[Wylug-announce] UK RIP bill

[Nigel Metheringham]

We mentioned this at the meeting last night and I said I would put 
together a message with references to the bill and related information. 
 I will leave editorial comment to the last para or so of this message, 
although people may consider the set of links I have quoted to be 
biased in one form or other.

Followups to this message should go to the wylug-discuss list.

The Bill Itself
---------------

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill was introduced in the 
House of  Commons on 9th February 2000.  The Bill regulates 
investigatory powers in three areas:

     Interception of Communications 
     Intrusive Investigative Techniques 
     Access to Encrypted Data 

The Home Office information on the bill is at
  http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/oicd/ripbill.htm

House of commons data
  http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmbills/064/2000064.
htm




Media Reporting of the Bill
---------------------------

BBC News - Surveillance bill under fire 
  http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F638000/638041
.stm
  [some links from this page are slightly wrong]

ZDNET - New surveillance bill comes under fire
  http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/5/ns-13280.html

Techweb - E-Spying Bill Called 'Escrow By Intimidation`
  http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20000210S0005

FT - BIG BROTHER: Government unveils e-mail surveillance law 
  http://www.ft.com/hippocampus/q34646a.htm

Slashdot [Media is a loose term!] - UK Decryption Law Pushed Through
  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/02/09/1445242&mode=thread

The Register - UK gov't reveals Big Brother bill
  http://www.theregister.co.uk/000211-000020.html



Pressure Groups (all critical of the bill)
------------------------------------------

Foundation for Information Policy Research - FIPR: Regulations of 
Investigatory Powers Information Centre
  http://www.fipr.org/rip/index.html

STAND - CAMPAIGNING FOR SAFE E-COMMERCE LEGISLATION
  [the home page and links are a simple/simplistic photo story 
explanation
  of the bill]
  http://www.stand.org.uk/



Informed Mailing Lists
----------------------

[By this I mean mailing lists that have a scholarly component to them 
rather than just being a flame fest]

UKCrypto - UK Cryptography Policy Discussion Group
   General archives
   http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/

   Specific messages - my choice (I had to filter somewhere and you 
have the
   original source to work from)

   RIP Bill and mass surveillance
   http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/1199-0100/msg
00721.html
   http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/1199-0100/msg
00734.html
   http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/1199-0100/msg
00767.html

   Differences betwwen the EC Bill and the RIP Bill
   http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/1199-0100/msg
00760.html
   http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/1199-0100/msg
00766.html



Editorial
---------

The bill appears to be a classic case of bad policy - its inconsistant 
within itself, and has been rushed together without reference to human 
rights.  It appears that it may will be in contravention of the EU 
Human Rights declaration which we are to be bound by later this year (I 
believe).

I believe in its current form it is seriously bad law.  If you follow 
good security practice and change your encryption keys regularly, 
disposing of the old ones after an inactive period, then you could be 
charged to decrypt data to which you no longer have the keys to, and 
may end up having to prove your innocence (ie prove that you do not 
have the keys - which is close to impossible) rather than having other 
attempt to prove your guilt.

Once forced to compromise a key - which might be your signing key - you 
may then be prevented under law from informing people that a key is 
compromised - this is like having to give up your credit card number to 
the police and being unable to then cancel the card.

The ubiquity of encryption  on the internet (think of SSL transactions) 
means this is a real problem - not just affecting a few nerds.

I suggest that people read up on the basics of this, and write, 
politely, on paper (most MPs appear to not be set up to handle email), 
to your constituency MP making sure that they are aware of your 
opinions and whether you believe that the bill in its current form 
should be supported or rejected.

	Nigel.
-- 
[ - Opinions expressed are personal and may not be shared by VData - ]
[ Nigel Metheringham                  Nigel.Metheringham@VData.co.uk ]
[ Phone: +44 1423 850000                         Fax +44 1423 858866 ]