Tuesday 24 May 2011

Super-injunctions: who are the Greeks, who are the Trojans?

Firstly, the rampant prurience of the Britsh public, at least if we view our press as representative, is not something we should be proud of. Personally, I don't care about the sex lives of the rich and famous.

Secondly, in the case in point, given the above, the woman has a right to sell her story. If the man doesn't like it, tough. You make your bed, you lie in it.

Thirdly, and hence the title, I wonder where this is going. At this moment, you could look at the situation and think that the Greeks are the press and Twitter the Trojan Horse, enabling the press to break through the walls of legal constraint. Certainly, there is much talk of how the rules will have to be re-drawn. My fear is that, rather than a loosening of the control over the press, we will see instead a tightening around internet freedom, and an attempt to impose upon the internet the same strictness. The justification will be the need for our laws to conform with our masters in Europe, which guarantee a 'right' to privacy.

It will not surprise me if this issue turns toward introducing controls on internet users. Such plans are on the shelf just waiting for the opportunity to be brought into play. They may well be ineffective in stopping information leaks like the one in the spotlight, but they will serve a purpose.

5 comments:

banana said...

I fear you are right. TPTB have wanted internet regulation for as long as they've realised there is no control and people can post whatever they want.

It was always going to take a case where a sizable number of people might side with the person whose privacy had been invaded. While any sane and sensible person would think "if some footballer sleeps around and news gets out then tough titties" there are enough morons who will sympathise with the poor little lamb, and that can so easily translate to support for the introduction of what will become draconian regulation.

I fear the end of the blogosphere is nigh; prepare for compulsory registration, libel cases and censorship. And I don't think we can do anything about it, except perhaps set fire to all those fucking wankers who think they have the right to tell us what to do.

And that might be one of the last comments I can make as an anonymous interweb person.

*sigh*

Anonymous said...

I take a more cynical view on this TT.

We also have a right of free speech.

Pitching one against the other puts millions of pounds in the pockets of the parasitic legal eagles.

But, yeh, they’ll also want to stop us resurrecting their past dirty deeds.

Guy Jean said...

we will see instead a tightening around internet freedom, and an attempt to impose upon the internet the same strictness.
Shorely NOTT!!! I mean, we is a sovrin neyshon, what?

James Higham said...

There'll be attempts to but I think the tweeters will win this one - almost impossible to control. If they control this, a new scheme will begin.

Trooper Thompson said...

Thanks for the comments, people. I don't quite catch your drift, though BJ.