Rants

Posted on 1 Nov 2007 at 16:49

 

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Can you be arrested for what you're thinking? Mel Croucher hopes not. He also hopes no-one digs around on his hard disk, as he's not sure that they won't find anything incriminating.

Consider this. On Monday, a medical student went to an ancient university library to browse the dusty bookshelves for information. It seems the information concerned respiratory diseases. On Tuesday, the student was arrested under suspicion of planning terrorist acts, because the books contained references to biological warfare.

On Wednesday, it was found that the library shelves also hold books on revolutionary theory, religious fundamentalism and how to assemble an atomic bomb. On Thursday, the press got hold of the story and established that the library has a specialist department of detailed maps with the exact locations of terrorist targets, including public water supplies, transport hubs and the homes of political leaders. On Friday, there were demands to ban public access to such dangerous information. On Saturday, a mob surrounded the library and burned it to the ground.

This sequence of events has happened many times. It happened in 48BC, when the most advanced human knowledge was destroyed during the burning of the Library of Alexandria. It happened in the 1930s, when the Nazis burned all libraries of books that deviated from their twisted philosophies. And when Francis Bacon wrote "knowledge is power" in his 1597 Meditations of Heresies, he could easily have been discussing today's universal access to information via the internet.

Burning issue

Now I invite you to consider this. Are recent calls to burn down those parts of the internet that store information that could be used for harmful purposes as barbaric and stupid as those historic calls to burn down libraries? Conversely, if we need to close down bits of the web that are too dangerous for public access, do we also need to close down libraries for the same reason? I hope not. I am disturbed by the premise of rounding up and jailing people for what they may be thinking, because I do not believe there is any scientific or practical method that can prove what thoughts exist in the human brain. And that includes thoughts about murder and terrorism.

If the security forces ever decide to arrest me, I have no doubt they could examine my computer and find 'evidence' that I am thinking about committing crimes. I am sure I have files that deal with revolutionary theory, religious fundamentalism and how to assemble an atomic bomb. I also admit to accessing detailed locations of terrorist targets, including public water supplies, transport hubs and the homes of political leaders. The fact that I use Wikipedia and Google Earth to locate this information as opposed to a man in a balaclava is irrelevant. I wonder what the authorities would find if they impounded my hard disks and backup files. I really do wonder, as I have no idea what's on there.

No hiding place

Before I continue, I further invite you to consider the contents of the thousands of your own files in your own possession, whether known to you or not, and then I'll let you into a secret. From 2000 to 2007, I was chairman of an internet watchdog and ethics organisation. My duties included considered judgement on cases involving internet domain name hijacks. The material dealt with racism, incitement to violence, homophobia and child pornography. I have no idea what still remains on my backup discs from that time. And I believe you have no idea what is under your roof, either. Perhaps you once forgot to set the Adult Content filter. Maybe you unwittingly passed on a bogus email with embedded links to criminal websites. Or was there some unsolicited pop-up that spawned hidden files in your system? As I say, I am an expert in these matters, and if I cannot prove a negative then I'm damn sure the press and the spooks can't.