RIPA and file-sharing??

[Clive D. W. Feather]

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In article <47A6D825.901@callnetuk.com>, PeteM <otcbn@callnetuk.com> 
writes
>> (3) We can find some other way to make my disclosure to them legal.
>> The first two are unacceptable to me, so that leaves the third. And 
>>that  is what Part 1 Chapter 2 was about.
>>  If there was a fourth option, what was it?
>
>(4) Your disclosure to them shall be illegal and we shall *not* find 
>some other way to make the disclosure legal, except by the established 
>mechanism of a court order granted only after independent scrutiny.
>
>It shows how far we have come that even you - undoubtedly one of the 
>good guys - didn't include this on your list of options.

That *is* a form of number 3, though I accept I didn't make it explicit.

Personally, I'd have been happy with that, but I suspect that neither 
law enforcement nor the courts would have been. Do the courts have the 
manpower to cope with the number of applications there would have been? 
Let's suppose that 80% of requests for communications data are 
unnecessary (an assumption I *don't* make); that still means 100,000 
applications a year. Do you think there would actually have been enough 
scrutiny to make it worthwhile?

Perhaps the line should have been drawn between name-and-address queries 
and other ones. I really don't think that a magistrate or judge can 
insert much into "we've found this phone number/email address; we need a 
clue as to who it is before we go much further". But I didn't get to 
make that choice.

- -- 
Clive D.W. Feather                       | Home: <clive@davros.org>
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