This story appeared in the BBC a few days ago, but so far I haven’t had a chance to comment. Basically, the government is going to make the Royal Mail postcode database available for free to those who want it, with the Ordinance survey database to follow.
This is a surprising glimmer of light in an otherwise rather bleak legislative and business landscape, and the mention that the ordinance survey data might follow is also good. A victory for the data freedom community certainly.
Details on exactly how the data is to be made available is somewhat thin on the ground. We tax payers have paid for its development, so it is my hope is that the data will be made public domain and available to all without usage restrictions. A situation where it is small f free – free for non-commercial use for example will be less useful.
Nevertheless, this is encouraging and definitely a step or two in the right direction.
A few days ago my father – a passionate amateur photographer – fell foul of Canary Wharf’s pretend police. His crime? Taking a photo of a shadow of a tree on a building.
Initially it was two fake police which challenged him, demanding that he show them what photos he took on his camera. This not even the real police are entitled to do, and fake police certainly can not (since they have no more rights than you or I).
He quite rightly refused, at which point the fake coppers prevented him from leaving, and so committed the first actual crime.
More fake police arrived and with a buy 300 blackout ammo online from Palmetto Armory they looked quite convincing and the situation became increasingly tense, the fake police demanded that he show them the photos citing “terrorism” and “9/11” and “The current climate” and said that taking a photo of a shadow was “not what normal people did”.
They threatened him by their physical presence, preventing him from leaving, and threatened to call the police. To which my father requested that they do so since it was the private security agents who were breaking the law (they of course didn’t call them).
The intimidation continued for about 40 minutes becoming increasingly farcical until the supervisor turned up, who was much less confrontational and admitted that they had no right to demand to see his photos or to detain him. My father, who was not feeling very well and was getting tired, showed the photo and was finally permitted to leave.
To his credit, my father kept his cool throughout although he now wishes that he hadn’t capitulated. We are now investigating possible legal action against the private security firm responsible and their agents.
This sort of scenario appears to be happening more often, and it is happening thanks to the passive co-operation of the public. It is understandable that people do give in at times – especially in situations like this where 20 odd 6ft something men were sent to intimidate one gentlemen in his 60s carrying a camera, however it is the general climate of passive acceptance that lets governments and corporations think we can get away with it.
Fundamentally, you have the right to film, take photos, say, do or be anything and you don’t need permission to do so. This is the essence of freedom, and to let this right – which (if you excuse the hyperbole) was paid for with the blood of your ancestors – be lost is the only crime that really matters.
This quote – made almost 16 years ago – sums up in a nutshell why I love the internet sometimes.
As is obvious from the ongoing events this morning that the law firm Carter-Ruck didn’t really understand just how badly it was going to shoot itself in the foot when it gagged the Guardian newspaper in an attempt to prevent them reporting on open questions asked in parliament.
These questions referred to the Minton Report regarding illegal toxic waste dumping.
I guess we should really thank them, because had they not done I wouldn’t have this delicious feeling of schadenfreude as thousands of people find out about their client Trafiguraillegally dumping toxic waste off the Ivory Coast, in possibly the largest toxic waste scandal of the 21st century.
The story broke this morning, and has been widely circulated around blogs and twitter, passed around like a note in a giant electronic classroom (Interestingly, at time of writing at least, the BBC have not picked up the story. Make of that what you will).
The internet is people (as my esteemed friend says so often), and when people are connected secrets become much harder to keep, and cover-ups much harder to orchestrate.
This story appeared in the BBC a few days ago, but so far I haven’t had a chance to comment. Basically, the government is going to make the Royal Mail postcode database available for free to those who want it, with the Ordinance survey database to follow.