Child abuse unit paying for data

[Ian Batten]

On 21 Jan 2009, at 09:29, Roland Perry wrote:

> In article <A1DEA032-4169-4DF1-B39E-FFD215A3BB74@batten.eu.org>, Ian  
> Batten <igb@batten.eu.org> writes
>> today programme covered story at 0650-ish.
>
> [I didn't listen, nor can I "listen again", as it's not yet been  
> posted by the BBC].
>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7840924.stm
>
> That story raises an interesting issue - RIPA is all about providing  
> information regarding *offenders*, and does very little to  
> facilitate enquiries about *victims*.

Jim Gamble's also essentially arguing that this sort of crime is  
different because it's happening on the Internet and the ISPs are in  
business to deliver the Internet and therefore it's their problem.

> He said: "Where it's any type of ordinary criminal offence, then of  
> course we need to pay. If we are diverting them from their core  
> business we need to recompense them for that."
> But he feels it is unacceptable when working to prevent harm to  
> children in an online area created by the ISPs themselves.
> "Their core business is the online environment, bringing customers  
> to that environment, and where customers coming to that area commit  
> a crime, it's ridiculous that we would have to pay to successfully  
> investigate that," he said.

Which is fine so far as it goes, but it's hard to see how the same  
logic doesn't apply to EBay fraud,  VoIP junk calling and any other  
case where a real world crime is facilitated by the net.

ian