Public Information Online (PIO) at publicinformationonline.com is an online database provided by Dandy Booksellers, who are well established suppliers of official government print publications. The PIO database collects and provides access to digitised parliamentary papers going back for more than a century. The material held includes Public General Acts since 1900, House of Lords Papers from 1901, Hansard debates from 1909, House of Commons Bills from 1919, Public Bill and General Committee Debates from 1919,…

“I read it on the internet” has become a phrase which often generates mockery and epitomises gullibility or naivety about the online world. In the 1950s science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon proclaimed that “ninety percent of everything is crud” which came to be known as Sturgeon’s Law. One can only speculate as to how Sturgeon may have adapted the percentage value of his law had he lived in the age of cat memes and…

“I read it on the internet” has become a phrase which often generates mockery and epitomises gullibility or naivety about the online world. In the 1950s science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon proclaimed that “ninety percent of everything is crud” which came to be known as Sturgeon’s Law. One can only speculate as to how Sturgeon may have adapted the percentage value of his law had he lived in the age of cat memes and…

In August 2015, a British journalist and cameraman were travelling in Turkey, making a documentary for Vice News. As is often the case, they were working with a local agent, a “fixer” who was responsible for getting them access to the locations and subjects they wanted to include in their documentary. All three were arrested and, in September 2015, charged with deliberately aiding an armed organisation. The primary justification for the charge was reported to…

Since the internet was in its infancy, the rights of users to use it to express their opinions was sacrosanct. When the first laws of the internet were being forged by legislature and in the courts, internet service providers (ISPs) were the focus of these sacred rights and they avoided liability by claiming they were “mere conduits” of these views and not “publishers” of them (and the ECommerce Directive of 2000 confirmed this). This felt…