Roland Perry - "is an ISP a 'Person'?"

[Roland Perry]

In message <036701c26959$4c144d80$c71121c2@sharpuk.co.uk>, David Howe
<DaveHowe@gmx.co.uk> writes
>if you assume that, in order for interception to
>take place some individual must "see" it - then the machine doing the
>seeing must be part of the "being" represented by the body corporate. As
>a side effect, then the selective interception warrants issued under RIP
>can't exist - by definition, you must be inspecting each mail to
>distinguish covered from uncovered mail, and if the inspection mechanism
>is not excluded from the definition, you are blanket-intercepting
>everything, then discarding what you don't want.

This has occurred to me too. An ISP with any kind of Intercept
Capability (of the RIPA s12 kind) is Intercepting everyone's emails :-(

Even without a formal Permanent Intercept Capability, the fact that you
can (usually) access emails as Root, means the same.

Of course, all this applies equally to telcos, but not perhaps to
whatever the Royal Mail is called this week (unless a kettle owned by
them is also a person).

ps. I do believe I'm a person :-)
-- 
             Roland Perry | tel: +44 20 7645 3505 | roland@linx.org
Director of Public Policy | fax: +44 20 7645 3529 | http://www.linx.net
 London Internet Exchange | mbl: +44 7909 68 0005 |       /contact/roland