UK backs EU snoop laws
p2p news / p2pnet:- Two things top the international corporate want lists, we posted on August 1. Your money; and, Information about you. All that stand between you and your data and the likes of the entertainment and software cartels, and mega-monopolists such as Bill and the Boyz, are privacy rights.
In Europe, Britain is one of the countries wanting laws on data retention and to bolster its demands, is claiming logging and storing telephone calls, email and Internet use had helped its police trap suspected terrorists, says Reuters, pointing out that Britain has “struck a deal with a national mobile phone operator and is paying the firm 1.2 million euro (about $1,493,625 at the time of writing) for holding data for a year”.
EU justice and interior ministers will discuss the data proposals tomorrow at a meeting in the UK.
“Industry is concerned about costs, which in some EU countries could be hundreds of millions of euros. But the Home Office said cooperation between police and phone operators was relatively cheap and governments could pay some of the price for storing the data,” says Reuters.
An online petition condemning the proposal had drawn 39,727 signatures by 10:23 am Pacific today.
“Data retention is not a solution to terrorism and crime! – it declares.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
corporate want lists – Oppose European Snoop Law, August 1, 2005
Reuters – UK sets out case for data logs to fight terror, September 7, 2005
September 7th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
what a surprise there is no privacy here in the uk!
September 7th, 2005 at 6:57 pm
I will say it and continue to say it until people start to get the message. Develop FreeWan Cells!!! Only when average people own the infrastructure will it be safe from prying eyes. If someone within a FreeWan cell uses his or her Internet connection to share information or files with other cells, the only thing the cartels will know is that information was transfered between these two cells. Data shared between those who are within a cell is not tracked by the government unless the government installs snooping devices within the cell. Installing snooping devices in every cell will be impractical and still would not garner much data.
IF YOU WANT TO SET UP A FREEWAN CELL, it is simple to do. All is needed is a wireless router and a computer that can store files. Configure the router so that it will allow open connections and act as a DHCP server. Configure the file serving computer so that it uses 192.168.1.1 . If you have enough technical expertise, you can install a DNS server on the filesharing computer and have the dhcp server on the router use you filesharing computer as a name server. The vary least that you can do is run LimeWire on your filesharing computer and allow others to connect to it. Better yet, host a FTP server on the file serving computer so that people will be able to send the filesharing computer interesting stuff. Other computers entering the FreeWan cell will be able to act as servers as well.
I have started my own FreeWan cell, and even though I live in the country, I still have visitors every now and then (thanks to warchalk marks). I have quite a audio and video collection thanks to my visitors. This is my only way to trade files since the cartels will only sell dialup in my area. The best thing is that I do not have to worry about being sued. My FreeWan would probably be real busy if I were in a city and put out some warchalk
Yes it might take a little bit of errot, but the rewards are also great.
September 7th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
Hi:
You’ve posted a lot of Writes on FreeWan. Why not throw some of your comments together and I’ll post them as an article? You can email me at jon[at]p2pnet.net : )
Cheers!
September 7th, 2005 at 8:21 pm
I will. I am currently working on a manual that will explain how to put together a FreeWan with both Winblows and Linux. I also am working on setting up a diagram showing how to interconnect FreeWan Cells via hardwire, wireless, and Internet.
September 8th, 2005 at 12:39 am
Theres no questioning the fact that the uk goverment has no backbone. They heed to the whims of europe, and the cartels.
The uk parliment is just a talking shop. Considering they can’t even expel l known terrorists from this country, infact they even invite them in.
In short the uk goverment is a joke. Again i repeat what i’ve said in the past, we live in a pseudo democracy, where the real decisions are made by corrupt politicians.
September 8th, 2005 at 5:07 am
Hmmm ok, so isps are going to be compelled to retain data for an unspecified number of years which i suspect would be best described as “indefinitely”. They’re going to need more and more servers, storage and other resources each year as the amount of data mounts up and up. Of course the public will wind up paying for this either as higher charges from isps or higher taxes.
There WILL be “losses” or “thefts” of this data which will “just happen” to end up in the hands of marketers, typically the unscrupulous worst kinds of marketers at that. I mean banks and isp’s are already having data stolen or copied, why would that change, especially since being able to find out what websites you’ve been visiting over several years would be so valuable to marketers?
Instead of having to track you by cookies which get disabled, or spyware which gets uninstalled, they can just steal the data off the isp and presto there it all is. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it happening. Even those services which hide your ip from the net, don’t hide it from your isp! So on one hand you’ve got isp’s desperate for money to pay for this data retention’s costs to them, and the other hand has marketers desperate to get their hands on that info…. Not a good combination.
I can see desperate isp’s sneakily changing their contracts to allow them to sell “some” of this info to “trusted partners” in order to raise cash to cover the costs of keeping it. It’s bound to happen, there’s no doubt in my mind, it WILL happen. Worse yet, the govts will probly allow them to do it, to stop them bitching about the costs of retaining all this data!
Then what happens when isp’s merge or one buys another out and they find their data retention systems are incompatible? Remember thanks to Blizzard vs BnetD you can’t make programs that read data out of one database and insert it into another one, unless you get permission from both sets of copyright(wrong?) holders. What happens if the creator of one system has gone by the wayside? Or one or both copyright holders point blank refuses to allow it?
The isp would probably either have to run both systems at the same time, or pay people to literally read screens or printouts of the data from the “old” database and manually type it into the “new” database. Introducing a billion typos i’m sure. You better hope none of those typos are in the ip addresses, or you might end up being convicted of a crime that was actually committed by someone else.
But don’t worry. The government is only trying to protect us. The question is who do we need protection from, the terrorists? Or big biz?
September 8th, 2005 at 10:38 am
Couldn’t prying eyes just log onto your network then? Unless it’s password protected and even then, that can be broken.
They can still snoop on you, if they get any hint of who you are. If they don’t get the information from you, they can get it from people who got files from you. Sure, they may not find your files on the internet, but if they find out about your server, they can still intercept passing data (and if it’s highly encrypted, it can be illegal depending on where you live) or log onto your server.
Besides, how would people know that you are not entrapping them, and that you are not a covert cop just offering space, like it was done recently?
If it’s a close-knit group, you might just as well meet each other every now and do it the old way : swap discs.
September 8th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
Thanks : )
Cheers!
September 8th, 2005 at 3:28 pm
You can be snooped on yes, that is for sure. But your can set your shares so that there is no personally identifyable information. Since the system operator of this network has to set up the network, (s)he chooses the ip address (and yes, he or she can change the Mac address as well). Since visitors can roam in and out of the network cell and be assigned ip addresses they can upload and download anonymously. Yes, it is possible for someone to hide somewhere and use a radio locator to locate a person logging onto the network, but this requires more resources than grabbing record from an ISP. In order for the RIAA to snoop on a FreeWan cell, they or their agants have to be physically within range of the cell. An open cell can also bring up the issue of plausable deniablility. On the Internet a single monitoring station can simultaneously monitor 1000′s of computers where a monitoring device on a FreeWan cell can only monitor the number of computers within the cell (usually less than about 50-60).
If I see an unknow persom mucking about the wireless router I have mounted outdoors, I shut down my server until I can investigate.
Another advantage of a FreeWan cell is the fact that there are no arbitrary limits set on the bandwidth used. I could upload or download 20 movies a day if I so choose. Another advantage is that people can trade files without waking each other up. I trade with my neighbor’s computer all the time. She is also connected to my cell.
Encrypted DVD’s can be sent via snailmail from one FreeWan cell to another. I also swap disks with family and friends, so I don’t discount the sneakernet.