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Aussie Gov't Says Wiretap Laws Fine, Telcos 'Wrong'
mask.of.sanity writes "A top bureaucrat from the Australian Attorney-General's department has said telcos are wrong to complain about changes to the country's wiretapping laws, which will force them to report every product and network system change to law enforcement for approval, lest they affect the ability to intercept communications. The telcos argue there are simply too many products and network architecture changes to report and that it would become overbearing. It's the latest in a string of changes to communications law in the country, and comes as the government mulls data retention and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement."
Soft tyranny -- it's for your protection!
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
If forced to store conversations, transcribe them into a paper format, print them out, delete the digital copies, and keep a large paper archival system, for the government's perusal. Then use the cost of that as a tax writeoff.
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
Just so you know, the data retention and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement don't have anything to do with this particular bit of madness despite the misleading summary.
Yeah you change a tube here, a valve there - not much to report at all!
Dear government, we will now use purple wirenuts rather than buttsplices to join wires.
1 minute later: Dear government, we will not use off white butt splices rather than purple wirenuts to join wires
next minute: Dear government, we changed our minds again, back to the wirenuts.
30 seconds later: Dear government, in reference to the letter sent today 30 seconds ago, we should clarify that we DO mean the purple butt splices.
15 seconds later, Hi again! Sorry, we meant wirenuts, not butt splices!
Another minute passes: Dear government, to update and clarify, the use of a moose to crimp butt splices is now absolutely forbidden! While the moose is quite majestic, their import would violate several laws and besides, moose bites can be serious.
10 seconds later: Dear government, my sister was bitten by a moose once!
another minute: Dear government, telephone communication shall now be based on dixie cups and kite string!
30 seconds later: Dear government, the previous announce was obviously in error as it would violate our policy of maintaining a second source for all key components. Any brand of paper cup might be used. The person responsible for the last memo has been sacked.
Oh Hai again! Sorry, that last message regarding the previous unauthorized message was not, in fact, authorized. Those responsable for the sacking have been sacked!
Dear government: I just don't know what was up with the memo guy, it's nonsense! We could never use kite string and paper cups (of any brand) for key telecommunications infrastructure. Everyone knows you can't join kite string with purple butt splices!
From TFA:
Australian Federal Police, ... noted that "there is nothing worse than to see criminals escape conviction because of technology"
Nothing worse? How about treating the populous like criminals even though they are innocent? If this doesn't qualify as worse to you, then you shouldn't be in law-enforcement or politics.
I just loathe the line of thinking exhibited by the police.
Cars are technology that help the vast majority of escaping criminals escape. Perhaps they all need tracking devices installed so that we know where everyone is going at all times.
Books convey technical information that may help a criminal escape. We should pass a law requiring all books read to be reported to the police as well.
Some rapists use condom technology to escape without leaving their DNA! Citizens should be required to keep a condom log detailing the time and date of each condom purchase and use.
Complimentary pirate party against ACTA. http://pirateparty.org.au/
There's some discussion to protest the next ACTA meeting in Sydney. It would be great to emphasise how shocking it is for ACTA discussion to be held behind doors when it affects everyone in Australia.
Please do post other options or suggestions against ACTA. I don't want this gross violation of democracy to occur.
I thought Australia was a penal colony anyway? So then they are all criminals, and therefore it is ok.
--jeffk++
ipv6 is my vpn
Technically, the U.S. isn't really going towards nanny state as that would imply an element of taking care of people rather than just watching them. It's more a Mommy Dearest state really.
"(Gubermint) Upgrade a router to a T1600? You want to do WHAT?"
Sorry, that's not on our list of approved $routers_whose_manufacturer_donated_the_most_to_our_campaign. You're going to have to use a Cisco 2600s for your core routing, just like all your competitors. In 5 or 6 years, we might let you upgrade to the ASR 1000, but the approval process is still in the early stages.
I think it is worse than that.
Your post implies that corruption would be the greatest interference in network operations at the ISP.
My experience in my own country shows that those that work for the government do so because they lacked the skills (on many levels) to work in the private sector.
In order for the government to approve the changes, they would need to first understand them. Increasing the operational costs of the both the ISPs and the government at the same time.
Who decides who is right in the event of a disagreement? The idiot in the government who could not cut it in the private sector, or the well paid network engineer in the ISP?
This makes all the ISPs only as smart as the IT personnel the government hires to evaluate the approval requests...... yeah...... that will work out great.
Australia should just quit the fucking foreplay and eliminate all private sector technology companies and go with state run everything. At least approval would go faster since it all in house anyways.
Indeed, telcos need to dedicate manpower (or slow down their service to paying customers) to play that little game, whereas government can just throw 99% of these bogus reports into the trash where they belong, and only randomly spot check the remaining 1% to make sure that they are not just "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" repeated all over.
No, the most probably thing that will happen is that telcos will lie low, conveniently "forgetting" to report most changes, especially those that are trivial, hard to document, or on high pressure projects, and only submit one or two token change reports per year. Everybody will be happy, and the government bum paid for reading them will be just as lazy, and won't notice that between the report of the change from A to B, and the report of the change from C to D, the report from B to C was missing...