Talk:The Anarchist Cookbook

Good Article Status

Seeing how this page was restructured a few years back and I just went through to verify sources, I am considering initiating the GA review process. This article is likely a B status at least but it would be ideal to have a 3rd party verify it. Are there any other out withstanding issues that need to be taken care of prior to this? Etriusus (talk) 01:01, 26 June 2021 (UTC)

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Cwmhiraeth (talk) 05:41, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that William Powell, author of The Anarchist Cookbook, founded the nonprofit Next Frontier: Inclusion as atonement for writing the book? Source: Washington Post
  • ALT1:... that The Anarchist Cookbook received two film adaptations: a romantic comedy, The Anarchist Cookbook, and a documentary, American Anarchist? Source: Proquest Source: [1]

• Comment: This nomination was incorrectly posted on the article talk page on 18 July 2021

Improved to Good Article status by Etriusus (talk). Self-nominated at 05:39, 18 July 2021 (UTC).

• New enough Good Article. No QPQ needed; fewer than five credits. Both hooks are interesting. ALT0 is good. @Etriusus: What is the source for ALT1? The source (I viewed it does not mention the romcom. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 03:02, 21 July 2021 (UTC)

@Sammi Brie: Fixed. Etriusus (talk) 03:21, 21 July 2021 (UTC)

ALT1 also approved on the combo of both. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 03:22, 21 July 2021 (UTC)

@Sammi Brie: Thank you for the review. A quick question, as this is my first DYK. Do I need to move the DYK from the prep space to the queue space or is this the job of an administrator/3rd party? The DYK instruction page is somewhat vague on this. Etriusus (talk) 02:08, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

Etriusus, there are volunteers who will move the hook into a prep space (and then admins who approve it into a queue). You don't have to do anything. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 03:00, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

Hey you

Down me the book 2600:100B:B1D8:7C32:50A0:BA31:14C3:5E69 (talk) 01:39, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Legality in the UK

I'm not entirely sure what there is to discuss here or what the controversy is. In the UK, it is an offence contrary to section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to possess, without reasonable excuse, information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. Cases which have resulted in acquittal (such as R v Walker) were due to the defendant's proving, pursuant to section 58 (3) (3A), that he had a reasonable excuse for his possession.

Parliament has made it, prima facie, a crime to possess The Anarchist Cookbook because of its potential utility to a terrorist. R v Bel was a case of nothing more than simple possession and Bel was convicted on a single indictment after the jury rejected his defence of reasonable excuse by way of academic research. There are many other such cases, as a simple Google search can verify. I cited such cases as well as the relevant legislation in my original edit.

The House of Lords has made clear that the circumstances in which the information is possessed is irrelevant unless it amount to a defence under subsection (3):

49. Section 58(1) focuses on the nature of the information which the defendant collects, records or possesses, rather than on the circumstances in which he does so. The description of the information is given in general terms: information will meet that description, irrespective of who might commit or prepare an act of terrorism and so be likely to find the information useful. It could be a third party or it could indeed be the defendant himself. So the offence is apt to catch someone who gathers the information and stores it with a view to passing it on to someone else who is preparing an act of terrorism. But, equally, it will cover someone who does these things with the intention of using the information himself to prepare an act of terrorism. Or else, the accused may have gathered and stored the information without having any clear idea of what he intends to do with it. None of this matters, since the legislation makes it an offence simply to collect, record or possess information of this kind. Parliament must have proceeded on the view that, in fighting something as dangerous and insidious as acts of terrorism, the law was justified in intervening to prevent these steps being taken, even if events were at an early stage or if the defendant’s actual intention could not be established. At the same time, Parliament enacted section 58(3), which introduced the necessary element of balance by giving the accused a defence if, with the benefit of section 118, he proves that he had a reasonable excuse for doing what he did.

— R v G, R v J [2009] UKHL 13 on appeal from the Court of Appeal Criminal Division), https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldjudgmt/jd090304/rgrj.pdf

Further and similarly,

58. [...] section 58 focuses on the nature of the information which the defendant collects, records or possesses in a document or record. Subject to the defence in section 58(3), the circumstances in which the defendant did these things are irrelevant. So, unless it amounts to a reasonable excuse under subsection (3), his purpose in doing them is irrelevant. In particular, there is nothing in the terms of section 58(1) that requires the Crown to show that the defendant had a terrorist purpose for doing what he did.

— R v G, R v J [2009] UKHL 13 on appeal from the Court of Appeal Criminal Division, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldjudgmt/jd090304/rgrj.pdf

If someone with a legal background would like to explain what was incorrect about my edit, then I would be very interested to hear it. Otherwise, I will gladly provide further citations if that is deemed necessary. I await a response.

Festus Muldoon (talk) 04:27, 24 February 2024 (UTC)