[Gllug] Shutdown of the Internet in the UK? - OT

[Xander D Harkness]

The call has already gone out to employers who have employees on the 
Armed Forces Reserve list. 

When you leave the forces you remain on the reserve list for six years.  
You are issued with combats and Numbers twos which you are bound to keep 
in good order for this period.

The UK has a very strong grip on the print and televised media in this 
country.  There are a lot of events relating to Northern Ireland which 
are newsworthy but not printed in mainland Britain due to suppression  
of the press, this is just one area where the UK government believes 
that it is in its best interest to restrict information.

I am concerned that the UK government is scared of the information 
freely available on the Internet and in the escalation of the impending 
conflict will possibly seek to close this down.

In many respects the seeds for this have already been sown.  There has 
been considerable talk about how terrorists  have used encryption and 
the internet to plan events.   The government could suggest  to the few 
ISPs that they  do not have enough staff to continue following the call 
up of reserves.  The government could also suggest that terrorists 
plotting against the British public are using the Internet and that in 
everyone's interest it should be shutdown temporarily.

The government has refused to debate this possible conflict with other 
members of the government, if it refuses to consult within the elected 
members I see very little hope of it listening to the public.

My point (eventually) is that as there are only a few ISPs in the UK and 
if these were shutdown is there an alternative?

There is the consume network; however that does not provide full 
coverage of London, even ignoring the rest of the country. 

I was thinking that in many respects it would be a return to the old 
Internet where a few hubs would dialup to one another to dump mail.

Distributed networks such as freenet would not work as they require a 
permanent connection and the data would quickly fade.

If you instantly think paranoia also think about laws such as the RIP 
bill parts of which are not possible to implement and which was abused 
the government departments far inexcess of the concerns I expressed to 
my MP, which he poo pooed.

Have fun
Xander

-- 
You have a strong desire for a home and your family interests come first.



-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug