Charged for failing to comply with a Section 49 Notice (RIPA Part 3)

[David Hansen]

On 21 May 2008 at 17:41, sean lock wrote:

> Hi, I have been charged for failing to comply with a Section 49
> notice. I declined to divulge my passphrase at my first interview in
> August 2006. Twenty-one  months later, and when Part 3 of the RIPA act
> was in force, requiring the disclosure of encryption keys, I was
> served with a Section 49 Notice. This was impossible for me to comply
> with as it had been 20 months since I last used my passphrase and as a
> result, I have forgotten the passphrase simply because I have not used
> it in such a long time. 
 
IANAL and I think need ones who have experience of human rights if you 
can rather than one who deals with shoplifting and so on. However, I 
agree that you are being abused by officials.

We were told by the Home Office that they would take measures against 
RIP being used wrongly by officials. They never revealed what this 
would be and I suspect that if it is anything at all this is a hard 
stare. In your case I suspect that they are too scared of the police to 
even give them a hard stare.

<http://security.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/legislation/protecting-human-
rights/> has the usual bullshit for which they are famous, including, 
"Several bodies have been set up to monitor surveillance activity to 
ensure it doesn´t encroach upon our right to privacy and to hold public 
authorities to account for any misconduct.", which would be laughable 
if it wasn't so serious. However, they do have a list of official 
people who are supposed to consider these things, though their record 
of doing so is pathetic.

While it is worth keeping these useless official bodies informed I 
wouldn't rely on them at all. Unofficial action is the way of dealing 
with this sort of thing, though lawyers often advise against this as 
they have a touching belief in official systems. In my view the way of 
holding officials to account is to get as much publicity as possible. 
They are the ones who want to hide.

I would asking my MP if they are in favour of retrospective 
legislation. This could lead in a  number of directions, depending on 
their history.







-- 
  David Hansen, Edinburgh 
 I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents 
me   
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54