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Government v technology: an uneasy history |
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Government
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Written by Peter Warren
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Tuesday, 02 May 2006 |
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Published in Guardian, Thursday July 27, 2006
Companion box to preceeding piece.
The advent of steam-powered road vehicles prompted the 1865 Locomotives on Highways Act, which required a man carrying a red flag to walk 50 metres ahead of a self-propelled road vehicle , and set maximum speed limits of 4mph in the country and 2mph in town.
· Early radio sets could be sold only after being government-certified (which saw them used principally by the military). The regulation was dropped due to mass evasion by the public, who bought freely available crystal sets.
· An early regulation on radio - quickly dropped - required all broadcasting to cease every 10 minutes to clear the airwaves for government use.
· The 1970s' craze for "Citizens Band" radio - despite its use being illegal - led to widespread flouting of the law. It was legalised in 1981.
· Encryption has always been treated as a potential weapon; the widespread adoption of the internet set the public on a collision course with the authorities. Since the 1920s the FBI has tried to prevent code-making technology reaching criminals and foreign powers. Authorities in the UK and the US eventually lost after Phil Zimmerman and a friend separately uploaded the source code for the encryption program Pretty Good Privacy to internet newsgroups in 1991.
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