The BBC reported today that a woman has successfully won her campaign to make it illegal to posses images of violent pornography. Liz Longhurst (the campaigner) probably did this with the best possible intentions but probably has no idea of how a law like this can be manipulated to take away an innocent person’s individual rights.
At the moment the two “trendy” Internet crimes are terrorism and pedophillia. Armed with accusations of either of these, the police can break down your front door and walk out with any computer equipment they choose. If any encrypted material exists on that equipment, they can demand the accused supply them with passwords and keys. Refusal (or inability) to comply could result in imprisonment. Now we have another trendy crime: Being in possesion of violent pornography. This one’s a beauty because many people might be in possesion of such material without even knowing it. Such is the nature of Windows that people have little control over what files might be lurking in caches and temporary files on their computer.
MP’s of course were delighted to pass such a law, in the eyes of the majority they just did a fine thing. In the eyes of law enforcement, they just gained another right-to-snoop-without-any-firm-evidence, so they’re happy bunnies. In the eyes of me, this is yet another invasion into my right to privacy. But they did it for the children!