Communications Data

This week’s blog will examine the problem the government face with communications data. To do this I will be looking into the problem faced by the government and asking the question whether the government should have the right to access information about its citizen’s communications.

http://security.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/communications-data/

Communications data is material, for example subscriber and billing records obtained from service providers such as telephone and Internet companies. As this type of information doesn’t contain any of the content involved in the material it can be used as evidence in trials.
The government is looking into ways keeping up with the changing communications environment. The existing capability of the police, the security and intelligence agencies and other public authorities is declining, and therefore they see change as necessary.
The home office published a consultation called ‘Protecting the public in a changing communications environment’. It looked at the importance of communications data in helping to protect and safeguard the public.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2009-communication-data/

Here is a link to the response to the consultation paper

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2009-communication-data/cons-2009-comms-data-responses2835.pdf?view=Binary

Article 8 of the human rights act says that everyone has the right for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. This raises the argument that the government should not be able to the right to access communications data as it calls into question the human rights act.
However I feel that the government should have access to its citizen’s communications data if people’s lives are put in danger due to acts of terrorism. If you are planning to cause harm or endanger lives then your qualified rights of article 8 should be inferior to those rights of others. I also feel that although the government aren’t allowed to use the content of communications in extreme circumstances they should be if it helps prevent terrorism or other serious crimes.

Copyright

The topic of this week’s lecture was Intellectual Property, Creative Commons & DRM. This involved looking into areas such as copyright and piracy.
There are several different forms of piracy; these include things such as illegally downloading movies and music. There are also counterfeit goods such as clothing and money. These types of piracy are costing large companies millions of pounds. Therefore in this blog I will look into answering the question, what effect is piracy having on copyright?
According to research by the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property, at least 7 million people in Britain use illegal downloads. This is costing the economy billions of pounds and thousands of jobs. The research by the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property also revealed that shared content on one network was worth about £12bn a year.
More recently Australian band Men at Work are facing a big legal bill after a court ruled it had plagiarised a Girl Guides' song in its 1983 hit, Down Under. Larrikin Music had claimed the flute riff was stolen from Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. A costs hearing will take place in late February, with Larrikin seeking 40%-60% of earnings from songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert and record companies Sony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Songs Australia.
Here is a link to The Intellectual Property Office website which gives information about copyright laws
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy.htm
This also helps give an answer to the question asked in this blog because it shows how copyright laws have been broken.

Privacy and Surveillance

This week’s lecture looked into Privacy and Surveillance and how people’s privacy can be invaded by websites who survey what they looking at.
Therefore in this blog I will look into answer to the question, Are clubcards and privilege schemes forms of surveillance?
David Lyon, Surveillance Studies an overview suggests that everybody is involved in surveillance somehow “We are all in a sense implicated in surveillance, both as watchers and the watched.”
One company that uses a clubcard scheme is Tesco’s. This clubcard scheme encourages people to spend money in the store and receive rewards. Tesco’s gain from this because they can see what the individual customer is spending money on. They can then send offers and other promotions to their customers. This is a form of surveillance and it can be very popular with the customers because it looks like the companies value their customers.



This is similar to the ways in which Amazon survey their customers. For example when you purchase something off of this website Amazon recommends other things that you may be interested in because if what you bought.
Is this type of Surveillance fair?
On the one hand it is fair that companies such as Amazon and Tesco’s look at items we’ve bought and recommend and give us offers on things that we might be interested. On the other hand it might not be fair because what gives them the right to survey our lives. It is similar to facebook; this is because a picture of you may be put onto facebook. This picture maybe seen as embarrassing and one that you don’t want people to see. This could lead to you un-tagging yourself in the picture. However just because your name isn’t in the picture people will still recognise you. In my opinion the type of surveillance used by companies is fair because we can benefit from the information that they send us.

This is a link with information on Tesco Clubcards
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard/