When .txt Files Are Criminalized, Only Criminals Will Have .txt Files

Seen at Slashdot:

Back in the midsts of time, when I was a lad and gopher was the height of information retrieval I read The Anarchist’s Cookbook in one huge text file. Now it appears the UK government considers possession of the book an offense under the Terrorism Act 2000 and is prosecuting a 17 year old boy, in part, for having a copy of the book. ‘The teenager faces two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000. The first charge relates to the possession of material for terrorist purposes in October last year. The second relates to the collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism.’

Egad; I think most geeks and wannabe-geeks online 15-17 years ago snagged a copy of The Cookbook from their favorite gopher server, under the premise that information should be free. It was the Cool Thing^TM to do at a time when there were concerns about governments who didn’t Get It seeking to clampdown on the newfound territory of the ‘net.

I don’t know what happened with my downloaded copy (probably long since deleted or lost when moving from computer to computer / from Unix account to Unix account), but I’ll be sure to make sure that it and any other subversive texts are removed from my laptop before any potential visit to the U.K.

I’m sure I’ve got a pdf of a chemistry textbook around somewhere that would surely land me a stay in the Tower.