The phrases is, I think, a contender for a new form of Godwin's Rule. Any discussion about laws eventually boils down to "Only a criminal would oppose this measure."

The annoying thing is, it's particularly hard to refute. In some cases, yes, it may be felt that the law unfairly criminalises behaviour which one currently engages in. Most people, however, argue from theory. The Pirate Party has a nice little primer on objections to the argument.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were some practical, real world, examples of how having "nothing to hide" can still be dangerous?

The Government wants to introduce the Communications Data Bill (AKA the Snoopers' Charter). There has been a Joint Committee investigating these proposals - as part of their investigations, they reported:

191. It is not only the public authorities which make errors. The annual report shows that in two cases a CSP disclosed incorrect data in response to a request, the police took action on the basis of this data, and members of the public were wrongly detained and accused of crimes.

Draft Communications Data Bill Joint Committee Contents - 5 Safeguards

So, there we have it. People with nothing to hide caught up in a dragnet of incompetence. Here we have highly responsible state bodies unable or unwilling to verify data correctly - the fall out is that innocent people have their lives severely disrupted

If this bill passes, every single email and text you send, every website you visit, every link you accidentally click, will have its details recorded in a database somewhere. It will then become trivial for the CPS to trawl this vast mine of information looking for anything they regard as "suspicious". And if they mistakenly arrest you because of their deep-grained institutional ability to cock-up - or if they dislike your legal hobbies? Well, that's just too bad.

That's why I support the Open Rights Group - and you should too. They've submitted statements to the Joint Committee, they've tirelessly briefed the press, and are organising a citizens' lobbying of Parliament.

ORG want to fund a part-time Legal Officer to help them with their work - they started with a goal of getting 150 new members, now they are only 30 people short of their target. They need you to join for just £5 per month.

Every supporter donating at least £5 per month by direct debit receives a free copy of Rapture of the Nerds co-authored by Cory Doctorow, a member of the Advisory Council and Charles Stross, one of ORG's founding members.

Obligatory Cartoon

This year, Claire Perry MP produced an "independent" report into online child protection. By "independent" I mean "produced by vested interests including religious groups".

It makes for pretty tedious reading, however you may get a laugh from the antics of our MPs on page 86 when they start discussing Internet filters...

Helen Goodman: I’m sorry, maybe I’m particularly stupid, but I haven’t understood how I get this software or this kit or whatever it is, this filter thingy that you click or whatever without buying a new computer and I don’t want to spend a thousand pounds just to have a filter. I just haven’t understood what I do, and you’ve been talking to us and I’ve been in this room for half an hour.

Matt Lambert: You can download any number of parental control software for free...

Helen Goodman: But I don’t know how to download parental controls. I can send an email, I can click onto Windows but the minute you talk about downloading software, my brain goes bzzzz.

Matt Lambert: Ok, I’m sorry I’m using a technical term, but if you go to search and you ask for parental controls, you will find, whichever search engine you’re using, you’ll find any number of free options including ours.

Jonny Shipp: If you talk to your Service Provider, they’ll help you, I think, mostly.

Helen Goodman: How do you talk to them?

Jonny Shipp: The service provider that provides your internet connection at home.

Helen Goodman: You mean you phone them up?

Jonny Shipp: Yes, or however you’d normally talk to them.

Helen Goodman: I don’t normally talk to them very often.

Fiona Mactaggart: The point that Helen is rather effectively illustrating is the point that, this is the point I was trying to make about being stupid, about the fact that for this best to work, particularly when children are more technically aware than their parents, they know how to get around better than mum and dad, that actually there has to be something which is really simple and which kind of delivers itself to your door...

The "particularly stupid" Helen Goodman speaks for the Labour party on matters of Culture, Media, and Sport. Which, in our twisted democracy, also means "The Internet".

I'm not saying that someone with such responsibility needs to be able to compile their own software, or rebuild a PC. But it would be nice if they understood how to install software.

On an entirely unrelated note, please join the Open Rights Group today. They're doing great work trying to stop Parliament from destroying the Internet.

More people are being prosecuted for free speech on social media, copyright trolls are lurking and website blocking injunctions need tackling: ORG is ready to bring the fight for digital rights to the courts.

Every supporter donating at least £5 per month by direct debit receives a free copy of Rapture of the Nerds co-authored by Cory Doctorow, a member of our Advisory Council and Charles Stross, one of ORG's founding members.

ORG needs to fund a new position: a legal expert who can co-ordinate a crack-team of volunteer lawyers, perform thorough legal research, and create new case law to actively prevent potential threats to civil liberties.

Please help ORG achieve it goal:

150 new supporters will allow ORG to start our legal project.

300 new supporters will allow ORG to pay a Legal Officer full time.

Please set up a Direct Debit today.

ORG supporters usually give between £5 and £10 each month, but please be as generous as you can afford to be.

Further discussion on HackerNews.

Barefoot Into Cyberspace tells the story of the "hacker scene" over the tumultuous last few years.

Yesterday, Becky released a transcript of her interview with Julian Assange - in it he discusses the News of the World hacking, amongst other things. A fascinating interview which helps set the scene for Becky's book.

I've only just started reading the book, but it's clear that it's been written in a very accessible way. You don't need to be a hard-core techie to understand what's going on.

I'm also impressed with her radically honest blogging about the process of writing and publishing the book.

It's available on Kindle for the bargain price of less than £3 - or available in dead-tree format from most retailers.

The HTML & PDF version of the book is Creative Commons and I have taken the liberty of creating an ePub Version - for your edification and delight. Do let me know if you spot any formatting mistakes and I'll do my best to correct them.

The full version of the book contains illustrations which are not part of the free version. A neat idea to encourage sales.

Becky Hogge

@barefoot_techie

Replying to @edent@edent Yes, the Kindle version contains the illustrations, which are not part of the CC release (so should be excluded)

---

So, support the author and buy the book now!

I don't have the money to lobby bribe donate to the Conservative party. I'm too scared of the police attempting to kill protesters to go and stand up for my beliefs. What can I do that will make me feel smug and self-righteous yet won't involve me having to go outside in the snow?

It is, I understand, illegal to blockade Parliament. But there's nothing to stop us enforcing a virtual blockade, is there?

I tweeted as much on Twitter, and got the following reply.

How

So, here's how to blockade Parliament. This guide assumes you have moderate technical ability and know what an .htaccess file is. If you are unsure, please ask a geek to help you. They will, invariably, accept payment in beer, pizza or sexual favours.

The Houses of Parliament have the following IP address range.

194.60.0.0/18

That translates to every IP address from 194.60.0.0 to 194.60.63.255 . (See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Range_blocks for details.)

In your .htaccess file, add the following

order allow,deny
deny from 194.60.
allow from all

That will simply block access from the Houses of Parliament. It will also catch a few other IP addresses in the same range - but that's acceptable collateral damage.

If you want to be a bit more creative, you can redirect the users to any URL you want.

RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^194.60.
RedirectMatch 301 ^.*$ http://www.example.com/index.htm

All we need now is for every website - from the humblest blog to the mightiest newspaper - to block Parliament from their websites and redirect them somewhere more enlightening.

Where Should I Redirect Them To?

My good friend Tom Scott has penned this rather eloquent piece for the Guardian explaining why filtering cannot work. I would refrain from pointing at shock-sites. You'll only give MPs something else to consider banning.

Hang On! There Are Massive Flaws In This Plan!

Yes, yes there are.

Politicians may need access to information which has been inadvertently blocked. For example, a gay MP might want help coming to terms with his or her sexuality - only to find the content unavailable.

Of course, politicians could use a proxy to get round these restrictions. They could use their phone's web browser. They could access from a friend's house. They could get a mate to download content onto a USB drive and hand it over in the playground.

In short, this plan is as ill-conceived as the ridiculous notion that you can ban children from access naughty images and videos.

Open Rights Group

If you care about Internet Freedom, please join the Open Rights Group.

Protestors

Protesters

Despite what El Reg reported, there was a good crowd there - maybe 250 people.

Overall, a worthwhile and useful day.

Please, write to your MP to ask them to debate this bill.

I'd be delighted to answer any questions you may have. Post them as a comment here, send me an SMS or an email and I'll do my best to answer.

A quick look over the candidate statements shows that we're all fairly well aligned. For no reason other than they're very Web 2.0, I've made a Wordle of the candidate statements.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic License. Thanks to those who helped me craft my statement.

Voting is open to members only. Votes have to be returned by 15 February 2010.

I'm not just putting my money where my mouth is. I'm also standing for the Board of Directors. I was nominated by the wise and talented duo of Suw Charman-Anderson & Basheera Khan.

As part of the election, I have to produce a 400 word statement. I want to make ORG more member lead - and I'm starting as I mean to go on. Here's my first draft - I want your crowd-sourced contributions!

(BTW, If you think I'm talking a load of old rot, feel free to vote for Emma Byrne, Felix Cohen, Neil McGovern, or Christi Alice Scarborough. All of whom seem like fine people to me.)

This statement has to be ready by Tuesday 12th January - so get your oar in quickly!

ORG

The Internet is no longer a wild frontier.

The hurds of wild GNU have been safely corralled. Every uncharted port has been nmapped. Huge sums of money are being made in the 24 carat data-mines.

Where there's money, immorality and new ideas - Governments lay their heavy hands.

Our Problem

We have a technologically literate population - but we don't have a technologically literate governing class.

Like a teenager to pornography - Governments are irresistibly drawn to the Internet. In much the same way, they don't really know what to do with it once they get their hands on it.

Our Solution

Government in the UK is run by those who bother to show up. At the moment that's only the army of industry lobbyists and the 45% of the population who votes.

I want to make sure we are listened to and our needs are met with Government action - or inaction.

The ORG must be seen as the de-facto commentators on digital life in the UK.

The "Taxpayers'" Alliance have managed to get their organisation into the front pages of the papers. I believe our digital civil liberties are just as important as how our taxes are spent.

Striking The Balance

I want the Government to get out of our way. I don't want to register my blog with the state. I don't want my traffic monitored on spurious pretexts.

I want the Government to keep us safe from [cr|h]ackers. I want tough penalties for spammers. I want those who breach our privacy to pay the consequences.

How do we reconcile these two opposing views? By being member lead. I want to see a much stronger community built around ORG.

I want to use you to shape our message and help us disseminate it.

Members should decide our priorities and be responsible for executing our campaigns.

0. Our Problem

We have a technology literate population - but we don't have a technology literate governing class.

1. Our Solution

We need to urgently redress this problem. Government in the UK is run by those who bother to show up. At the moment that's only the 45% of the population who vote* and an army of industry lobbyists.

ORG must be seen as the de-facto commentators on digital life in the UK.

I'm amazed at how The "Taxpayers' Alliance" have managed to dominate the front pages of British newspapers. I believe our digital civil liberties are just as important as how our taxes are spent. We need to ensure our message is widely heard. We have to demand that our needs are met with Government action - or inaction.

10. Striking The Balance

How do we target our resources effectively? By being member lead. I want to see a much stronger community built around ORG. You fund it - you should have a strong say in how it is run and on what it campaigns.

I want to use you to shape our message and help us disseminate it. ORG will lobby Parliament & chat with civil servants if you write to your MPs & stick up posters in your workplace. Deal?

Members should decide our priorities and be responsible for executing our campaigns.

This means finding better ways to involve all of you. A members' web forum, open conference calls, and regular blogging where you can help shape the message. ORG's website needs to be kept up to date and be seen as the premier resourse for journalists writing about digital rights.

Finally, I'd like to experiment with a member-get-member scheme. If you can help recruit people, we'll make sure you are rewarded.

11. About Me

My name is Terence Eden. I got my first 14.4K modem when I was 15. I never looked back. I have a degree in Applied Computing from the University of East Anglia. For the last 6 and a half years, I've been working for Vodafone. I currently look at mobile Internet trends. My blog - https://shkspr.mobi/blog - covers a wide range of technology and political topics. I am not a registered member of any political party.