Court To Revisit VoIP Wiretap Ruling TelecomWeb A U.S. appellate court has decided to revisit sweeping government rules on surveillance, call monitoring and wiretap obligations of broadband, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and private network operators, although it had already ruled in favor of new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations two months ago.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is planning once again to look at compliance issues surrounding extensions of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to be imposed next year. It has ordered the FCC, the Department of Justice (D0J) and other government agencies, if necessary, to reply in an as-yet-undated hearing on petitions for reconsideration and clarification filed by the American Council on Education (ACE)and others that have been pursuing lawsuits over the matter. The same court in June had ruled that the FCC was within its authority in an August 2005 decision to establish new rules on CALEA compliance for virtually any service providers connected with the public switched telephone network (PSTN). But there were vagaries in the ruling on compliance requirements for American colleges and universities as well as non-PSTN interconnected VoIP companies. ACE, which is among several higher education and civil liberties groups suing the government overt the new CALEA rules, went back to the court to determine if Internet access campus networks, indeed, are covered by CALEA, and other petitioners reportedly followed. ACE had done a legal analysis that concluded the court had reaffirmed provisions within CALEA that specifically exempt private networks, such as those operated by many colleges and universities, from FCC regulation on CALEA. And although the court had effectively supported the FCC's broad discretionary powers regarding the often-disputed CALEA, groups of technology and security experts at the time also came into the legal picture with a paper - written under the auspices of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) - to detail multiple difficulties in meeting the government obligations. In a reaction to the latest court action, ITAA over the weekend applauded the D.C. Circuit Court ruling requiring the federal government to respond to the rehearing petitions. Focusing on VoIP service providers, Mark Uncapher, ITAA senior vice president said the court's action suggests it "may be actively reconsidering" the earlier ruling. "Applying CALEA to VoIP services- even those services that do not interconnect to the public switched network- is an overreach of the law," he added. "We are, therefore, very pleased that the court has wisely decided to review its ruling." The ITAA-sponsored paper released last June essentially explained why the expansion of wiretap mandates beyond interconnected VoIP service is extremely difficult, dangerous from a network-vulnerability security perspective, and "threatens a chilling effect" on the growth and vitality of Internet products and services --------------------------------------------------------------------- Duane Whittingham (N9SSN) - Producer Tom and Darryl Radio Shows Heard on C-Band Analog Satellite (W0KIE) - Telstar 6 (IA6) Ch 1 6.2/6.8 mHz Also on WTND-LP Macomb 106.3 FM, WQNA 88.3 FM, WBCQ 7415 kHz & the Internet. Heard Fridays 9pm ET, Sundays 12am ET and Tues 2am ET (Folk) An Independent Freeform Eclectic Radio Show. http://www.tomanddarryl.org http://www.wtnd.us Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
