News of the World hacker named after court block lifted A man accused of hacking into the computers of a former British Army intelligence officer on behalf of a News of the World editor has been named as Philip Campbell Smith, also a former British Army intelligence officer. Ex-agent Ian Hurst told the Levenson media-ethics inquiry that in July 2006 he received and inadvertently …
I beg to differ. Let's be real.
As long as the law continues not to be applied to newspapers and their staff he will work again and probably get more than his ex-army chums.
For the time being all I see is lots of talking and very little application of the current legislation (this is one place where I agree with Hislop - no point to invent new laws if the current ones are not being applied properly).
Quite right, that was one of the few common sense moments in the whole stinking affair, the gravy train won't survive without the talking shops discussing new laws, regulations and the inevitable new QUANGO that will be set up to deal with them.
Let's not forget those new laws and regulations will inevitably infringe on the freedom of the press to grub around and expose things that truly need exposing (I don't mean Tina, 22 from Essex)
Sad thing is most of the public probably don't care, hell, if NoTW hadn't been caught out accessing the voicemail of dead children and their families they'd probably all still be in work because it seems 'slebs and politicians are fair game but when they stop 'finking about the children' the 'moral majority' get all upset.
Earlier this week I saw a tweet from a NoTW staffer who lost his job. He indicated that he and others were unemployed whilst NI generally has the same management bods and a new Sunday rag. I'm under the impression that said new rag will more-or-less be staffed by the existing Current Bun lot.
The whole removal of NoTW to try and protect allegedly guilty moptop woman and Murdoch Jr was overkill. Many of the staff wheren't even on the paper when all the nasty stuff was happening. And now NI just go and rub salt in the wound by bringing back the same paper thinking that a name change will make any difference.
It's definitely likely to be certainly possible that there was an ask-no-questions ethos pervading the NotW, allegedly. Suppose the Editor just welcomed revelations, and never asked how his journalists' private investigator's contact's pet geek managed to source the "facts"; or else he accepted, ummm, <i>assurances</i> at face value.
Unfortunately he was and is still a company director of a company that has directly profited from sustain and repeated criminal activity. (for example breaching CMA90)
Ignorance is not a defence.
So when are the prosecutions going to happen?
When can we look forward to the legal entity of newcorp being prosecuted under the proceeds of crime act, for the amount they profitted from the criminal activity? (i.e. increased news of the screws/sun sales)
webcams should come with -
- internal lens covers that only open when you expressly tell them to, and are brightly coloured so it's easy to see when they're closed
- activity LEDs to show the camera is on
Meantime, the paranoid (like me) are best advised to resort to a strip of masking tape.
Now, what to do about built in microphones?
Why dick about with the underlings? Let's just go around to Murdoch's hotel right now drag him up the high court. He owned the shitty rag while all this crap was going, it's his responsibility!
I can imagine a quite shakedown of his suit pockets would probably drop enough petty cash to cover the reparations to those who got screwed by this!
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Given the inteligence implications of all the people being hacked, one does wonder what the doughnut occupiers (GCHQ) and their colleagues at MI5 where doing...
If anything....
If somebody is hacking the voice mail and computers of cabinet ministers and intel (or ex-intel) staff, I really want GCHQ/MI5 to find it first, and quickly.
I don't know why anyone is surprised by all this newspapaer scandal stuff. The only thing that surprises me about it is that it's confined to the NOTW.
I mean, we all know what being a newspaper scribe is like. It's black and white. Night time. Raining. The office echos with the clatter of Remington typewriters. Everyone smokes. Drinks bourbon. You have contacts. Big Shots. Hoods. Wise Guys. Snitches and Floozies. You rummage through the trash. Tap wires. Apply some heat. Anything, anything to get the scoop.
Three rounds of ammunition? Yeah - and the rest!
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