Court backs Government Broadband Wiretap Access

COURT BACKS GOVERNMENT BROADBAND WIRETAP ACCESS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Peter Kaplan]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday upheld the government's authority to force high-speed Internet service providers to give law enforcement authorities access for surveillance purposes. The court rejected a petition aimed at overturning a decision by regulators requiring facilities-based broadband providers and those that offer Internet telephone service to comply with U.S. wiretap laws. In a split decision, two of three judges on the panel concluded that the 2005 Federal Communications Commission requirement was a "reasonable policy choice" even though information services are exempted from the government's wiretapping authority. The FCC has set a May 14, 2007, deadline for compliance, and the ruling drew praise from the FCC and the Justice Department, which sought the access. "Today's decision will ensure that technology does not impede the capabilities of law enforcement to provide for the safety and security of our nation," the department said in a statement. But the chief author of the 1994 wiretapping law, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), criticized the court's decision, saying Congress had deliberately excluded the Internet when it wrote the wiretap law. "The court's expansion of (the wiretapping law) to cover the Internet is troubling, and it is not what Congress intended," Sen Leahy said in a statement.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...

* FCC Chairman Martin's statement:
Enabling law enforcement to ensure our safety and security is of paramount importance. Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the Commission's decision concluding that VoIP and facilities- based broadband Internet access providers have CALEA obligations similar to those of telephone companies. I am pleased that the Court agreed with the Commission's finding, which will ensure that law enforcement agencies' ability to conduct lawful court-ordered electronic surveillance will keep pace with new communication technologies.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-265879A1.doc

* Appeals court upholds Net-wiretapping rules
http://news.com.com/Appeals+court+upholds+Net-wiretapping+rules/2100-102...

* Court Ruling Threatens Civil Liberties, Technology Innovation
[SOURCE: Center for Democracy and Technology]
A federal appeals court today ruled 2-1 that telephone regulators and the FBI can control the design of Internet services in order to make government wiretapping easier. The decision, which is damaging both to civil liberties and technology innovation, came in a case in which CDT joined with a coalition of universities, libraries, public interest groups and Internet companies, to oppose an August 2005 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission. In that ruling, the FCC expanded the reach of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) -- a law intended to apply only to the telephone network -- to the Internet.
CALEA Ruling: http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/20060609calea.pdf
More on CALEA: http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/calea/