Slashdot Mirror
UK ISPs Resistant to Monitoring Users
ethericalzen writes "An article from BBC News online states that ISPs in the UK are resistant to the government's desires for monitoring their users' data. The government seeks to have ISPs turn off the access of users who are 'persistent pirates'. The ISPs are citing technical and legal reasons for why they do not wish to do this. Legals reasons include surveillance laws which prohibit ISPs from monitoring a user's data unless compelled by a warrant. Technical reasons include an inability to accurately identify copyrighted material that is legally being transferred over p2p clients, and copyrighted material that is being transferred illegally over p2p clients."
Lets not forget junior members of staff downloading entire databases onto unencrypted DVDs and dropping them down the sofa or the Navy losing laptops with the details of an entire years worth of potential recruits...
A thistle is a fat salad for an ass's mouth...
Seriously though, if you look at ANY nation in the world that's had to deal with terrorism as a long term issue (England and Ireland, Russia and former USSR states, practically all of the Middle East) these kind of knee-jerk government (re)actions are immediately attacked as government attempts to seize more power. In comparison, the U.S. is the spoiled, naive brat after being bullied for the first time in their life.