RIP article

[Roland Perry]

In article <4A674B32.12081.1F05528 at davidh.spidacom.co.uk>, David Hansen 
<davidh at spidacom.co.uk> writes
>There is an excellent article on RIP at
><http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jul/22/ripa-surveillance-council-snoopers>
>
>The final paragraph is worth repeating,"We should not be tinkering with
>such legislation, we should be rewriting it from scratch, defining what
>is allowed under what circumstances, and with independent scrutiny.
>Instead of employing high court judges to oversee the procedures
>adopted by the authorising officers, we should be using them to assess
>the merits of individual surveillance cases. You want to bug someone?
>Have a good, specific, reason - and get a warrant."

What we probably need is to split the Act up into different pieces, so 
people no longer get confused between the police tapping the phones of 
serious organised criminals and local authorities writing down the phone 
number off the side of a van they've just seen do some fly-tipping. (eg 
How could you ever get the latter judicially authorised on a case by 
case basis in advance?)
-- 
Roland Perry