BAD NEWS :( Government amendments reinforce Big Browser

[Charles Lindsey]

	On Wed, 7 Jun 2000 20:53:06 +0100
	"Caspar Bowden" <cb@fipr.org> said...

> BY THE LORD BASSAM OF BRIGHTON
> Page 4, line 41, at end insert--
> 
>     ("(  )  In subsection (5) the reference to data comprised in or attached
> to a communication for the purposes of a telecommunication system by means
> of which it is being or may be transmitted includes a reference to any
> communication or part of a communication consisting of signals for the
> actuation of apparatus comprised in a telecommunication system by which they
> will be or may be received.")

The Achilles heel of that wording is that it only applies to actuations
of apparatus comprised in the telecommunication system. Is the website
part of said telecommunications system? That is, of course, a point we
have been round before, and is in dire need of clarification. So we get
two interpretations of that clause:

1. The Benign interpretation.
-----------------------------

The website is NOT part of the telecommunications system. Then the
wording just covers bits of the message that cause it to be switched to
take a different route, or which cause it to be filed in a different
queue (because its priority is too low, or too high, or whatever). All
perfectly innocent stuff.

2. The Devilish interpretation.
-------------------------------

The website IS part of the telecommunications system. Then the
instructions to the website as to what it is to locate, find, search or
compute for are all telecommunications data. So if I use the Railtrack
timetable site, Plod gets to know I am thinking of going to London next
Monday (and he even knows which train I am likely to catch). Ugh!

We can disagree about the probabilities with which we should believe in
the two cases. Clearly both are possible, and so interpretation 2 must
be stopped.

You may be assured that noble ears are being bent, even as we speak.

Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Email:     chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk  Web:   http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
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