[LINK] Is police spyware in your computer??

[Karl Auer]

On Sun, 2009-10-04 at 08:01 +1000, Tom Koltai wrote:
> But if the price of the safety of the kids that walk down my street or
> the lady that gets home after midnight across the road
> Or the octegenarian Italian couple two doors down is that my computer
> data gets intercepted and matched against a specific pattern, then I for
> one would not object.

That's YOUR call, and I have no objection. I DO object to statements
that the end justifies the means, which is exactly what your original
statement was, however much you now backpedal.

What you fail to understand is that pattern matching on your data won't
help! Unless you happen to actually be a p7e or an oldies-basher, which
I doubt is what you are saying. Pattern matching on my data won't help
either - nor will it help on the millions of other law-abiding people
out there.

So why do it? Why does law enforcement want to watch us all? Because the
underlying argument is that we are all potentially guilty, all potential
perverts or criminals. Do we really want our legal system to explicitly
embody that principle? And look! That old, old question pops up again,
the one that never gets answered: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

> Do I believe they should be allowed to do this without adequate cause?
> Nope.

Good. All the facilities are already in place to let them do all this
*with* adequate cause and *with* all sorts of checks and balances. Yet
they still chip away, wanting more and more access, fewer and fewer
checks.

> It's a hard one folks.

No, it's NOT hard. That is FUD put about by our beloved law enforcement
agencies. It is *simple*. If you are an LEO and have reason to believe
that someone is doing something bad (and by the way, that means
something illegal or planning something illegal) take it to a judge, lay
it out, get the relevant warrant and go after them. The same procedure
that has been in place for decades if not longer.

If this process needs speeding up, then speed it up - don't water it
down. If there are loopholes, then plug them - with analogous
techniques, not new, untested, dangerous ones.

> How do you stop the Ped* rings without DPI and pattern matching?
> I can think of no other alternative.

Ah yes, the ever popular "Argument from Personal Ignorance". Just
because you can't think of a better way doesn't mean there isn't one,
nor does it mean that the way you happen to be able to think of should
be implemented - even if there really *isn't* a better way.

> If there was a valid reason to shut down the ED2K Servers, torrent
> seeders and disk space vendors (Rapidshare et al) then P* would be it.

If there was a valid reason, maybe. But is the reason you give a valid
reason? Is it even slightly possible that is a valid reason? No. Bad
people use the phone - shut down the telephone system! Bad people drive
cars - shut down the highways. What total, utter piffle you do spout at
times. Think, then write.

> And I don't express that lightly. I believe you all know or are aware of
> my liberal attitude to the majority of file-sharing.

Doesn't seem like it from here. You seem to be trying to have your
argumentative cake and eat it too. What's "the majority", by the way?
And if your attitude counts as liberal, Lord preserve us from the
reactionaries!

> However, before I am booed out of the forum..... I am also cognizant of
> the innocent courier connundrum. So mayhap the honeypot system still
> works the best.
> Unfortunately it's rather easy to circumvent.

You are buzzing about like a fly in a jar. Work out what you want to
say, then have another go.

> Tom - (Ducking and dodging any cans of worms that might be thrown back).

You'd be be more use if you grabbed one or two, took a look inside and
started doing the hard work of disentangling. Anyone can dodge.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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