Reg. Linux User #479288
People in the UK who go online and illegally download music and films may have their internet access cut under plans the government is considering. A draft consultation suggests internet service providers would be required to take action over users who access pirated material via their accounts.
If made law the insane proposal would give ISPs, the UK government and any corporate entity free reign to inspect downloaded packets and prevent individual’s access to the internet.
Cellphone makers have proven adept at cramming their devices with unlikely new features — and also at ignoring the social mayhem that can follow.
Some lawmakers are working to limit mobile phone use in cars, while others have voiced concerns about surreptitious photos taken with handset cameras and posted online.
Meanwhile, privacy advocates have raised alarms about plans to incorporate so-called geotracking technology in mobile devices that can transmit the physical location of users.
Now, in the latest example of the mobile phone industry’s “anything goes” attitude, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and chipmaker Texas Instruments are planning to produce a device with the built-in ability to record phone calls.
The recording capability gives further proof of handset developers’ ingenuity. But its development also serves as an illustration of the industry’s approach when it comes to the legal and social effects of what experts call the most widely adopted and disruptive technologies ever created.
One in three people are expected not to cooperate with identity card checks, Home Office papers from 2004 suggest.
Papers revealed under information laws show officials have worked on the basis 60% of people would carry a card if and when it becomes compulsory to own one.
They assume 10% will happily confirm their ID via fingerprint or eye scans, but 30% “will refuse” to voluntarily show their card or biometric data.
The Home Office said the documents were “incredibly out of date”.
A spokesman said the identity card scheme had evolved a great deal since these “historic documents” were produced.
But he declined to say whether the assumptions - which only covers people who have got an ID card - themselves had changed.
In an alarming move “Talking” CCTV cameras that tell off people dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be installed in 20 areas across England. They are already used in Middlesbrough where anyone seen misbehaving can be told via a loudspeaker, controlled by control centre staff, to stop.
Home Secretary ‘Mad’ John Reid has earmarked nearly £500,000 to fund the expansion.
Critics (including me) say the cameras are absurd and another example of excessive government intrusion into everyday life.
Mad John said they were aimed at “the small minority” who “litter our streets, vandalise our communities and damage our properties”.
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Opponent Steve Hills |
“We all pay council tax so, in the end, we all pay when our communities are disrespected - both in our pockets as well as in our daily lives,” he said.
The disturbed home secretary said competitions were being held at schools in many of the areas for children to become the voice of the cameras.
“By funding and supporting these local schemes, the government is encouraging children to send this clear message to grown ups - act anti-socially and you will face the shame of being publicly embarrassed,” Mr Reid added.
The talking cameras will be installed in Southwark, in London, Barking and Dagenham, in London, Reading, Thanet, Harlow, Norwich, Ipswich, Plymouth, Gloucester, Derby, Northampton, Mansfield, Nottingham, Coventry, Sandwell, Wirral, Blackpool, Salford, South Tyneside and Darlington.
Apart from being absurd, I think it’s rather sad that we should have faceless cameras barking at us 