Internet

Democrats Kill Open Wifi, Shoot Selves In Feet Again

Internet, IT is not magic pixie dust, Manufacturing consent
Published on

I’m not sure that House Democrats really thought this through:

House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites

Posted by Declan McCullagh

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including “obscene” cartoons and drawings–or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user’s account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

[My emphasis]

I’ve seen some stupid legislation but if that doesn’t beat all…and guess what for once its wasn’t the wingnuts, it was the Democrats wot done it:

Wednesday’s vote caught Internet companies by surprise: the Democratic leadership rushed the SAFE Act to the floor under a procedure that’s supposed to be reserved for noncontroversial legislation. It was introduced October 10, but has never received even one hearing or committee vote. In addition, the legislation approved this week has changed substantially since the earlier version and was not available for public review. .

Read more…

They did what? If it gets to a full vote and becomes law it’ll cause chaos. How stupid is this? And why did the Democrats rush this silly bill through with such unseemly haste?

Could it be they’re trying to pose as tough on kiddy-porn and general undefined obscenity, so as to appeal to the security mom and evangelist vote?

Speaking of IT clusterfscks…

Internet, Policing, UK politics
Published on

Somebody tipped me off to the innocent sounding “Interception Modernisation Programme”, but what is this exactly? It’s mentioned in this “Security and Counter-Terrorism Science and Innovation Strategy” document (PDF) from the Home Office, which seems to be some sort of happy face p.r.-minded strategy overview to show how on the ball the government is in combatting terrorism through innovation and science . In this context, the “Interception Modernisation Programme” is only mentioned in an aside and it sounds like it could be anything:

Intercepting terrorist communications

Knowing the content of terrorist communications is vital to the UK’s ability to respond to terrorism. The cutting-edge interception technology required is therefore critical to building up our intelligence and to understanding the nature of the threat.

The Interception Modernisation Programme is a cross-Government programme which aims to maintain the UK’s world-class capability in obtaining and exploiting terrorist communications data. It is a key example of how Government is using innovative and ground-breaking technology to stay well ahead of the terrorists.

Knowing the UK government, this may very well be some wild scheme comparable to Echelon, to have an uptodate capability in place to intercept the internet/mobile phone traffic of anyone in the UK at a moment’s notice, or worse, to go trolling for terrorist plots by searching all internet/mobile phone data for certain keywords, a technique many governments seem enamoured of. A Google search didn’t show more than just the above document plus several job descriptions on recruitment websites that mention the programme. Seems they’re still looking for a commercial analyst and a procurement project manager…

Does anybody know anything more?

Good Moaning

Economy, Internet, Life under Capitalism, Meta, New Labour, UK politics
Published on

Pissed off? Me? Why do you ask?

Bah. Bah, bah and thrice bah.

Got a spiffy new wireless keyboard and mouse and got rid of the old nasty sticky brick of a thing and all its attendant cordage, only for the new one to go tits-up a couple of days later leaving me functionally illiterate, blog-wise..

So now I have another new plugged-in jobby to get used to with my fingers feeling like sausages; I bought it just yesterday and already I’ve found the down, delete, insert and page down keys don’t work and I’m ready to throw the effing thing at the wall.

Unfortunately I have no other option but than to use it for the rest of the day, so expect more tpos.

I don’t what it is, but life always conspires to find me somehow offline whenever something really interesting happens, especially when it’s something I’ve been banging on about for years and actually know something about, like social security, tax and benefit systems and their IT and management shortcomings. (See Martin’s previous post and the front page of every major UK newspaper an media outlet)

Anyhow, now I am back online I shall spend the morning reading the public’s response on all the blogs and comment threads, but I suspect the overwhelming reaction’ll be similar to my own – Jesus wept, how much more incompetent can this bloody government be?

Amsterdam Police arrest teenager over virtual theft

Amsterdam, Dutch politics, Internet, Oh Those Crazy Cloggies
Published on

Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
The Guardian Thursday November 15 2007

Police in the Netherlands have arrested a teenager suspected of stealing virtual objects inside a popular social networking site, it has emerged.

The 17-year-old, who has not been named, is alleged to have tricked players of 3D cartoon world Habbo Hotel before removing a number of virtual items they had bought. It is believed to be the first time European officers have arrested someone for stealing virtual property.

[..]

Police in Amsterdam confirmed that five other teenagers were being questioned over the theft, which is believed to have netted items worth around €4,000 (£2,800).

The sale of the Second Life Amsterdam Cemtraal Station fell through because they couldn’t establish a clear title.

I wonder if this prosecution will also collapse?