Comments on: UK Government Proposed Internet Law A Big Mistake http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2008/02/12/uk-government-proposed-internet-law-a-big-mistake/ Simon Brocklehurst's Technology Blog Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:53:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: simon http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2008/02/12/uk-government-proposed-internet-law-a-big-mistake/#comment-252369 simon Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:23:57 +0000 http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2008/02/12/uk-government-proposed-internet-law-a-big-mistake/#comment-252369 You make some interesting points, especially about not encouraging the use of encryption, and the development of new encryption techniques. I happen to know that even anti-terrorist government agencies (who have access to the latest tech) sometimes fall behind on their abilities monitor consumer technologies in the way they want to, simply because the technology doesn't exist to monitor and takes time to develop. And in general, unintended consequences are a big reason why the current government is so misguided in believing that new legislation is the answer to every problem. You make some interesting points, especially about not encouraging the use of encryption, and the development of new encryption techniques. I happen to know that even anti-terrorist government agencies (who have access to the latest tech) sometimes fall behind on their abilities monitor consumer technologies in the way they want to, simply because the technology doesn’t exist to monitor and takes time to develop.

And in general, unintended consequences are a big reason why the current government is so misguided in believing that new legislation is the answer to every problem.

]]> By: Asam Bashir http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2008/02/12/uk-government-proposed-internet-law-a-big-mistake/#comment-251206 Asam Bashir Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:57:56 +0000 http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2008/02/12/uk-government-proposed-internet-law-a-big-mistake/#comment-251206 It's even worse then that and clearly shows how our government cannot think for itself. There is no way they're going to stop pirates, the history of computers has shown us that, no matter what system they create, someone, somewhere, will create a system to defeat it - even right now all it needs is for pirates to switch over to encrypted p2p systems and that will become a major problem for government defence agencies overnight, small amounts of encrypted traffic on a network is interesting, huge amount then it becomes impossible task to try and crack the encryption - this was same argument used by inventor of PGP, Zimmerman, and was promoting it for use for non-sensitive information because that makes it harder for agencies/interested parties to track since any significant increase in encrypted traffic make the job to crack it all, and so find out what's inside, impossible. Does the UK government really want an increase in UK wide encrypted traffic? Em, think about it you morons and talk to your geeks up in GCHQ... It will be impossible to stop pirates, the above is just one example, pirate technology would evolve very fast and RIAA and ISP won't be able to compete, has Apple managed to stop hackers cracking the iPhone, has Microsoft managed to stop pirates? What makes UK government think ISPs can do a better job? They won't, but the result, an increase in encrypted traffic is not in long term British interests right now. Also seems like ISP's themselves have another defence line for battle with the RIAA, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/12/anti_filesharing_paper_leak/ "ISPs are calling on the record industry to put its money where its mouth is on illegal file-sharing, by underwriting the cost of lawsuits brought by people who are wrongly accused of downloading or uploading music." It’s even worse then that and clearly shows how our government cannot think for itself. There is no way they’re going to stop pirates, the history of computers has shown us that, no matter what system they create, someone, somewhere, will create a system to defeat it - even right now all it needs is for pirates to switch over to encrypted p2p systems and that will become a major problem for government defence agencies overnight, small amounts of encrypted traffic on a network is interesting, huge amount then it becomes impossible task to try and crack the encryption - this was same argument used by inventor of PGP, Zimmerman, and was promoting it for use for non-sensitive information because that makes it harder for agencies/interested parties to track since any significant increase in encrypted traffic make the job to crack it all, and so find out what’s inside, impossible.

Does the UK government really want an increase in UK wide encrypted traffic? Em, think about it you morons and talk to your geeks up in GCHQ…

It will be impossible to stop pirates, the above is just one example, pirate technology would evolve very fast and RIAA and ISP won’t be able to compete, has Apple managed to stop hackers cracking the iPhone, has Microsoft managed to stop pirates? What makes UK government think ISPs can do a better job? They won’t, but the result, an increase in encrypted traffic is not in long term British interests right now.

Also seems like ISP’s themselves have another defence line for battle with the RIAA,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/12/anti_filesharing_paper_leak/

“ISPs are calling on the record industry to put its money where its mouth is on illegal file-sharing, by underwriting the cost of lawsuits brought by people who are wrongly accused of downloading or uploading music.”

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