Dont forget that they are now upping detention without charge for suspicion of dropping a bit of chewing gum, or any other offense they care to pretend is terrorist related to 50 days over here now.

All in the name of national security they can lock people up and let the police go harass motorists for 45 days whilst you rot in jail before they bother looking for any evidence.

How do you defend yourself when :

a) Your ISP mis-identified someone else as you (R.I Ass. of America, I'm thinking about you...)

b) You get spyware displaying kiddie pr0n and get rumbled due to the program mass mailing it's "charms" to the rest of the net and your ISP calling The Bill.

c) Your wifi get's hacked or a friend uses your pc for nefarious purposes

Oh well, we will have to trust the Justice will remember that you are innocent until proven guilty, and will not decide that you are guilty just because they cannot understand the techniques used.

But in truth, you are probably fsck'ed.

So how long before the same mistake is made while tracking someone down who made a pro-extremist post in this country?

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was a fucking idiot and his descendants and admirers are all a bunch of wankers who haven't got a life. And me thinking India was a decent country...

Isn't it good to be in a place where you can say your opinion and not go to jail for it? Less and less people know the feeling...

Thing that gets me is that it is illegal, come on people/goverments it is the year 2007. Sooner we flush religion down the toilet the better.

I applaud the irony of your post Mr Anonymous. Nice one, but you should have used the "joke alert" thing, too many stupid people are going to miss what you've done and start some retarded flame attack.

except loss of liberty, your DNA being added to a database with no recourse for removal, loss of property, men with flashlights crawling up your arse...

Granted, I don't wish wrongful imprisonment on anyone. But if ISPs can manage to "accidentally" give the wrong user to IP address information a few dozen more times (or maybe Google could "mess up" on the IP address?), that should give us enough precedents to say IP addresses aren't admissable evidence...

I work for a pretty big ISP, and one of my job's is to supply this info to the police.

More often than not the coppers do not seem to understand which way round documents go in to their fax machine, so it is hopeless to expect them to understand the subtleties of different time zones and daylight savings etc etc.

More than 30% of the requests I get turn a blank because either the IP, the time or the time skew supplied are just wrong.

If they do get a hit, then I have no way of knowing if it is the right person or not.

There have been a number of occasions I know of where the wrong house has been raided as a result of this general spasticity, but none so far that have resulted in wrongful imprisonment - as far as I know.

More to the point - Just what is that a picture of?

Uh! Watched Jay Leno (Tonight Show) or Jon Stewart (Daily Show) lately. Seems to me that USA humour, and US TV media, has degraded to insulting or outright lying about President Bush and Republicans. Get real "Morely" and get your politics from somewhere besides comedy sites - try the FOX network, they're pretty even in their news.

But you are right about the "snow" countries - and the answer is Israel. And no I am NOT in or a citizen of, the USA. I just respect your country, why don't you?

Do your job the way are supposed to do it you aren't responsible for the mess the authorities make of it (it's mars scaled down it looks dirty though doesn't it). It may take a while but eventually you will find this sort of thing peters out not because the police get smarter but because it will get more and more a routine that then becomes difficult and tedious. Shivaji wouldn't have understood this behavior I think he would have laughed at how mindless and shallow the police are but then he was insanely brave and they are cowards. All police are cowards.

Except perhaps a Several of dum-dum rounds to the head?

"try the FOX network, they're pretty even in their news."

PLEASE tell me that was a joke.

Lindsay.. are you out of your mind with the Fox News comment?

I've never seen a more distorted news channel in my life. For instance "Al Qeida responsible for California Fires".

What a bunch of morons.

If you mouse over the icons they will reveal themselves, AC.

This one is reserved for Amanfrommars, may the Invisible Pink Unicorn smile upon him, and his disciples.

"try the FOX network, they're pretty even in their news"

Ha! That's the funniest thing I've heard all week!

Was that supposed to be satire? I can't think of any network LESS even-handed than FOX - it's legendary for its ultra-conservative bias.

Back in the days of the troubles if you looked like ye might even think about protesting against the police/army/status quo (ie civil rights for catholics in NI) you were thrown into Internment camps! :?

Indefinitely!

@ Lindsay

################################

"try the FOX network, they're pretty even in their news."

################################

What you actually mean is:-

"Try the FOX network, they present the news and express views in a way that supports my own political (right-wing) leaning."

And Bush doesn't need 'degrading' by anyone else, he's pretty good at doing that all by himself.

"try the FOX network, they're pretty even in their news."

You used the wrong graphic. The one you should have used is Joke Alert.

Thanks - I haven't laughed so long in a while.

"More to the point - Just what is that a picture of?"

If you mean your icon, it's the planet Mars, where the Home Office is now based.

@ anon cow - the avatar? that's MARS d00d, or a really psychedelic marble - mmm - now where did I put mine?

@ daniel - remember that in these enlightened days, it is only women who are innocent until proven guilty. we harbingers of that accursed "Y" chromosome must adopt "the position".

So, given a few more wrongful arrests and I'm sure that we will all adopt an IP masking protocol of some description. I wonder, can anyone suggest some simple piece of software that gives me the same internet appearance as, say, the Pope?

Thanks for that, funniest thing I've read all day. OK it's only 10:07, but I still can't see it being beaten.

Um, Lindsay, in case you didn't realise, Fox News isn't a news channel, it's just the media mouthpiece and propaganda channel for Bush and his cronies. And Israel has one of the worst records on human rights in the world.

Or am I just being dense and missing the irony in your post ? (Probably)

Fox = Balanced? Only if you are an idiot!

That would be Fox News that claimed that Obama had been educated at a Madrassa, and made significant inferences of Obama's middle name (Hussein).

Where's the fire-extinguisher icon.

Lindsay wrote: "try the FOX network, they're pretty even in their news."

...and I just spat out my tea. Is he a trolling dinosaur or what?

and assumed no-one would actually take the flame bait. For IT professionals it's pretty bad that there's so many reacting to obvious sarcasm.

Now THERE's an oxymoron for a Wednesday morning.

The concept of Fox Fiction actually publishing anything balance is a hoot. Still, they do say "Hope" is a thing to treasure.

Shakje - we're just scared that good ole' Lins is serious. People have been given Darwin awards for less.

As for this whole "be scared of thic country because of x, y and z" - it's not the countries I fear, but the psycho lunatics in charge, both here and across the pond!

Hmm . . . perhaps stating the obvious but . . . whats wrong about having flames and fun at once?

"Then again- Google should never have handed over the IP data in the first place. I'm never going to use Airtel again when I'm in India- think I'll move over to Idea or another of their competitors next time......."

Of course they should, they were obeying the law of the country they were operating in.

The fact that you (and I) disagree with that law is completely irrelevant, they have to obey the law of the land, whatever land that happens to be if they wish to have a business there.

I don't think using a different provider will make you any safer.