Ghost Master

So I bought this game on Saturday for 97p from Tesco and I haven't been able to stop playing it, which is why I haven't blogged. I tend to only buy old games, (1) because they're cheap, (2) because they're guaranteed to be compatible with my newer system and (3) I like retro. So I've begun testing wordpress for this blog, for compatibility with the existing content I have on the server. I've just had to purchase another database for the testing itself which is a bit annoying, but my plan is to have this temporary setup before I start surfing for a new web-host. So far I found a real good sounding web-host which is compatible with the values of this site (and paranoia that one time something I publish will cause me to be shut down): nearlyfreespeech.net You pay only for your server and bandwidth usage, they give you a private mailbox (so your own address is not revealed), a special phone and fax and a custom email address. Here's a statement on their FAQ (my bold emphasis): "If you wish to host a controversial site in the US, it behooves you to know the law, particularly this one, and how to use it to your advantage in the event of a dispute. You should also be prepared for a downtime of some or all "allegedly infringing" material for a couple of weeks if the copyright owner wants to fight. We adhere to the entire law very closely. We do not generally pull the plug on an entire site if, for example, someone claims that a single graphic is infringing. We do our best to remove only the content that the copyright owner specifically identifies as allegedly infringing. We allow and encourage the use of the "putback notification" process when material is incorrectly identified as infringing. But we do not automatically terminate a member's service merely for receiving a complaint alleging infringement. (However, actually infringing someone's copyright does violate our TACOS and will generally result in immediate termination.) Keep in mind that while we aren't lawyers, neither are we idiots. We can tell the difference between people harassing our members via the DMCA and cases where our service is genuinely being misused, and we can adjust our attitude accordingly. Fortunately, both of these cases are very rare. Of course, not all complaints are DMCA complaints. We very much enjoy "I hate that site. I demand you take it down!" messages, of which we receive a very large number (from, ironically, a relatively small number of people). Other than pointing and laughing, however, we tend not to respond to such demands." Pretty awesome huh? Unfortunately they take payment in US$ so I need to contact them to discuss that, not sure what the risks are in terms of the exchange rate or how I'd go about paying. If anyone knows of a UK equivalent, I would love to know. Lyc0s offer a pretty good service in terms of support and installation but something I read in .NET magazine recently by a Lyc0s executive caused me concern in how they would handle a copyright or libel complaint. As you can see I mention no names and have taken precaution to hide keywords! See you on the new blog... Technorati Tags: ghost master, gaming, libel, copyright, web hosting, privacy, dmca, free speech

Holiday Hiatus

Alex Fear and the Mrs are officially on holiday for 2 weeks from tomorrow, so the blogging will be light. We're actually looking for new flat to rent but we may just skip to the beach if the sun keeps (or catch a cheap 'environMENTALly unfriendly' flight away for a few days). In the meantime, any time I get at the 'puter will be devoted to testing a new CMS and thinking the best way to go about transferring this to a Wordpress blog (domain name/content). Look forward to changes, and better organisation of the resources (devoted to social action etc). In the meantime, click on one of the labels below to read through some previous topics.

Bank Charges: How I Did It - From The First LBA to Post-Account Closure

Your exclusive is finally here! I've been waiting for the final letter from the FOS before I blogged this one walkthrough for anyone who wants to do it but is worried about the repercussions. Previous posts on excessive bank charges here: Its Time, Banks Behaving Badly, Everyone Should Do This, The Public 1 HSBC 0, Accountability Advice, Calls to Stop Illegal Activity are Unfair What the MSM says here: £100,000 Will Help Customers Fight Unfair Charges, Claims Cost Banks £200m, The Latest on Bank Charges, FSA Faces Calls to Take On Retail Bank Regulation Other rages against the machine? Fight the Fear! Before I begin I must acknowledge that this would not have been possible without the information provided by the Consumer Action Group. They were one of the first, if not the first, groups to take on bank charges and offer comprehensive advice and templates in their forums. To be honest, I did not get a lot of responses when I posted in the forums, so instead I had to search through other users posts myself and adapt the templates to my personal situation. This does not negate the hard work the CAG put in, I just hope that by offering a full walk-through of my own experience, it saves you the time of trying to piece together different experiences. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. Intro: Momma always said to save all my paperwork... So I did. By 2006 I had suffered 3-4 years of unfair practices by the companies I banked with. The last bank I signed up with had already charged me over £400 for overdraft fees and direct debits. You see, I graduated with a Computer and Management Sciences degree in 2003, but the UK IT job market had effectively gone bust so the only job I managed to land for the first year was a customer services job answering a phone. I was not earning a graduate salary, but I had graduate size debts to pay off and was working under supervisors younger than me, who hadn't gone to university, being paid more than me. To be honest, my bitterness was difficult to put off. I was basically living beyond my means, and finding myself going over my overdraft limit constantly, then having to ask the bank for an extension each time so I could buy things like food. When the bank started to cut me off, I decided to switch. My credit rating was decimated so I wasn't allowed to open another grad account, instead I had to settle for a basic. My previous bank did not like the idea of me leaving and so they switched my account from 0% interest to standard 15% interest without notice. I did not know how the law works or how it was supposed to protect people like me at the time so I didn't do anything. I simply tried my best to pay off what I could, when I could. Now I had my basic account, I was able to use all my wage at the end of the month, but I usually found myself with pennies left by the last week. Which meant, when an emergency came up, that tipped me over the edge and into red- for which the bank automatically slapped an extra £30 on top- thankyou very much. As the months went by, even when I managed to bring my spending back in line, an extra £30 from the previous month put the current month in the red and bang- another £30. So by the end of 3 months I could easily rack up £170 in charges (month 1= £30, month 2= £60, month 3 = £90). So when I was finally sufficiently pissed off enough to search for some solution online- I found the CAG, and my eyes were opened. I had also been sufficiently screwed with my credit rating that I had nothing to lose- and pay attention anyone reading this who works for a bank - I was backed into a corner- when you back someone into a corner, then you leave them no option but to fight. The banks here have effectively dug their own grave by profiting off the back of the weakest in society. Now, I had kept all my statements, so I went through them and totaled up all the charges. For those of you who don't have your statements, you will need to file a Data Protection Act request with your bank, CAG supplies the details here. Once you have your statements, read on. Step 1. Gimme back my money First thing I did was take the CAG's template and adapt it slightly for my own circumstance, then sent it to my bank. Preliminary Letter (pdf) | (odt) They simply ignored the letter or lost it, so after 14 days had timed out, it was time to fire a warning shot across the bow. Step 2. Letter Before Action Letter Before Action (pdf) | (odt) This provoked a swift worded response 7 days later: "I am writing in response to your recent communication and was very sorry to learn of your disappointment with the service you have received. Thankyou for taking the time to highlight your concerns, we are currently looking into the situation and will be writing to you with a more detailed response. In the meantime, I am enclosing a leaflet which explains the steps we will take to handle your complaint." Meaning, we are not going to give you back your money, however give us a bit more time to make up an excuse. To which I sent the following reply: Response Letter (pdf) | (odt) I then got a second letter from the bank 11 days after that: "Thank you for your letter dated 26 May, please may I apologise for the delay in replying. I am unable to comply with your request to reimburse the charges applied to your account as they were debited correctly in accordance with our published charging tariff... blahcakes" Step2A. This is where I went wrong I had every intention of filing a claim with the Small Claims Court. But as I mentioned above, money was tight, I lived hand to mouth, and it was going to cost at least £50 to file the claim, which a the time I couldn't afford (I had already filed one that month against my first bank for the overdraft change- an entirely different legal matter still with the courts). I'm not proud of myself for it, but I just decided it could stay on the back-burner. Besides they had refunded all the charges from screwing up my account switch-over, and reinstated my direct debits. I strongly suggest that you don't let the initial cost of the claim deter you, but if you did fail to follow up your legal threat, read on, be encouraged. Step 3. 9 months later A new job, a double income and some good financial management later, I pondered the legal threat I had made 9 months ago, and whether I'd have to start fresh, or be able to pick up where I left off. I read back through my letters, then did a quick check online and in the forums, then I thought what the heck, go for it. So here's my second LBA, this time I was determined to follow it through, but they didn't know that: LBA 2007 (pdf) | (odt) This time I got a much more detailed and wordier reply which can be downloaded below: Bank response to LBA (pdf) Step 4. Small claims online Since this was a LBA, not a fresh start with a simple preliminary, I waited for the 14 days to time out and did not give the bank any further warnings before filing my claim online which came to £80. I basically used Money Saving Experts statutory interest calculator, to calculate my total charges plus 8% interest which came to £611.24. When you file your claim online your fee will be added to this automatically (£611.24 + £80 = £691.24). HMCS MoneyClaim is easy enough to understand and the fields hardly need explaining, just go through and fill in your details, defendants (your bank). Then you will come to the 'Particulars of Claim' which is the difficult part, especially since you are limited to 500 characters. Again, I took the example provided by the CAG in their template library and edited the wording slightly to fit: Between 01/12/04 and 28/12/06 the Defendant applied numerous default charges to the Claimants bank account. The defendant contends the charges were debited in accordance with its contract with the Claimant. The charges applied are an unfair penalty under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, which state: 'A term is unfair if it requires any consumer who fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation'. The amount charged does not reflect the cost of the breach. The charges are an unlawful 'extravagant' penalty. A charge is a penalty if it does not reflect an items true cost. Under the County Courts Act 1984, the claimant is entitled to interest at a rate of 8% per annum from the date they were first deprived of the money. This totals £61.24, continuing to accrue at the statutory daily rate of 0.021% until judgment or earlier payment. The Claimant therefore asks the court to enter judgment in their favour for £550.00 plus interest, totaling £611.24. Please note that this is an old wording and CAG currently provide a new one in their template library (registration needed) which they ask not to be printed outside of the private forum. HMCS Claim Form (pdf) Step 4A. Be prepared to go to court I have published the steps I took so far, under the assumption you already have researched claiming back bank charges. If not, I should warn you before you get to this stage that if you are going to file with the small claims court you should be prepared to actually go to court. You are not defending yourself so you don't need a solicitor or lawyer- it is the bank who decides if they want to defend themselves against your claim. If your bank decides to defend in court, it is best to seek advice from a website such as the CAG, MoneySavingExpert or ThisIsMoney forums- don't pay for the advice- there is no need! The charges are illegal and unfair but if you don't state your claim properly you could end up like this man. It's completely wrong, but remember the banks have a whole legal team working for them. Step 5. Wait... A few days after filing online I got a Notice of Issue through the door, it felt good to hold in my hand... Then the next day, a short (disgruntled) note from my bank with Acknowledgement of Service. Yessssssss. This was followed by the AoS from the court. Interestingly you will note bottom left of the AoS the bank ticked "I intend to defend all of this claim". Acknowledgement of Service (pdf) Step 6. Bank Owned! Bank Settlement Letter (pdf) £700 of my money, stolen from my account returned! Ooh I don't like the sound of this: "As it is clear that you do not accept the terms and conditions for the operation of your account we will shortly be contacting you to discuss its future operation." Step 7. The Empire Strikes Back! And sure enough... 1st Notice of Account Closure (pdf) "The decision should not be regarded as an admission of liability on the part of the Company, nor should it be regarded as any sign of weakness..." Ooh they must have taken it personally. "Therefore as it is clear that you do not accept certain aspects of our terms and conditions for the operation of your account we regret that we are unable to continue to offer you banking facilities..." Err... which certain aspects of the T&Cs were those... the ones that were unlawful? The ones you were unwilling to defend in court? Of course it was an attempt to piss on my victory parade, and if I'm honest I was not only annoyed but slightly nervous. The last account switch-over didn't go to well (see above) and I actually did get good service from A&L. A brief check in the CAG forums and other online places only seemed to return results for people going through a similar thing, but no resolution or some brief mentions but no details.. how.. what.. when? Step 7A. Pulling the cord Most guides you read will advise you on the first step to open your parachute account. I haven't mentioned this yet because I still had my former account with HSBC which was currently dormant, so I knew I'd be able to do a quick transfer myself into it. Nevertheless, I had got my first taste of blood, I wasn't going to let them get away with retaliation and forcing inconvenience and further stress on my person. Step 8. Go ahead, bank, make my day I wrote a strongly worded letter right back to them asking things like: "If you felt that your charges were ‘fair’ and not unlawful, why did you offer full payment and not proceed to defend them in a court of law and prove my particular case wrong?" I then mentioned I'd spoken to someone in customer services who had confirmed that other customers were having their accounts closed after claiming back charges. This was true, and it was important for establishing it as a retaliatory measure, not just a vague "breakdown of the relationship". Finally I used some of my own initiative and creativity to issue a further warning about closing my account: If you go ahead with the closure of my account I will be forced to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service myself and be claiming further compensation. I take this opportunity to remind you the FOS is ruling in favour of customers who have had accounts closed in retaliation for claiming back charges. (See attached adjudications ‘Mr A’ and ‘Mr L’). In order to make my point, I enclosed print-outs of an article from ThisIsMoney and both adjudications from the FOS website. I did this to make it clear I knew my favourable legal standing. Warning Letter on Account Closure (pdf) | (odt) You will be advised that it is the banks discretion who they do business with, so even if they are wrong to close an account, it can't be stopped in anyway legally. The bank did take notice of this letter. I received a shortly drafted letter from them advising they were "currently looking into the issue you have raised and will let you have our response as soon as possible." I then got another letter 7 days after that to advise that "the issue you have raised concerning the closure of your account has been forwarded to the relevant department who will contact you direct." That got their attention didn't it? Step 9. We're gonna do it anyway and risk the consequences... ... because it's all about risk isn't it? If we keep this customer, we can't make any money off him anymore, if we close the account, we'll only lose a couple of hundred pounds.. you do the math. 2nd Notice of Account Closure (pdf) But they extended the the closure date... can't really think why, they already decided they were going to close it. I suppose they expect I should be thankful for this gesture? So I get online and transfer all my standing orders over from one account to the other. Let the HR girl know at work (thankfully I work in a small company), and write a letter to companies I direct debit. Those I missed, got in touch with me- Ha! Step 10. The last laugh Next stop FOS website to download their complaint form. It took about 15-20 minutes to complete. Mostly cut-paste-edit job and photocopying a bunch of letters. Print then send. Had a response by 12th June from the FOS: "Thankyou for sending your complaint form. Unfortunately, I have to return this as you need to sign it." DOH! 2nd Response from the FOS (pdf) The 3rd response from the FOS on 16th July  was just to inform me of the guy who had my case dumped on him, and to inform me they have a heavy workload so it may be sometime before they can progress my case. Well, I think they're doing a great job BTW but I immediately had an idea of how they could reduce their workload. Stop writing letters to inform clients you have a heavy workload! I think that will probably reduce it by a quarter at least. 4th Response from the FOS - The Gold! (pdf) "A&L has now told us it would be prepared to pay £200 compensation to cover the distress and inconvenience the closure of your account may have caused..." -///- And that folks, is how I did it, it only took me 12 months, but I did have a rather long and unadvised break in between. Like a surgical procedure, unpleasant, but you get to take time off afterwards and eat cookies. Anyone can do it. Technorati Tags: bank charges, banks, reclaim charges, overdraft, account, financial ombudsman service, account closure, retaliation, how to, moneyclaim online, small claims court, letter before action, fightback, walkthrough

The Processed Life

This Post Is Rated: N for Nothing to hide... yada yada. Warning: More commentary on our total lack of discretion and humanity in today's culture. I'm aware that I'm going to reference another 'old' news item now but I'm just catching up with some of my saved rss feeds and occasionally I come across an item that is worth my comment but I'm too busy to compile something at the time. Last month the BBC reported that, now, even the police are fed up of the target culture. The list of compiled cases showed incidents where officers had been "under such pressure to deliver it has resulted in an arrest or caution when even the officer themselves thinks it is ludicrous", he said. "Understandably, when the public hears about this they ask 'What the hell is going on?'." Of course those who read police bloggers will not be surprised, but what people should be realising is that it's part of a much wider cultural endemic that has been going on for some time. We no longer know how to relate as human beings. We may even empathise with our victims customers' personal situation, in the knowledge that we are making decisions that will deeply affect their circumstances, but there seems to be no will to to try and break the cogs of this giant machinery that is called 'authorisation'. How many times have you heard the words to the effect of "Yes, I understand, but I'm sorry sir I cannot do that as I don't have the authorisation" or "I'm sorry I have to process this now, I can't stop it". What they actually mean is: "I can stop it, but if something goes wrong, it will be my head on the block, or I am financially disincentivised to do anything to help you". I'm glad the police are concerned, we should all be. We are moving towards, nay, already in a society that sees people as assets to be put in boxes and processed. If someone doesn't fit into the box, discard them or fail them. Why should we be concerned? Let me give you an example from my own life, You may already be aware of the trouble I had with TalkTalk at the beginning of the year. I ended up cancelling their contract to go with Pipex in February. Today I received the 3rd 'Final Demand' for money on an account that should have been closed 4 months ago (2 phone calls, 1 letter). This is no longer a human looking at the details and realising the error of their ways, this is a machine, that has not been given the right instruction and without intervention, followed through to logical conclusion will pass this onto a debt collection service. I don't trust those who currently stand for authority, not until I can see an example of a person or organization who can utilise technology responsibly, and not rely on it to cost cut human decisions over human lives. To slightly modify an old mantra used on this site: Databases exist to for people, people do not exist for databases. DISCUSS THIS POST (REGISTRATION FREE) Technorati Tags: checkbox culture, database culture, big brother, predatory systems, customer service, target culture

Lord Matt Appeal

This Post Is Rated: N for Nothing to hide, nothing to fear. Contains reference to a possible abuse of process. Long time supporter and reader of Abandon All Fear, Lord Matt reports his local council's zealousness over council tax collection. Despite being subject to council tax benefit (which is under review) they haven't given him any time to respond to a demand for payment before sending him a court summons. It smells like an abuse of process but Alex Fear is limited to his experience with parking enforcement and speeding. If anyone has an idea about these things, feel free to get in touch with LM, as he is now facing a bill of £1000 or more. LM's Court Appeal Blog of trial and courts decision Thanet Council breaching the law?   Technorati Tags: council tax, lord matt, appeal, court summons

Stealing Abstracts Part 1

This Post Is Rated: I for Ooh... Illegal. Or is it... and what are the implications? It's already been done 1.3 million times and counting. After some careful consideration, I thought I'd join in and "break the law" too: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0 This string of seemingly random numbers forms a key to unlocking the DRM on HD-DVD and Blue Ray hardware. The AACS-LA does not want people to publish this number. In fact it has even threatened legal action against those who choose to publish this set of numbers. I won't go into too much detail here because this story is old and there is already plenty of information on the web and it's been covered extensively by BoingBoing. But is it really illegal to publish a set of numbers? Interestingly (at the time of publishing this post) it has not been tested in court which really raises the question of whether it's actually illegal to own and publish these numbers. Can you really own a number? Something tells me it never will be tested, or if it is, the AACS will probably fail. Can you really see them filing a law-suit against 1.3 million people, many who probably don't even reside in America? Interestingly, Ed Felton of Freedom to Tinker already addressed the issue of 128-bit number ownership: Now, thanks to our newly developed VirtualLandGrab technology, you can own a 128-bit integer of your very own (and then presumably, start issuing take-down notices to anyone who publishes the numbers or keeps a copy of them). Here’s how we do it. First, we generate a fresh pseudorandom integer, just for you. Then we use your integer to encrypt a copyrighted haiku, thereby transforming your integer into a circumvention device capable of decrypting the haiku without your permission. We then give you all of our rights to decrypt the haiku using your integer. The DMCA does the rest. - You Can Own An Integer Too - Get Yours Here! I'm plan to do a follow up post on this subject as it demands a more thoughtful analysis, but my initial thoughts on this subject is that we have moved beyond a mere Information Age and are becoming part of a type of Information Revolution. Traditional business models and capitalist frameworks are being usurped by Creative Commons and Open Source. These examples speak for themselves: EFF: Public Interest Prevails in Digital Copyright Showdown The Inquirer: Linux Man says Microsoft screwed itself Finish Court Rules CSS Protection used in DVDs "ineffective" Lessig Blog: Required Reading: The Next 10 Years The Enquirer: EMI Has DRM Free Sales Boom SmartFlix: This Post is for You, Robert Tourtelot eCoustics: Dell Introduces Linux Based Computers Software Journal: Microsoft and IBM admits Google is now a rival... Whether you know it or not you are witness to a civil war taking place over the net. The internet is a type of 'wild west' or Electronic Frontier if you will. All the rules from the old country no longer count. If you Google search, blog, social network, make internet calls or have ever used any kind of free or open source software then you have already chosen your side or become a sympathiser for the revolutionaries. My second thought is this, by pursuing legal action even against people who simply publish a string of numbers (regardless of knowledge of how to use them), then the AACS and other vested interests are already losing the battle. They dilute the severity of their claim by attacking anyone without discretion, and they will be opening the door for people to claim ownership of numbers and text (see above)- the end result would be death of progress, innovation and design. Imagine a programmer that would have to obtain rights from a different 'owner' for every line of code they wrote for a new program? Perhaps the only way to move forward would be for programmers to learn Klingon or some other language- until the AACS claimed ownership of certain strings of Klingon numbers and words. In my view, those who are blurring the lines between what is and isn't illegal copying are the proprietors and proponents of DRM and the DMCA. More to come. Technorati Tags: drm, aacs key, dmca, copyright, open source, illegal, creative commons, electronic frontier, information revolution, hd-dvd, blue-ray, 09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0 DISCUSS THIS POST

Forums Are Open

This Post Is Rated: F for Friendly. Contains information related to the operation of Abandon All Fear. I have just finished setting up the Abandon All Fear Forums. The code was free from phpBB and automatically installed with the software offered by my hosts. It's a basic forum, I haven't done anything to change the scheme apart from swapping the header image. I'm receiving on average about 30 visitors a day, so I'm not expecting the forums to take-off soon. From now on at the end of most blog posts there will be a link to discuss the post in the forums. This allows for more reader interaction, contribution and for subject matter to grow beyond the initial post. I don't have false expectations and I'm aware I may be jumping to forums a bit too early, but I reckon AAF forums have the potential to provide a place where: Both people with and without faith can engage with like-minds on faith, politics, culture and current events. Debate is encouraged between people of faith and those without. Blog posts can be discussed and extended upon. The community and post and read experiences, examples, information and how-to's on fighting the fear (legally challenging authorities that abuse their power). There are many forums and websites that already specialise in different areas, such as consumer action and speed cameras, which I link to often. AAF is not seeking to compete with these sites, they have far more experience and have helped Alex Fear greatly. AAF seeks to bring it all under one roof, providing first hand experience from Alex Fear and directing those in need of more information and details to these excellent resources. The forums will hopefully allow anyone else to bring their experience and references to the more specialised source like these. Hopefully we can all inspire and be inspired to take civil action, putting justice and mercy first before predatory systems and the database and tick-box culture. Please feel free to register in the forums and create new threads under the appropriate headings. If there is no appropriate heading, or you think something should be added, make a suggestion. Finally, if this works I will need moderators and I am looking people to write for this blog- details in this post. Technorati Tags: abandon all fear, forums, discussion, politics, social justice, database culture, tick-box culture, predatory systems, civil action Your thoughts? Don't just comment... discuss it in the forums.

Shout Out To Those I RSS

This Post Is Rated: F for Friendly shout out. Just finished updating a new page purely for a list of blogs I read, rss or occasionally visit. In no particular order or preference. Here are the blogs. I will be modifying the links page to feature websites only, however some of these may soon cross over to resources. The objective here is to turn AAF into a conglomerate of non-professional advice, information and experience on challenging corrupt or pharisaic authorities that make the decisions and rules for us to live by, but don't necessarily follow the rules themselves.

No Comment

Well, I guess when you post anything slighty critical of Rachel North, you can expect at some point for a member of the Northsquad to show up. I did always say they were welcome but I'm getting pretty tired of the relentlessness of one Anonymous commenter. Despite claims, I haven't seen a large boost in traffic coming from Oxford. Oh well, guess I won't be picking up one of these anytime soon. Stats... stats... preeeccciiioouus staaats! I can't stand comment moderation, I never thought I would have to use it, but after this comment: "I can see what you are putting forward and it looks to me like an attack on a blogger to get publicity for your own blog by being 'controversial and doing a bit of victim-blaming. Perhaps you do not care to talk to readers. Perhaps you do not care about your reputation. R clearly does and fair play to her." Anything involving Rachel North seems to get serious pretty quickly, so I'm taking steps to ensure this doesn't escalate. I seem to have suffered a bit of a comment explosion, at the moment. I may have taken on too many battles at once. I think this blog needs to cool down a bit so I'm going to be posting light humour for a while before I resume Fallible Design, Housing Market Myths and other subjects. Regular readers, feel free to dribble away till my stats are near death. Alex Fear needs a rest before once again taking up arms against the Philistine hordes. Moderation will be removed as soon as stupidity levels are reasonably lower. Technorati Tags: comment moderation, publicity, stats, rachel north, attack blog, victimisation, criticism

How To Respond To TV Licensing Threats

This Post Is Rated: C for Controversial. Contains references to government enabled thuggery no less. A while ago Neil Herron posted an excellent response he had sent to TVL Enforcement: "Despite a call to your 0870 number, I continue to receive threatening letters from yourselves. Therefore, as I have replied to you, and requested the attendance of one of your authorised officers at a mutually convenient time in order to be interviewed in compliance with the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984, I consider any further intimidatory letters or implied threats as harassment." - Neil Herron I do not believe in TV Licensing. There are few countries in the world today that force their citizens to pay for a telecommunications licence. The people of New Zealand are the most recent example of a nation successfully rising up to challenge and overturn their draconian licencing laws. I would encourage people here to also protest and write to their MPs. There are also countries who have proved that public service television can be successful without licensing. Canada, for example does not require you to own a licence to view public service television. There are only two channels available for free, then you purchase cable for the rest. Usually when it comes to licensing the BBC, the counter-argument always presented usually follows the lines of how the BBC can afford to take risks, we wouldn't get the quality programming if it wasn't funded by the licence and it allows the BBC to remain impartial. Bullshit. ITV, Channel 4 and even Channel 5 are now able to compete with substantial quality programming at no cost to the tax payer. But there is a more sinister work afoot with TV Licensing, and that is the subcontracting of the work to a firm called Capita which also run things like the Criminal Records Bureau, Congestion Charging and Council Tax. If you are not concerned yet, you should be. At this rate, 20 years from now Capita will be monitoring your every move in our increasingly Orwellian society. With regards to TV Licensing, Capita's method of enforcement appears to be: Send warning letter to ANY household not currently registered with a licence on our database (yes that means people without TVs included). Send threatening letter to ANY household that has not yet paid up (regardless of electronics owning status). Send a different version of threatening letter from step 2. Use lots of RED BOLD FONT. Send threatening letter: AN ENFORCEMENT OFFICER WILL SOON VISIT TO INTERVIEW YOU UNDER POLICE AND CRIMINAL EVIDENCE ACT... BLAHCAKES... Wait 3 months. Repeat steps 1-5. Anyone who has moved home or been a student will probably recognise one or more of the TVL letters mentioned above. We recently received all of these letters twice over when we first moved into our flat in London, before we had our TV setup. They seem to have been sending them since the last tenant left, whilst no-one was living there, until we arrived. When we finally got the TV setup and grudgingly paid for our licence, surprise! We were still receiving these threatening letters! It got to Step 4 twice, and yet, no enforcement official (which I was looking forward to). Why? The answer dear readers is simple. They seem to have little enforcement on the ground, though this is hard to determine, since they have not really been forthcoming with the FOI requests (read the pdfs). It is reported that even their detection equipment is not nearly as good as they make out. So what to do with these threats and harrassments from the TVL? I would not encourage anyone to break the law, but let's just say if they ever turn up at my doorstep, regardless of whether I have a TV and licence or not, I would tell them in polite and no uncertain terms to f*** off and get a warrant. If you you need a little more detail than that, here's a short guide: Ignore the threat letters, read others' personal accounts, opinions and check the forums Read one persons experience of their rhetorical threats. You are worried, are they coming for you? BBC Resistance has all the answers. Take your time over the material there, enjoy. Fed up of their hateful, empty threats? Write a 'cease and desist' letter revoking their 'implied right of access' (also see Neil Herron link above). On the event that an enforcement clown officer shows up at your door, you have a right to refuse entry unless they have a warrant. They most definitely won't have a warrant if it's the first visit. Only a court can issue a search warrant on reasonable ground to suspect you have a TV. This means they have to apply individually for every innocent person they harass. In the highly unlikely event they obtain a warrant, they will most likely want to interview you under caution. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING. However, be not afraid. Know this: They only want your money. I cannot find the source but did I read a post for the job of TV Licence Enforcement Officer on a jobsite a long time ago. It was a "day in the life of" in which the officer explained he would try to sell a licence to the person he had interviewed. This is what they will probably try to do. (If I find the link I will post it). Protest and resist. It is completely immoral and possibly unlawful to send out letters randomly to anyone who does not own a licence. This is an assumption of guilt and requires the recipient to prove their innocence. It's time the UK caught up with the 21st Century and realise that not everything can or should be taxed.

Here's a FACT about F.A.C.T.

This Post Is Rated: I for Isn't that illegal? No, it's not. Yet. It seems to me, ironically, that only legally rented, bought and viewed movies display the Federation Against Copyright Theft's impotent warning message. That is, only those who have actually bought, rented or viewed legally have been warned not to buy, rent or view illegal copies... Regular readers be advised! Abandon All Fear will soon be going under the radar. This website and blog will be filtering ip addresses and blocking access to most government, police and copyright protection organisations. No, I'm not planning to offer the latest Arctic Monkeys song for download or anything like that. I do however intend to discuss the subject of copyright in the near future, along with speed cameras, parking and other legal matters which is viewed by some as a war between aging business models and profit making versus the future. I'd rather not have big brother snooping in on my blog, not liking what they see, discovering my identity and/or watching for some sort of mistake. However, I am aware that some of my dear readers may work for the government et al. Therefore if you find you can no longer access the blog in the next few days, drop me an email (see sidebar) with your IP and I will reply in view of restoring your access. You have been warned!

Homeowner Holdouts

Simply awesome... these guys inspire Alex Fear. Referral: BoingBoing and various other sources. Update: 16/03/07 Tish writes in the comments ... (3/16/2007 1:14 PM) : "This story and picture of "China's Most Incredible Holdout" traveled around China's blogs and the original story was lost, elaborated on, and then pieced together and rediscovered by Chinese netizens, and finally translated into English by "bridge bloggers." Here is a link to the original post.

The Public 1 HSBC 0

It's about time one of the Dragons finally had their teeth knocked out and the smile wiped off it's face. If you have been reading the MSM and considering whether you should take a shot yourself, join the millions who have already have. If you need to know where to start, try these links: MoneySavingExpert BBC How To This is Money Consumer Action Group Forums Times Online and you can get more by googling "claim back unfair charges". Do it... Now!

David vs Saul

"It is possible to disobey a leader, leave their ministry or ignore them, without disobeying or sinning against God. It may even be