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(mostly in German)
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notes from the ubiquitous surveillance society - blog by Dr. David Murakami Wood, editor of the online academic journal Surveillance and Society
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Big Brother Watch - well connected with the mainstream media, this is a campaign blog by the TaxPayersAlliance, which thankfully does not seem to have spawned Yet Another Campaign Organisation as many Civil Liberties groups had feared.
Spy on Moseley - "Sparkbrook, Springfield, Washwood Heath and Bordesley Green. An MI5 Intelligence-gathering operation to spy on Muslim communities in Birmingham is taking liberties in every sense" - about 150 ANPR CCTV cameras funded by Home Office via the secretive Terrorism and Allied Matters (TAM) section of ACPO.
FitWatch blog - keeps an eye on the activities of some of the controversial Police Forward Intelligence Teams, who supposedly only target "known troublemakers" for photo and video surveillance, at otherwise legal, peaceful protests and demonstrations.
The BTP are being used in an internal spat between current and ex Indymedia Bristol volunteers. There's no evidence that the poster of the original article about dropping rocks on a train load of new cars ex Portbury Docks actually carried out the damage - it had previously been reported in the mainstream media. It appears that the report to the BTP was made by an individual who had previously been thrown out of Bristol IMC (could they be the poster of the original article one wonders). BTP were advised on their first visit that IP addresses were not kept, but threatened to return with a search warrant and 'probably arrest somebody'. As we see, they did.
An RIP request would have to be served on the keeper of the server, not the ISP (it was at the keepers home). I wonder if the BTP are maybe not too aware of this legislation, and are more familiar with the powers of search under PACE.
This will end with the BTP looking the fools that they are, and will encourage work to relocate servers to more friendly regimes and to persue other technologies for the protection of free and anonymous speech.
There is a more serious issue. The seizure of this server is an annoyance but does not threaten the future of indymedia. The seizure of a server from a small business could stop them trading for a prolonged period and threaten many jobs. Another reason to offshore to a more friendly regime.
It is not unheard of for malicous people to post something illegal or controversial to an open discussion forum and then to complain to the authorities that the administrators of the discussion forum are doing something illegal.
For the British Transport Police or any other UK Police force to ignore the National High Tech Crime Unit's guidlines on "minimal disruption" to multi-user networked computers during legal evidence gathering or investigations, is a disproportionate abuse of power and should be investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
There is no justification for the "collateral damage" caused by the seizure of an onlime server in order to attempt to identify the IP address of a single poster. This information is as likely to be available from the ISP providing the internet access to the Indymedia volunteer's home, as from actually physically grabbing the server itself.
From a public relations point of view, such heavyhandedness only gives publicity to, and re-inforces conspiracy theories amongst, the anti-G8 summit protestors.
Today's Britol Indymedia Press Release seems to have "disappeared" from their server, so here it is from another source.
Note the Indymedia volunteer was arrested for "incitement to criminal damage under common law", although he is presumably not the "anonymous" poster of the contentious "news item" itself.
What is going on ?
=======================
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release.
Bristol Indymedia Server Seized.
Contact: Ana - Bristol Indymedia Volunteer / 07976 787335
Email: bristolindymedia@hush.com
http://www.bristol.indymedia.org
On Monday 27th June the police raided a residential property in Bristol and seized an Indymedia server and other computer equipment. They also arrested one person for incitement to criminal damage under common law. That person has since been released on bail. We see this police action as an attack on the freedom of speech and journalistic independence.
This police action relates to an article posted on 17th June in which persons unknown claimed to have damaged cars being transported on a train. This article was considered by Bristol Indymedia to have breached the guidelines and was hidden.
On Monday 20th the police contacted Bristol Indymedia with reference to this posting. Bristol Indymedia informed the police that they were in the process of instructing a solicitor to reply on their behalf. On Tuesday 21st the police contacted a Bristol Indymedia volunteer requesting the IP logs. Bristol Indymedia considered that the system was journalistic material covered by special provision under the law.
A solicitor from Liberty faxed the police explaining this provision. The police then contacted Bristol Indymedia to request a meeting which Bristol Indymedia agreed to. Ten minutes before the arranged meeting DI Bennett of British Transport Police cancelled the meeting and asked to postpone it.
The next police contact was the seizure of the server and the arrest of a Bristol Indymedia volunteer. The seizure of the server was carried out under a search warrant (police and criminal evidence act 1984, ss.8 and 15), not recognising the journalistic privilege.
Additional Statement:
“We are outraged at the actions of the police. They have completely disabled the entire Bristol Indymedia news service. By their actions they have undermined the principle of open publishing and free access to the media, thereby removing people’s opportunity to read and report their own news. This situation has serious implications for anyone providing a news service on the Internet. We do not intend to let this stop us from continuing the project.”
Contact: Ana - Bristol Indymedia Volunteer / 07976 787335
Email: bristolindymedia@hush.com
http://www.bristol.indymedia.org
I reckon the BTP are well out of their depth with this, and this will end with them paying compensation to the arrested person. Or settling out of court with no admission of liability anyway.
Initially the Bristol IMC volunteer was a potential witness, either to incitement to criminal damage (the offending item argued that damaging cars was legitamate political protest), or to the statement made by the poster that they had committed the damage. Now the volunteer is a suspect. Maybe the BTP allege that the suspect incited criminal damage by failing to delete (it was hidden from the newswire but not deleted) the offending post when it came to their attention. Or maybe the arrest was an act of spite when Bristol IMC quite reasonably told the police to go away and get a warrant.
A similar case could be argued against the no2id pledge at http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse and the operators of pledgebank, MySociety. Remind me, who funds mysociety.org.uk...? Could the Deputy Prime Minister be liable to a charge of incitement to failure to register for a national identity card in the event that the scheme comes into effect?
The identity cards bill is not yet law, so there is no case for incitement.
Even it if does become so, the "compulsion to register" will take another vote in Parliament. So you can "refuse tto register" under the "voluntary" part of the scheme by refusing to renew your passport and also being registered.
That is not a criminal offence, but will hopefully lead to some sort of judicial review or appeal to the European Court of Human Rights - hence the legal fighting fund,
It is much too early to say if that fund (or another bigger one) would be needed if "refusniks" actually do start getting fined and then sent to prison for not paying fines when "compulsion" is introduced.
In the Indymedia case how can something be "incitement" when it is no longer being published (i.e. hidden) on a public webserver ?
Why it was "hidden" rather than deleted is a mystery anyway, since it was allegedly in contravention of the site's acceptable publishing policy.
If the BTP admit that it the web server is journalistic publishing, then the journalistic/publishing exemptions should apply.
Rocks several feet in diameter were dropped on a moving train. This could have killed. The post was reported to the police as evidence of a crime.
Bristol IM left the post on the front page for 24 hours befor hiding it.
They now have lied about this saying they removed the post immediatly they saw it. They are now condeming the original incident but are refusing to help the police to catch the dangerous fools who dropped the rocks.
Detail - Why do you not believe them when they claim not to store the IP addresses in their logfiles ?
If anyone knows anyone involved in this, tell them to send a complaint to the Police Complaints Commission. Their website is www.ipcc.gov.uk
It sounds like the police have badly misunderstood the law. The more fuss you cause with the pcc the more likely they are to get involved. Send solicitors letters and all sorts. Demand that they supervise the investigation into the complaint. Public interest is a factor they will take into account when making decisions, and a big stink equals public interest.