a convenient truth

This is a really neat new site from the Department for Constitutional Affairs: a website with a complete database of UK Statute Law. It has law going right back from the present day to the 1267 [Statute of Marlborough](http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/legResults.aspx?LegType=All%20Primary&PageNumber=105&NavFrom=2&activeTextDocId=1517427), which includes what is apparently a [Remedy against Accountants](http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Primary&PageNumber=105&NavFrom=2&parentActiveTextDocId=1517427&ActiveTextDocId=1517431&filesize=2624) .

It also has, of course, the 1297 [Magna Carta](http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/legResults.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&title=magna+carta&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&TYPE=QS&NavFrom=0&activeTextDocId=1517519&PageNumber=1&SortAlpha=0), which is worth a flick through. Particularly this [remarkable restraint](http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&title=magna+carta&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&TYPE=QS&PageNumber=1&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=1517519&ActiveTextDocId=1517542&filesize=1490) on the king. In these days of Guantanamo Bay, ASBOs and Control Orders it’s maybe worth remembering just how far back these principles go.

The constant reference in articles such as this article from BBC News is starting get on my goat.

*There is no such thing as identity theft* OK? If someone pretends to be me and takes money out of my bank account, *I* am not a victim of “Identity Theft”. The *bank* is a victim of *fraud*.

The myth of Identity Theft has been promulgated by those with an interest in labelling it differently from all the other frauds for which they are liable. By making *me* a victim, they hope to make sure it’s *me* who ends up being responsible, and paying for it.

Grrrr.

Great payoff in this
Slashdot comment.

It is true, the Flying Spaghetti Monster did create the world, and this should be taught in school.

This guy seems to have gone stark raving bonkers. Talk about overstating your case:

32. Defendant slashdot.org is an far-right wing Internet news website that posts libelous and defamatory content and is used by Open Source Community members to anonymously post hate speech, death threats, threats to murder and promotes and advocates acts of domestic terrorism within the United States. The address and location of defendants is believed to be within the State of California, but is unknown at the present time.

46. The beheading and murder of United States Citizens in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other countries have been videotaped, converted to MPEG and other images for viewing on the public Internet through the use of OSS and Linux software and computer technology developed and purloined by Linux and OSS members and illegally exported from the United States.

To cut a long story short, it appears that OSS developers are really satanic, mormon-hating terrorists out to destroy the US of A. What a nutcase.