Dave: Hiawatha Bray asks "to foil plots like this, what would IPers do?" I have an article to be published shortly that tries to address that. It's called "Privacy and Information Sharing in the War Against Terrorism." Available for free download in essentially-final form at http://ssrn.com/abstract=899626. The article provides a checklist to apply to proposed information sharing/surveillance programs, and then discusses each item on the checklist. Here is the checklist, FWIW: Due Diligence Checklist for a Proposed Information Sharing Program 1. Will the proposed sharing tip off adversaries? 2. Ends/means rationality. Does the proposal improve security? Cost-effectively? 3. Is the proposal "security theater"? How much does it provide the appearance of security? 4. Are there novel aspects to the proposed surveillance and sharing? What risks, if any, accompany these novel aspects? 5. Are there relevant lessons from historical instances of abuse? What checks and balances would mitigate risks of such abuse? 6. Do fairness and anti-discrimination concerns reduce the desirability of the proposed program? 7. Are there ways that the proposed measure could make the security problems worse? 8. What are the ramifications internationally and with other stakeholders? 9. Are there additional, privacy-based harms from the proposed measure? 10. Will bad publicity undermine the program? Thanks, Peter Prof. Peter P. Swire C. William O'Neill Professor of Law Moritz College of Law of The Ohio State University Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress (240) 994-4142, www.peterswire.net -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net] Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 9:33 AM To: ip@v2.listbox.com Subject: [IP] A very interesting question on news from the UK Begin forwarded message: