[Wiltshire] Fwd: Press Release - Prostesters to Picket Shareholders at BT PLC AGM

[Ciemon Dunville]

 ----- Forwarded message from S0107981 at Cumbria.ac.uk -----

 To: admin at lug.org.uk
 From: S0107981 at Cumbria.ac.uk
 Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 23:23:56 +0100
 Cc:
 Subject: [admin] [Feedback] Press Release - Prostesters to Picket
        Shareholders at BT PLC AGM

 Alexander Hanff sent a message using the contact form at
 http://lug.org.uk/contact.

 I know this is not Linux related, but I am a long term and well known Linux
 user here in the UK so I thought maybe you guys could support me by posting
 this out to your lists and newsletters:

 Press Release - Immediate Release

 Protesters to Picket shareholders at BT PLC Annual General Meeting - 16th
 July 2008

 On 16th July 2008 there will be a full day protest against the use of Deep
 Packet Inspection for the purpose of behavioural profiling.  The event will
 focus on the plans by BT PLC, Virgin Media and Car Phone Warehouse to
 introduce deep packet inspection technologies through exclusive contracts
 with Phorm Inc.

 Since Phorm issued a press release on 14th February 2008 regarding these
 exclusive contracts there has been a storm of outrage amongst the public,
 leading academics, privacy advocates, Members of Parliament, Members of the
 European Parliament, Peers in the House of Lords and the industry as whole.
 The technology has been called illegal by Foundation for Information
 Policy Research, which was recently supported by a statement from the
 European Commission.

 As a result of the negative publicity generated over the past 3 months
 Phorm Inc.'s share price has plummeted by approx 70% and continues to
 struggle to develop confidence from investors.

 In 2006/2007 BT PLC have admitted to running covert trials of the
 technology without first obtaining the consent from customers required by
 EU and UK Data Protection and Communications regulations, directives and
 legislation.  However, to date neither the Information Commissioner nor the
 Secretary of State have held BT PLC to account for these allegedly illegal
 actions.

 Therefore, the growing public campaign to seek justice for the victims of
 these covert trials and the wider mission of stopping the technology from
 being deployed, has led to an organised one day protest in London, UK.
 There is expected to be a significant press and media presence at the event
 which will begin at the Barbican Centre, continue on to BT Centre (BT's
 corporate HQ) and finally end with a march on to Charing Cross Metropolitan
 Police Station in the early evening.  On arrival at the Metropolitan Police
 station a full case file with witness testimonies and supporting evidence,
 along with a petition demanding a criminal investigation will be handed to
 the senior officer on duty.

 For more details about the event, please visit the following two web
 sites:

 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/30/bt_agm_phorm_protest
 http://www.nodpi.org

 If you require further information please contact me by reply.

 Sincerely,

 Alexander Hanff
 University of Cumbria