On Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 07:00:32PM +0000, Phillip Deackes wrote:
On Thu, 6 Dec 2001 09:37:02 +0000 Gary Stainburn
wrote: And don't kid yourself into thinking that laws that daft won't get through over here. Basically the a large part of the SSSCA is just the same as our disasterous RIP bill, except that they've taken it a bit further and they want to be able to spy on you electronically. Under the SSSCA the makers of OS's etc need to build in back doors so that the law enforcement services (read NSA, CIA, FBI) can secretly get into your PC.
Don't know why you all worry. If the law is an ass, ignore it. The law of the land exists as a manifestation of the public will, not as a whim of MS and the government. I have no problem doing what I think is right, law or no law. As long as the moral stance is broadly in line with the established norms of our society, go for it. There are plenty of cases where the law follows the citizens of a country rather than vice versa.
The law has historically been imposed as a means to protect property and of course the more property you've got the more influence you have in shaping what becomes law. Ordinary people have little say in what becomes law, it's largely always been the rich/powerful and that still remains overwhelmingly the case. Now it seems that the intelligence services have made a grab for more law, not because they're interested in paedophiles, terrorists are drug smugglers, but because they're interested in grabbing intellectual property and more `jobs for the boys'. Public compliance is guaranteed by wittering on about the danger of paedophiles etc. Essentially pushing the point that if you don't support the law then you support perverts, terrorists .... There's a really interesting article about this nonsense by Dr Ross Anderson & how they're using the WTC attacks as a fig-leaf: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/wtc.html
Mass public protest - I *like* that!
Yay! The penguinistas should march on Menwith Hill, MI6 Vauxhall and parliament in no particular order and kick the lot out - our taxes would halve over night ;-) Sorry to stray OT a bit but I guess it's important to know what the real agenda & motives behind all this legislation are. -- Frank *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Boroughbridge. Tel: 01423 323019 --------- PGP keyID: 0xC0B341A3 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* http://www.esperance-linux.co.uk/ "If you ever want to get anywhere in politics, my boy, you're going to have to get a toehold in the public eye."