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Ironically, this advice is illegal in the U.K. under the computer misuse act - circumventing measures intended to restrict access to information is a criminal o
by madaxe_again 5y ago
Ironically, this advice is illegal in the U.K. under the computer misuse act - circumventing measures intended to restrict access to information is a criminal offence, as is providing information on how do do so.
- nix23 5y agoCan you please show me the law? Because that would mean that the U.K needs to close GCHQ and any other secret-service maybe even some police-work.
- madaxe_again 5y agoBelieve it or not, law enforcement and intelligence agencies are permitted to do things ordinary citizens aren’t, in the course of their work. As to the relevant bit - section one, paragraph one, subsection a: >> 1)A person is guilty of an offence if— >> (a)he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer [or to enable any such access to be secured] ; https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/1 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/1
- nix23 5y agoI knew you meant that law, and the whole law is about "hacking" INTO computer systems/networks to access private/not-authorized data, not circumvent blocking measurements for accessing public/authorized-by-the-owner-of-the-system data. >Believe it or not, law enforcement and intelligence agencies are permitted to do things ordinary citizens aren’t Believe it or not, that's just partially true.
- jstanley 5y agoThat's not the whole thing. See also subsection b: > (b)the access he intends to secure [F2, or to enable to be secured,] is unauthorised If you're trying to access a news website it's pretty likely that your access is authorised. Without subsection b, literally every use of a computer is computer misuse.
- usr1106 5y agoMany things the agencies do is either illegal or would be illegal for ordinary citizens.
- jstanley 5y agoMy sense is that this is incorrect. I think the law would prohibit breaking into people's computers, not circumventing internet censorship. By circumventing internet censorship you're accessing information that its owner wants you to be able to access. You're not breaking into their computer.
- madaxe_again 5y agoUnfortunately, no. Consider prosecutions of users in the U.K. for accessing TPB via a VPN - TPB didn’t prohibit access, the govt did - but using any computer to access any information on any other computer which you are not authorised to access for any reason is an offence.
- neuroma 5y agoLink? Can't find any evidence that people have been prosecuted in UK for using VPN for TPB.
- nix23 5y agoNow your are mixing copyright problems with accessing public-data...not really honest of you. And it was not the Goverment who went against the users but Atari, Codemasters, TopWare Interactive, Reality Pump, Techland and the "Ministy of Sound"...for COPYRIGHT violations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_the_United_Kin...
- raverbashing 5y ago"restrict access to information" means passwords, etc
- TruthWillHurt 5y agoTrue, but I'd say blocking network access os also a valid restriction by the owner. And that's the key difference here - restricted by owner.