Mastering the Internet

[Charles Lindsey]

On Tue, 05 May 2009 21:19:47 +0100, Peter Fairbrother  
<zenadsl6186@zen.co.uk> wrote:

> Sigh. Flows where? To GCHQ. or along the wire to the box?
>
> (hint - the answer is the second one. In the first case, even if the box  
> isn't switched on, it's still interception, as long as GCHQ control the  
> switch.)

Exactly! That is the nub of the whole matter. If there exists some point  
in the system beyond which data does not flow unless some "switch" is set  
(and whether that is before, inside, of after the "black box" is just a  
metter of semantics), then the question is "who controls that switch?". If  
it is the ISP who opens it in response to a properly authorized request  
(whether for traffic data or full content, or whatever) then that is fine.  
If it is GCHQ, then it is interception, and hence illegal.

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131                       
   Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: chl@clerew.man.ac.uk      Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9      Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5