- The Bush administration plans to ask the Federal Communications
Commission to order Net telephony providers to comply with a law that would
permit police to wiretap conversations carried over the Internet.
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- In a series of letters made public Tuesday, the Justice
Department said it is "currently drafting a request" that would
invoke the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
That law requires telecommunications carriers to rewire their networks
to government specifications to provide police with guaranteed access for
wiretaps.
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- It is debatable whether CALEA's decade-old definition
of "telecommunications carrier," crafted long before the Internet
era, applies to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers. If the FCC
rules that CALEA's definitions are not a close enough fit for the fast-growing
and somewhat amorphous VoIP sector, then the Bush administration could
ask Congress to rewrite the law.
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- Until earlier this month, the FBI had tried to block
the FCC from considering VoIP's regulatory structure until the wiretap
issue was resolved. But last week, the two agencies said they had reached
an agreement allowing a vote on VoIP regulations to take place on Thursday.
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- "While it would obviously be our preference that
the FCC decide these issues prior to considering other broadband proceedings,
we recognize that this is not practical, and have no desire to prevent
the FCC from doing its work," Deputy Assistant Attorney General John
Malcolm wrote in a letter to the FCC. "We expect that the FCC will
commence rule-making proceedings on CALEA-related matters in response to
our petition in the near future."
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- Malcolm added that based on the Justice Department's
conversations with FCC attorneys, he expects them to recommend that the
commission "tentatively concludes that CALEA applies to broadband
Internet access services, including VoIP, whether provided over DSL or
cable modem."
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- Civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Privacy
Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union contend that
CALEA's definition of telecommunications carrier clearly does not apply
to most VoIP providers.
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- In general, VoIP providers have pledged to work with
police, and some, including Level 3 Communications, do not oppose the regulations
the FBI is seeking. Others, such as a coalition of 12 smaller VoIP providers
that includes BullDog Teleworks and PingTone Communications, have told
the FCC that "there are various industry initiatives under way, and
the commission should allow those initiatives time to succeed before pre-emptively
regulating."
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- Vonage already is able to comply with police wiretap
requests, company spokeswoman Brooke Schulz said Wednesday. "We have
a way to capture the data, to give them everything they need," Schulz
said. "But we don't really have a way to get it from our system to
their system. We've had meetings with various law enforcement agencies
to figure out the best way to do that."
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- CALEA defines telecommunications carriers as companies
that are "engaged in the transmission or switching of wire or electronic
communications as a common carrier"--which probably does not apply
to VoIP providers. A second definition, which covers services that are
"a replacement for a substantial portion" of the local telephone
network, comes closer. So far, the FCC has interpreted CALEA's wiretap-ready
requirements to cover only traditional analog and wireless telephone service.
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