[WikiEN-l] Re: Trading with the Enemy

[John C. Penta]

----- Original Message -----
From: Gareth Owen <wiki at gwowen.freeserve.co.uk>
Date: Monday, March 1, 2004 12:47 pm
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Re: Trading with the Enemy

> Rick <giantsrick13 at yahoo.com> writes:
> > Rick a écrit:
> > > Where would you suggest? In France, it's illegal to criticize 
> the 
> > > government. In Germany, it's illegal to display Nazi 
> memorabilia. In 
> > > the UK there's the Official Secrets Act to deal with.
> > > 
> > I am seriously asking what is wrong with what I posted here.  
> Please explain
> > what I said that angered you, and what is libelous?
> 
> Well, you seem pretty ignorant of the scope of the Official 
> Secrets Act for a
> start.  Let me quote Section I for the gist:
> 
> 1. (1) A person who is or has been?
>     (a) a member of the security and intelligence services; or
>     (b) a person notified that he is subject to the provisions 
>         of this subsection,
> is guilty of an offence if without lawful authority he discloses any
> information, document or other article relating to security or
> intelligence which is or has been in his possession by virtue of his
> position as a member of any of those services 
> 
> So (i) It applies to employees of the government 
>   (ii) Its about prevent the dissemination of classified 
> information 
> 
> Its applicability to wikipedia is precisely nil, unless you have 
> reason to
> believe British security personnel are posting classified information.
> 
> Do the laws that convicted [[Robert Hanssen]] impinge on 
> wikipedia's operation?

No. Similar with regards to the UK's Official Secrets Act, AFAIK, too.

You simply can *not* become subject to security restrictions, Official Secrets Act(s), etc. without knowing it.

Sorry, no. Government does NOT work that way. If you're subject to such an act, you'll *know*; You will inevitably have to complete a small mountain of paperwork to recieve access to subject information.*

Do the laws that [[Robert Hanssen]] was convicted under affect Wiki?

Do the laws that [[Katherine Gun]] was charged under affect Wiki?

In both cases, no.

In order for them to, you would have to KNOW you were recieving classified information. In the US and the UK (and in most other NATO countries, AFAIK), it's hard NOT to know: Classification markings are very, very hard to miss.

In such a situation, you really have to be impossibly stupid to recieve such information and NOT know it.

John
---
*One exception applies, that I know of: Oddly, members of the US House and Senate don't need security clearances as such. They don't go through the whole mountain of forms, the Single Scope Background Investigation, etc, etc. Instead, they're bound by an oath taken when they join the appropriate committee (or assume leadership positions like Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, or House Minority Leader). It's odd, but (amazingly, to those who know much about American government) it works; Leaks of classified information from the committees (particularly the intelligence oversight committees) have been rare.