Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ukma!gatech!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!jim From: jim@cs.strath.ac.uk (Jim Reid) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: "Spycatcher" in the UK (was: Soviet Access to Usenet) Keywords: Espionage arpanet Message-ID: <1283@stracs.cs.strath.ac.uk> Date: 1 Dec 88 12:42:51 GMT References: <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <2672@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <348@kps.UUCP> <2304@ficc.uu.net> <379@eda.com> Reply-To: jim@cs.strath.ac.uk Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Scotland. Lines: 33 In article <379@eda.com> jim@eda.com (Jim Budler) writes: >Mrs. Thatcher isn't very happy with Peter Wright. Publishing memoirs >about dirty deads inside MI5 and MI6 is a no-no. The book's banned >in Britain. I have nothing but distaste for the present Thatcher regime and I totally disapprove of most of its actions. However, your remarks about the book being banned in the UK are wrong. The Government decided that Wright's book was a threat to "national security" - in reality it was politically embarrassing - and tried to prevent its publication in the UK under the Official Secrets Act. They also tried (and failed) with the same tactic in Commonwealth countries such as Australia. While the case was going through the courts, there was an injunction in the UK to prevent the distribution or sale of the book. [It was not an offence or a contempt of court to own a copy of the book. Many people brought copies home from places like USA and Eire where it was freely on sale.] The Government's case was laughed out of court even after a succession of appeals that only made the Government look more and more ridiculous. With no more court proceedings, the book can now be sold. It was (is?) a best-selling book in the UK, although the UK publishers have been grumbling about lost sales because of all the American, Irish etc copies that were bought when the Spycatcher affair started over a year ago. Jim -- ARPA: jim%cs.strath.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa, jim@cs.strath.ac.uk UUCP: jim@strath-cs.uucp, ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!jim JANET: jim@uk.ac.strath.cs "JANET domain ordering is swapped around so's there'd be some use for rev(1)!"