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French Minister Sells Surveillance Legislation With Fake Benefits
Dangerous_Minds writes "The debate over LOPPSI 2, the legislation that would allow police to upload malware including Trojan Horses and key loggers to unwitting users without a court order, is heating up in France. Interior minister Brice Hortefeux told the media that LOPPSI 2 would stop the theft of smart phones because vendors would then be able to discontinue use of on-board SIM cards. Critics are pointing out that the theft of stolen portable phones is not covered under LOPPSI 2 in its current form. Others also point out that the discontinued use of SIM cards on stolen phones is already possible in France without the legislation. It's unclear if this is just a case of the minister not knowing what is actually in the legislation he is trying to pass."
legislation they push?
Or are the police possibly some other special interest groups pushing it?
Politicians are yes men plain and simple.
Brice Hortefeux is well known for not knowing what he is talking about and lying about facts on a daily basis.
Note that he has been judged and condemned twice in the recent months (racism and presumption of innocence) so his lack of moral is not only notorious, it is also official.
The current French government has proposed, in the recent past, to track down migrants, both legal and illegal, through genetic testing.
This is a government which was one of the very first to propose a "three strikes and you are out" regulation to "fight" so-called Internet piracy. Even though it was repeatedly told this was an unpopular measure and one that was pretty much unfeasible technically.
This is a governement whose minister in charge of the "three strikes" law actually mentioned that Linux was not concerned by music or movie piracy because it had "high performance firewalls" [sic] such as "Open Office" [!!].
Coming from that government, nothing surprises me anymore. Like many politicians, all you need to know is that they are lying every time they open their mouths and that whatever they say they will do, they probably won't.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
This is the same law that creates a blacklist of sites that must be blocked by ISPs, the list being secret, created by the interior minister, no appeal, no review.... And they claim it will stop pedo-pornography. They DO know what they're doing, they're just lying as usual.
What's the betting that the keylogger and screengrabber only work in Windows anyway?
Of course, if you run Linux you'll be automatically assumed to be a terrorist...
Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Most politicians around the world admired the fascists before WWII. The majority never really got over it, they just knew that they couldn't admit it after war broke out.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison