Ireland Now Has a Law Against Revenge Porn

Now, anybody who films intimate acts with their ex-lovers, posts it online, and are found out, will have to carry out a sentence of up to two years in prison in Northern Ireland.

Stormont has passed a law that outlaws the publication of explicit sexual images and videos of former partners. According to Democratic Unionist Alastair Ross:

"It will send a clear message to potential perpetrators that such behaviour will not be tolerated, and hopefully it will provide some assurance to victims that this type of crime is being taken seriously."

Ross added that any kind of intimate photographs or films initially shared with another individual trusted at the time and shared online post -relationship can cause distress especially when the other party has not issued their consent.

Ross added:

"We all now have smartphones capable of taking photographs and videos, all of which can be shared online almost instantly.

"Therefore, I think that the law needs to keep pace with technological changes and recognise the world that we live in today.

"The (Justice) Committee believes that introducing a specific offence to deal with revenge porn will assist the police and the Public Prosecution Service in tackling this obnoxious crime."

It's Like Talking To a Low-Tech Uncle This Whole Backdoor Thing

I know you've got that slightly annoying uncle that you love so much because they're just adorable the way they are. But sometimes, it's difficult to explain how technology works for them.

For example, I try to explain what Internet marketing is. All they know is the television era as advertising and marketing. It's hard.

Now, it's the same situation for many of the US' tech companies when they try to explain backdoors to Western politicians.

In an effort to beef up security and intelligence-gathering, Western governments are urging tech companies to create backdoors and help them gather more intelligence.

Almost everyone is in disagreement with this move. UN's Human Rights experts had voiced out their opposition to the Snooper's Charter. They would probably not side with this one.

World governments don't understand that once you urge companies to create backdoors to messaging and communications applications, it's a backdoor for everybody. It's not just a mole city for companies and government officials but also for hackers looking to make some quick buck.

Modern messaging applications work like this:

The message from your chat application gets encrypted with a unique decrypter, both of which are sent to the receiving end of your message. Only the receiver's messaging app can collect the decrypter and read the message. This is a privacy guarantee that locks out all tech companies, service providers and the government from private communications.

Now, what's the consequence when companies create backdoors? Well, total lack of confidence for using technology.

And trust me, that's a sad, sad world to live in.

The UK's Never Ending Trouble With Personal Injury Fraud

The UK government intends to stop the addition of a £90 motor insurance premium by increasing the small claims court's compensation limit from £1000 to £5000.

The proposal, according to Chancellor George Osborne, will end the "British whiplash epidemic." The "epidemic" had made the UK well-known across Europe as the continent's "whiplash capital".

According to GP Dr. Sarah Jarvis, people who make a whiplash injury claim know they immediately get compensation. However, she said the new proposal of putting forward whiplash injuries and other vehicular personal injuries below £5000in the small claims court will leave those truly debilitated by severe whiplash injuries will not receive proper recompense.

Whiplash injuries are common soft-tissue injuries suffered in the neck during a car collision. As it may tear ligaments and nerves, it may cause nausea and disorientation a few days or even weeks after the injury.

The UK Treasury said compensation paid out for whiplash personal injuries are "out of all proportion to any genuine injury suffered."

The Law Society quickly criticised the proposal. The organisation said victims who will represent themselves in the small claims court have insufficient legal advice. It added that victims who suffer severe soft tissue injuries including facial scarring can only receive less than £5000 when they can still claim more than £10,000 for emotional and psychological damages.

Snooper's Charter In UK Could Have Dire Consequences

Apple CEO Tim Cook, clearly on the opposing side of the Snooper's Charter to be introduced to the United Kingdom, raised his concerns. He said the public telecommunications service had expanded its definition from Internet service providers to technology companies and telecommunications providers, namely those with email and messaging services including Apple, Google and even Facebook.

Impossible to Reveal Encryptions

Cook's concern comes from the legitimisation of bulk interception from Internet providers, wherein they force ISPs to provide customer information and other sensitive data for up to 12 months until they are destroyed.

However, Apple's Message's app does not rely on manual encryption, but rather end-to-end encryption where only the sender and the receiver can read the messages. This makes it impossible for Apple to reveal the encrypted messages as demanded by the Snooper's Charter.

A Backdoor For Everyone

In turn, Cook said that anybody who discovers a backdoor to the encryptions, let alone allowing Apple itself to have a backdoor, will allow anyone to have a backdoor to every UK person's privacy.

Despite the safety it helps to bring down terrorists and find information about them, a backdoor would destroy the privacy and reveal sensitive information at a whim.

Meanwhile, Apple has not indicated what steps it would take should the bill become law.

Why Are Those Hoverboards So Controversial In the United Kingdom?

Those hoverboards look cool even though they're not really hoverboards. If you've seen Back to the Future, you'd say I'm saying hoverboards look like what Lexus attempted to do. But I digress.

The trouble is, authorities don't like you using your £400 hoverboard on public roads and mall authorities are likely to tell you the same thing.

Then you ask them, what's the big deal? They're just skateboards with engines.

It's those engines, apparently.

In the UK

Currently, UK law does not permit the use of electric skateboards and other wheeled devices in public roads and properties. Considered as personal transportation, anything that goes beyond the speed of 4mph is to have its own insurance safeguards.

Well, nobody designed electric-skateboard type of insurance policies. But you do get a warranty from the shop. But that's not the point.

"You can only ride an unregistered self-balancing scooter on land which is private property and with the landowner's permission," according to CPS guidelines, citing a 180-year-old law. In Scotland, they are illegal under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984.

Bloody ridiculous.

In California

So why is it that Californians are allowed to ride their hoverboards anywhere they want? Well, they have nothing against personal transportation travelling at speeds further than 4mph.

Signed the same time on Sunday when the London Met banned us all from fun travels to the mall and back, the Californian law allows hoverboards to ride as it  disables a ban on motorised skateboards and personal transporation from the 1970s deeming it outdated.

The 70s law stated it was petrol-powered motors, which made it illegal.

Wow. That 180-year-old law sure is young.

Lawyers Plead To Reconsider Closing Chichester Combined Court

The UK's busiest court is scheduled for closure. Lawyers from West Sussex plead with Lord Chancellor Michael Gove to repeal the shutdown of the Chichester Combined Court.

Chichester Combined Court is the only Crown court in West Sussex. Local lawyers along with England and Wales had protested with responses to the Ministry of Justice consultation and expressed their views regarding the 91 courts scheduled for closure.

The Ministry of Justice listed 91 courts whose infrastructures included disabled access, security troubles, cramped waiting areas and poor sanitation facilities. The Chichester Combined Court was built in 1930 and had increased overhead costs despite lax improvement of facilities. The cost to operate the Chichester Combined Court amounted to £274,000 by 2014-2015.

The 800,000 population of West Sussex would need to travel from Chichester to Hastings to have their case heard. The court was near the city's railway station. Despite encouragement by MoJ staff that travel times would be shorter, Chichester Pallant Chambers Representative Bill Emerson considers them inaccurate because it disregards the fact that Sussex residents would have to travel during peak hours.

Chichester District Law Society President Jayne Fildes blames increased property prices in Chichester and the value of the city centre court site were bigger issues rather than the bustling court-work the court achieves. 

Legal Aid Head's Pay Rise An 'Insult' To All Solicitors

The MOJ's decision to drop legal aid had solicitors see their fees fall by 17.5% in the previous year. Meanwhile, the head of Legal Aid, Matthew Coats, had increased. Legal aid lawyers have become infuriated at his salary, bonus and pension package of up to £225,000 this year.

Matthew Coats is the chief executive of the Legal Aid Agency. His combined salary, bonuses and pension benefits have increased from £195,000 to £200,000 in 2014. This year, his salary had increased from £220,000 to £225,000. His salary appears in the LAA's annual report where his basic salary is just £140,000 and he had received up to £15,000 in bonuses and £65,000 in pension-related benefits.

Coats is also responsible as the Director General of Corporate Services at the Ministry of Justice.

Despite the protests against the large reductions to criminal legal aid fees, the Ministry of Justice pushed through with its latest round of cuts to legal aid.

London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association Jonathan Black said:

“This is an insult to those members of the profession who work late nights in police stations at reduced rates and who are facing job insecurity.

“As solicitors consider ... taking the most drastic of all steps to ensure that access to justice is not completely destroyed, the MoJ once again excel themselves by insensitively announcing the pay increase of £20k to the chief executive of the LAA, Matthew Coats, whose [income] will now reach an eye-watering £225,000 per annum.

“We are told that the austerity measures mean that everyone must experience cuts ... No legal aid lawyer should earn more than the prime minister [but] Mr Coats’ salary equates to the salary of 10 solicitors made redundant as a result of the recent cuts.

“He has marshalled through a policy that means many ordinary middle earners would have to struggle to pay for their own representation, even if exonerated, and advice centres close down. Perhaps if he and his colleagues had listened to the legal professions and implemented other ways of making savings there might not be so much anger, but at £225,000, we clearly have the most expensive civil servants in Europe.”