Slashdot Mirror

There are a number of other petitions on the same site that might be of interest to slashdotters:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OpenDocument/ - petition for opendocument to be used by the british government.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/teach-oss - petition for teaching in schools to be vendor neutral, instead of promoting microsoft products

There are a number of other petitions on the same site that might be of interest to slashdotters:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OpenDocument/ - petition for opendocument to be used by the british government.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/teach-oss - petition for teaching in schools to be vendor neutral, instead of promoting microsoft products

Want to do something about this? If you're a UK citizen go sign the petition. From past form it appears that the government will ignore it, but the BBC sometimes reports those that get enough signatures.

My question posed to the webchat here in advance:

One thing is certain: identity cards will be forged.

This will prevent the ID card scheme from having any preventative effect on the most serious crimes (because those with the intention to cause serious harm will undoutedly have the resources to procure forgeries).

The only remaining benefit of having a handy "ID" is nugatory because we already have such ID in the form of Birth Certificates, Driving Licences etc.

The multiple downsides of the system such as increased potential for serious abuse, impingements on civil liberties etc can only lead to the conclusion that ID cards are not merely unnecessary, but undesirable.

How do you respond to this?

As regards the GPS tracking of cars, over 1.7 million people have now signed the petition against it. Sign up here:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

Cheers,

Paul.

There already is a petition in support of ID cards: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/idcard/

Currently 25 signatures.

Of course, if you're British and you care about your every move being monitored by the government, you should sign the official petition against the GPS tracking of every single UK vehicle for the purposes of the new "pay as you drive" scheme.

This petition has been in the news a lot this week, but if you've not already signed it, you should consider doing so as it's due to close TODAY (20th Feb). So far, an incredible 1.7 MILLION people have signed.

Secondly, there's no way to vote against a petition. You can only sign FOR it. What if I think the petition is stupid? There's no way for me to express that.

Why not "sign against" petitions?
Many people have suggested changes to the e-petitions service during this test phase, and a number of improvements have been made as a result.
One of the most popular proposals has been the creation of a 'sign against' mechanism, which would allow users to disagree with petitions. After much discussion, we have decided not to add this function.
The rationale is this: "e-petitions" is designed essentially as a modern equivalent of the traditional petitions presented at the door of No.10. It enables people to put their views to the Prime Minister. It is not intended to be a form of quasi-referendum or unrepresentative opinion poll (professional polls use special techniques to ensure balanced samples). With a "vote against" function, that is what it would effectively become.
It is of course possible to create a counter-petition to an existing campaign (as many people already have). This remains the best option if you disagree with a particular petition.

Secondly, there's no way to vote against a petition. You can only sign FOR it. What if I think the petition is stupid? There's no way for me to express that.

Why not "sign against" petitions?
Many people have suggested changes to the e-petitions service during this test phase, and a number of improvements have been made as a result.
One of the most popular proposals has been the creation of a 'sign against' mechanism, which would allow users to disagree with petitions. After much discussion, we have decided not to add this function.
The rationale is this: "e-petitions" is designed essentially as a modern equivalent of the traditional petitions presented at the door of No.10. It enables people to put their views to the Prime Minister. It is not intended to be a form of quasi-referendum or unrepresentative opinion poll (professional polls use special techniques to ensure balanced samples). With a "vote against" function, that is what it would effectively become.
It is of course possible to create a counter-petition to an existing campaign (as many people already have). This remains the best option if you disagree with a particular petition.

Secondly, there's no way to vote against a petition. You can only sign FOR it. What if I think the petition is stupid? There's no way for me to express that.

Why not "sign against" petitions?
Many people have suggested changes to the e-petitions service during this test phase, and a number of improvements have been made as a result.
One of the most popular proposals has been the creation of a 'sign against' mechanism, which would allow users to disagree with petitions. After much discussion, we have decided not to add this function.
The rationale is this: "e-petitions" is designed essentially as a modern equivalent of the traditional petitions presented at the door of No.10. It enables people to put their views to the Prime Minister. It is not intended to be a form of quasi-referendum or unrepresentative opinion poll (professional polls use special techniques to ensure balanced samples). With a "vote against" function, that is what it would effectively become.
It is of course possible to create a counter-petition to an existing campaign (as many people already have). This remains the best option if you disagree with a particular petition.

You could start a counter petition.

Someone did.

Looks like there aren't so many supporters of the government's plan.

"Terrorists routinely use multiple identities - up to 50 at a time. Indeed this is an essential part of the way they operate and is specifically taught at Al-Qaeda training camps. One in four criminals also uses a false identity. ID cards which contain biometric recognition details and which are linked to a National Identity Register will make this much more difficult"

So would locking us all in our houses, day and night. I think we all appreciate the need to effectively tackle terrorism and crime, but just because a measure helps with this, it doesn't unilaterally make it a 'good' thing. We need to find a good balance between civil liberties and dealing with crime, and I'm sure the UK security services will think the ID card helps with the latter, but who in the government is there to advocate for the former?

A referendum would allow the people to decide; the government is there to serve the people, and this issues seems to be one the people are sensitive about. As it happens, on the very same petition site, there is a petition for such a referendum:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/IDreferendum/

The people may make the 'wrong' choice, but at least they will have made it; Democracy in action.

I did email the Gov people and suggest that whenever someone starts up a new petition it should be possible to vote For or Against it. This would be a pretty small change and make the site a bit more even handed!

They should also weed out the more silly ones (Blair to stand on head and juggle ice cream, for example!).

Where is the source link in the original text? A link claiming to be the source is provided yet it navigates to the home page.

A Slashdot member has kindly posted the link to the petition (something Slashdot should've done) which only list the number of voters, which as far as I can see closed because it expired (all votes on the pm.gov.uk have an expiry date) NOT because Tony Blair forcibly closed it. Another Slashdot member has posted this without any source link to backup what he posted.

Incidentally I have just found the relevant source link Slashdot should've posted in the first place (and pasted in here): http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10987.asp

I'd always prefer to read the source link as I've no idea otherwise if it's true. Also: Homepage for ID Cards: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10960.asp. Next time Slashdot instead of posting such blatantly one sided news how about you also post your source links to back it up!

As for whether Tony Blair is good prime minister as I see some are commenting on that's a debate for an entirely different discussion, if you think Tony Blair solely is for ID Cards you're a fool.

Personally I think he's done a lot for the UK which is overshadowed by his recent Iraq war decisions. Tony Blair has been in power 10 years lets not forget and also lets not forget what a mess the Conservatives left the country in.

Some perspective please people.

Where is the source link in the original text? A link claiming to be the source is provided yet it navigates to the home page.

A Slashdot member has kindly posted the link to the petition (something Slashdot should've done) which only list the number of voters, which as far as I can see closed because it expired (all votes on the pm.gov.uk have an expiry date) NOT because Tony Blair forcibly closed it. Another Slashdot member has posted this without any source link to backup what he posted.

Incidentally I have just found the relevant source link Slashdot should've posted in the first place (and pasted in here): http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10987.asp

I'd always prefer to read the source link as I've no idea otherwise if it's true. Also: Homepage for ID Cards: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10960.asp. Next time Slashdot instead of posting such blatantly one sided news how about you also post your source links to back it up!

As for whether Tony Blair is good prime minister as I see some are commenting on that's a debate for an entirely different discussion, if you think Tony Blair solely is for ID Cards you're a fool.

Personally I think he's done a lot for the UK which is overshadowed by his recent Iraq war decisions. Tony Blair has been in power 10 years lets not forget and also lets not forget what a mess the Conservatives left the country in.

Some perspective please people.

Ignoring a petition from 27thousand out of a population of 60million ish is hardly a big deal IMHO and says more about how little people understand the issue and care either way than it does about democracy in action.

If one were to look for a better example of democracy being stifled, it was the "sinister" road tolls petition - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/ with a total of 1.6 million people signed up. The original government response was more or less "who cares how many people sign it, it's still not going to make a difference to policy. I wonder how that one will end.

So my question is, why would you put this site up for people to raise petitions, if you don't plan to pay any attention to the petitions people put on it?

Link to the actual petition -> here

Because here in the UK at least, people are busy voting against having uniquely identifiable bits of technology inserted in their cars. At the time of this article submission, 1,422,143 signatures have been signed opposing the proposed tracking and taxing of car journeys.

The petition on road tax included here is managing to have a rather large impact on the UK government so saying they do *nothing* is a slight exaggeration.

Someone pointed out to me that the FSF does mention something about patents on their campaigns page. My bad. However, it is focus toward a petition in the United Kingdom. I personally do not believe in petitioning myself, so I may have selectively ignored it. I believe more in lobbying because that's what the politicians really listen to.

If you are eligible ("a British citizen or resident"), sign the petition against software patents: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/softwarepatents/

And pass it on to everyone you know. It only has 1,800 signatures right now and the deadline is Feb 20th. And if you want to learn more about software patents, try:

• http://ciaran.compsoc.com/software-patents.html
• http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/swpat/swpat.en.h tml
• http://www.ifso.ie/documents/rms-2004-05-24.html
• http://ifso.ie/documents/ifso-2005-11-18.html

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

If the petitions are narrow & specific, then I agree this might be a useful tool.

A lot of them are. Some which may be of interest to slashdotters include:

to make software patents clearly unenforcible
to Abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography"
to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools
to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price
to force Ofcom [UK equivalent of FCC] to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services
to ensure that any website launched by the government complies with accessibility standards (WCAG AA at least)
to Improve Open Source use in govenment and local govenment work places
to Reject any motions to extend the copyright term for sound recordings
to award Professor Stephen W. Hawking a Knighthood
to Arrange for British Standard Time to be maintained in England permanently

and of course the petition for the prime mininster to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream. All feasible, most narrowly defined, or at least easy to investigate ways of achieving.

FTFA, it seems like the Brits have relatively specific petitions, which is a good thing. OTOH, how many successful petitions will ever advocate higher taxes or anything that will require sacrifice?

There's also a petition to make software patents unenforcible that people may wish to sign. It would be good to see it get more signatures than some of the sillier ones.

The road pricing petition is doing suspiciously well with 30x the signatures of the next most popular. That's over 1% of the population. Either someone has been marketing it well or there may be invalid signatures. You have to submit your address, but that's not hard to fake.

While you're there, don't forget to sign the petition opposing software patents

And in 41st place:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to replace the national anthem with 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet.

We would thereby like to table the suggestion that we change the National Anthem to something more modern and appropriate and that will re-invigorate our pride. What we specifically want to see, is that the National Anthem be changed in favour of "Gold" by Spandau Ballet.

Almost two thousand people have signed so far. This is, it should be pointed out, two hundred more than have signed the petition to make software patents clearly unenforcible.

Democracy in action!

And in 41st place:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to replace the national anthem with 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet.

We would thereby like to table the suggestion that we change the National Anthem to something more modern and appropriate and that will re-invigorate our pride. What we specifically want to see, is that the National Anthem be changed in favour of "Gold" by Spandau Ballet.

Almost two thousand people have signed so far. This is, it should be pointed out, two hundred more than have signed the petition to make software patents clearly unenforcible.

Democracy in action!

Has anyone noticed that they require email verification? With that kind of verification, I bet one of you could add 600,000 signatures to any petition using a botnet.

that I'm the first to point out that the 33rd most popular petition is for Tony Blair to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream.

that I'm the first to point out that the 33rd most popular petition is for Tony Blair to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/list/open?sort=signers

The real question is why "make software patents clearly unenforcible" is so low down on the list.

Please vote here, British citizens and residents: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/softwarepatents/

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/list/open?sort=signers

The real question is why "make software patents clearly unenforcible" is so low down on the list.

Please vote here, British citizens and residents: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/softwarepatents/

I signed a petition to add an exception to copyright law for personal use a month or two ago. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from the system notifying me of the government's response:

As you may be aware, in December 2005 the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced that there would be a review of the intellectual property framework in the UK, led by Andrew Gowers.

The findings of this review have now been published and recommend the introduction of a private copying exception for the purposes of format shifting. This would allow individuals to copy music which they have legally bought on compact disc onto an MP3 player without infringing copyright.

The Government welcomes this recommendation and is currently considering how such an exception should be created in UK law.

Now obviously the petition didn't have a huge effect, but at least they are aware there is public demand for this, and it's helped me keep track of what they are actually doing about it.

I signed a petition to add an exception to copyright law for personal use a month or two ago. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from the system notifying me of the government's response:

As you may be aware, in December 2005 the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced that there would be a review of the intellectual property framework in the UK, led by Andrew Gowers.

The findings of this review have now been published and recommend the introduction of a private copying exception for the purposes of format shifting. This would allow individuals to copy music which they have legally bought on compact disc onto an MP3 player without infringing copyright.

The Government welcomes this recommendation and is currently considering how such an exception should be created in UK law.

Now obviously the petition didn't have a huge effect, but at least they are aware there is public demand for this, and it's helped me keep track of what they are actually doing about it.

We are doing

The US have some weird attitudes to tits and nudity (playboy ain't really porn).

Agreed, though it isn't just the US. The UK still has outdated obscenity laws, and you can be charged for showing non-approved material to someone (even if they are an adult who wants to see it), or for importing a video from abroad that wasn't approved by the censors. (Admittedly, this doesn't include playboy as it's legal to publish, but then again I wouldn't be surprised if there were laws about showing it to minors.)

The Government, unable to cope with the fact that they aren't able to censor the Internet, are now planning to criminalise possession (they're using words like "extreme porn", but it's about criminalising possession because some people think the images are too naughty - see http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/ for more info). Mediawatch are currently petitioning the Government to also criminalise possession of a wider range of (currently legal to publish) porn. (A counter petition is here, or see the one in my .sig.)

Also note that the Government defines porn to be anything which was intended to arouse, so could be broad enough to cover anything erotic (i.e., it doesn't have to be sexually explicit).

Tell them about Firefox, suggest that they get a Mac next time.

Well I'm no great fan of Windows, but I don't think not getting a Mac is a reason to lay blame...

All citizens of the UK sign this http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/juggle/. Everyone else should check it out, and I recommend Americans form a similar petition to Dubya

It's a good thing this sort of idiotic nonsense pandering to ignorant pressure groups and those with an anti-porn agenda doesn't happen on the right hand side of the pond.

Oh, wait a minute, it does...

The UK Government wants to make it an offence, punishable by three years in jail, to simply possess "violent pornography", the definition of which appears to be based on the subjective viewpoints of some narrow minded and puritanical members of the Home Office.

This knee-jerk legislation came about after Graham Coutts was convicted of the murder of Jane Longhurst, because, it's claimed, he looked at sites like Necrobabes which "promote violence against women".

Even though the Court of Appeal has quashed his conviction the "We must be seen to be doing something!" bandwagon keeps rolling and a law that will create a Thought Crime and trample over people's right to make up their own minds about what they can look at on the internet is in the offing.

For more information see http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/ and UK citizens can sign an online petition objecting to the Nanny State trying to control what we can or cannot see at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Violent-Porn/ or write to their MP to object via http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

The Open Rights Group is running a Release The Music campaign, with a petition against term extension that you can sign. There's also one asking for the right to privately copy CDs to iPods.

Are Slashdot readers as good at signing petitions as dead musicians?

I'm not sure why the Slashdot editors trimmed the ORG petition off my original submission - do they prefer whinging to doing something politically influential?

Brits here should check out the petition for private copying on 10 Downing Street's website.

Stroller.