Digital Policy

What the Letzgo Hunting vigilantes can teach the Home Office

James Firth — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:43:03 GMT

One of my many criticisms of this and recent governments' obsession with online snooping is that it diverts resources away from other policing methods.Governments are obsessed with creating (or restoring, depending on who you talk to) a power imbalance they...

Keith Vaz is wrong, the O'Dwyer case is not at all like Gary McKinnon's

James Firth — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:36:54 GMT

Last week the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee Keith Vaz wrote to the Home Secretary over the case of Sheffield student Richard O'Dwyer, currently facing extradition to the US on copyright charges relating to a website he ran...

The Huawei risk should be managable

James Firth — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:45:03 GMT

Last week the US House Intelligence Committee declared Huawei a "national security threat". The damning indictment came in a year the Chinese telco equipment manufacturer was banned from tendering on a large national broadband contract in Australia and prompted a very...

Chancellor's Shares for Employee Rights Swap is not as mad as it sounds...

James Firth — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:06:56 GMT

A pretty contentious policy was announced today by the Chancellor. Employees will be able to forfeit some employment rights in exchange for a stake in the firm they work for. The BBC's Robert Peston was quick to point out:Note that...

The big 4G win for UK Ltd

James Firth — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:42:03 GMT

Almost exactly a year ago I pressed a short paper I co-authored into the hands of my MP and then Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt at a meeting in the constituency about rural broadband.Estimating the cost to UK businesses of slow mobile broadband...

MP confirms government to repeal website blocking provisions of DEA

James Firth — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:27:57 GMT

To be brutally frank I was contemplating a hatchet job on LiCambridge MP Julian Huppert (Photo credit: Wikipedia)b Dem MP Julian Huppert's announcement today that the government was pressing ahead with its plans to repeal the website blocking provisions [ss17...

Megaupload/Dotcom case gets even weirder as NZ PM calls for inquiry into use of NZ security services and wiretaps

James Firth — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:42:48 GMT

Overnight, a freaky press release that, if it wasn't hosted on the official government website (named after the 'Beehive' government building in Wellington) I would have immediately dismissed as fake:Prime Minister John Key today announced he has requested an inquiry...

Megaupload/Dotcom case gets even weirder as NZ PM calls for inquiry into use of NZ security services and wiretaps

James Firth — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:42:48 GMT

Now Facebook wants YOU to grass-up friends not using their real name

James Firth — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:29:25 GMT

My friend and IT, IP and Media Law researcher specialising in privacy and autonomy Paul Bernal has a very good blog on what seems at first glance to be a crazy move from Facebook in their ongoing war on pseudonyms.Facebook has,...

UK.gov NOT squatting on £1bn unused IPv4 addresses

James Firth — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:28:25 GMT

The Register today ran an interesting article highlighting emerging evidence that the UK government may be sitting on an unused block of over 16 million (IPv4) IP addresses in the 51.0.0.0/8 address block.The block was noticed by blogger and programmer John Graham-Cumming...

The missed opportunity in the closure of torrent tracker UK Nova

James Firth — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:28:52 GMT

The closure of UK Nova comes in the same month that former TV links site owner Anton Vickerman was sentenced to 4 years in jail by Newcastle Crown Court. Facing the stick of lengthy jail terms it's not surprising the owners of...

So who exactly had their lunch stolen in Apple v Samsung (v Apple)?

James Firth — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:17:39 GMT

When a big kid stole my lunch, I had no lunch. If it wasn’t for the charity of the teachers, I would have gone hungry. But when Samsung stole Apple’s intellectual property, Apple still lived on a diet of pork...

Why TMZ were right to publish (or rather, why they were not wrong)

James Firth — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:52:38 GMT

When naked pictures of a prince emerged online yesterday in my mind there's only one person who's done anything wrong and that's the person who breached the Prince's trust by flogging the photos. I'm a staunch advocate for our privacy rights,...

We need a digital policing strategy before we talk about surveillance and safeguards

James Firth — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:48:40 GMT

I’m starting to think “privacy” is a really crap way to argue against intrusive government policy such as the [Draft] Communications Data Bill announced in today’s Queen’s Speech. Yes, I really do care for my privacy and right to live...

Transparency DCMS style

James Firth — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:14:00 GMT

The Open Rights Group managed to claw another bunch of meeting minutes and attendee’s lists from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); shedding a bit more light on the options being discussed for the next batch of copyright...

Why the end of Consumer Focus is a blow to UK tech policy

James Firth — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:06:04 GMT

When a government in the midst of a cuts agenda releases a report entitled Empowering and Protecting Consumers, you just know it will not be good news for under-empowered and unprotected consumers in the cut-throat utilities sector. I imagine the...

Where did I come from?

James Firth — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:55:11 GMT

I’ve spent the last couple of years working as a lobbyist. Not the most respected of job titles, granted. I prefer to style myself as a citizen or white-hat lobbyist, since I set out to counter the dross, spin and...

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Mike Simons — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:23:10 GMT

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