purplecthulhu

An asian moslem teenager has just been found guilty of possessing a document likely to be useful for terrorism, namely manuals on making explosives.

Just what classifies a document as being likely to be useful for terrorism? I have plentiful textbooks that could be used to tell you how to build an atom bomb - I happen to be a physicist. I could easily get books on how to make explosives and poisons - I work in a university with medical and chemistry departments. I have books on firearms - I'm an occasional gamer - and on martial arts. When I was a young UG I wondered about getting hold of the Anarchists Cookbook but never got round to it. I do have a copy of Hugo Cornwall's Hacker's Handbook (1st edition), though it's hopelessly out of date. I can't count how many copies of the tube map I have lying around.

All of these items, and more, would be useful to terrorists. Would they make me guilty of this crime? And how many other completely innocent people could be caught out by this crime? Two classes of people I can immediately think who would be obvious targets are gamers and thriller writers, both groups who can be perfectionist about making their materials accurate and believable in the real world. When does plotting a real world assault for your own or others' entertainment become a terrorist crime? Are crimes and cases like this getting us further and further into crimes of thought rather than crimes of action and intent?

An asian moslem teenager has just been found guilty of possessing a document likely to be useful for terrorism, namely manuals on making explosives.

Just what classifies a document as being likely to be useful for terrorism? I have plentiful textbooks that could be used to tell you how to build an atom bomb - I happen to be a physicist. I could easily get books on how to make explosives and poisons - I work in a university with medical and chemistry departments. I have books on firearms - I'm an occasional gamer - and on martial arts. When I was a young UG I wondered about getting hold of the Anarchists Cookbook but never got round to it. I do have a copy of Hugo Cornwall's Hacker's Handbook (1st edition), though it's hopelessly out of date. I can't count how many copies of the tube map I have lying around.

All of these items, and more, would be useful to terrorists. Would they make me guilty of this crime? And how many other completely innocent people could be caught out by this crime? Two classes of people I can immediately think who would be obvious targets are gamers and thriller writers, both groups who can be perfectionist about making their materials accurate and believable in the real world. When does plotting a real world assault for your own or others' entertainment become a terrorist crime? Are crimes and cases like this getting us further and further into crimes of thought rather than crimes of action and intent?

... might be because Apple is going to be releasing a separate PDA device.

See Macrumors report.

This would explain such idiocies as being able to edit contacts on the Touch but not calendar entries ( which is possible on the iPhone).

I wonder if the PDA will be able to play movies and music?

... might be because Apple is going to be releasing a separate PDA device.

See Macrumors report.

This would explain such idiocies as being able to edit contacts on the Touch but not calendar entries ( which is possible on the iPhone).

I wonder if the PDA will be able to play movies and music?