Dissecting DRIP – the emergency Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill

That blog in [1] is a good read, so thanks for the link. If anyone wants to get around the required registration, pasting 'drip-drip-drip-the-emergency-surveillance-law-erodes-our-civil-liberties' into Google News search and following the link from there lets you read the blog post in full.

I don't know enough about the legal environment or the consequences of this legislation to really comment, but I do find the whole affair highly suspicious.

I understand the desire to use familiar tools, but if the U.K. works as the U.S. does, bills are already presented as patch files. In the U.S., for example, most "laws" are a list of amendments to the U.S. Code.

For example, here's a snippet from SOPA: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c112:1:./temp/~c112Rt6...:

        (b) Title 18 Amendments- Section 2319 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--

        (1) in subsection (b)(1), by striking `during any 180-day period' and all that follows and insert `of at least 10 copies or phonorecords, or of at least 10 public performances by means of digital transmission, of 1 or more copyrighted works, during any 180-day period, which have a total retail value of more than $2,500;';

        (2) in subsection (c)--

            (A) in paragraph (1), by striking `of 10 or more copies or phonorecords' and all that follows and inserting `including by electronic means, of at least 10 copies or phonorecords, or of at least 10 public performances by means of digital transmission, of 1 or more copyrighted works, during any 180-day period, which have a total retail value of more than $2,500;'; and

            (B) in paragraph (3), by striking `if the offense' and all that follows and inserting `in any other case;';

        (3) in subsection (d)(4), by striking `under paragraph (2)' and inserting `committed for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain under subsection (a)';

        (4) in subsection (f)--

            (A) by amending paragraph (2) to read as follows:

        `(2) the terms `reproduction', `distribution', and `public performance' refer to the exclusive rights of a copyright owner under paragraphs (1), (3), (4), and (6), respectively, of section 106 (relating to exclusive rights in copyrighted works), as limited by sections 107 through 122, of title 17; and';

            (B) in paragraph (3), by striking `; and' and inserting a period; and

            (C) by striking paragraph (4); and

        (5) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

What is said and what is done rarely have any relation in politics.

If it's not in the text of the Bill: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-data-retentio... then it's at best a sketchy promise and at worst an outright lie. I remember the "promise" to end tuition fees.

The only one of those that's actually in the text of the Bill is the termination clause.

Note that the previous regulations were not "shady interpenetration", they were fairly clear - the problem is that they violate Convention rights.

You can't pass laws that involve foreign citizens in their own countries to do your bidding. You either have to negotiate with that country, kidnap them in violation of international law (the US does this apparently) or start a war. Otherwise you just look like an idiot.