pro-government on almost every other key ``law and order'' issue
> recently -- found new hope that the justices had begun to recognize how
far
> out of balance things had gotten.
>
> In coming years, we will need to confront new threats to liberty.
>
> Corporations are gaining power over our lives in unprecedented ways, and
the
> traditional remedy -- voting with one's wallet -- has limited value when
> monopolists and oligopolists rule a cartel economy, sometimes in concert
> with corrupt governments. Politicians who either fail to recognize this,
or
> who tacitly (or overtly) support such vast corporate authority, are
enemies
> of our rights, too.
>
> Defending liberty is not a sometime job. We have to keep at it, because
the
> forces that threaten our rights are well-organized, well-funded and
> committed.
>
> Tonight, I'll join a group of American journalists -- we're here to speak
at
> a conference on new media -- at the Savoy Hotel's American Bar. I plan to
> raise a glass to liberty. Wherever you are today, please do the same.
>
>
>
>
> *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107,
> any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use
> without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest
> in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and
educational
> purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ]
>
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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
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CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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