One more industry falls

vanity | The Watcher

[The Watcher]

BTW, many of you may not have noticed. But as of March 14, 2007, EVERY means of access to the internet, except for dialup, will be REQUIRED by the federal government to be tap and record the use by ANY specific user.

Yes, your VOIP phone. Yes, your MSN Messenger chats. Yes, your email. Yes, the content of any website you may visit... OR ANY SOMEONE WHO USES YOUR CONNECTION may visit.

What else is going on? Guess who has to pay for this? The feds? Nope. Your ISP, your phone company, your company (yes, if your company has a network that connects you to the internet, IT TOO HAS TO COMPLY! ).

Scattered across the country, are scores of thousands of small ventures. Some of them are informal arrangements to bring fast internet to a remote neighborhood, some of them are "free" networks brought into existence by computer geeks. Some of them are small ventures where "broadband" (any connection faster than 5X dialup speed) must comply a long list of federal regulations, from registering with the FCC to be "counted" for reporting to industry and Congress, and to comply with a complex set of rules for compliance with wiretapping.

The first federal deadline is tomorrow, Feb 12. On that date, you have to file "compliance" statements. Either you are (and how you are) or if you aren't, how you are going to.

You are expected to list your network topology, equipment manufacturers and methodology for compliance.

Yet, most ISP's have no idea yet how they intend to comply. Few can.

A few companies offer the data sorting and extraction services remotely... The estimated cost for the device alone is $100,000 for that kind of service.

The program is called CALEA, or Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Agencies.

The federal goverment is taking the stance that they demand what they want, and industry is left to define how to do it - to create standards on their own.

Guess who creates the standards? The big guys. Cisco, Telephone companies, network providers. Guess who they want to put out of business? Small providers.

Internet services was the bright star of our economy. ANyone could become an ISP. Countless small companies have created a serves and data revolution that has fueled our economic engine for the last few years.

We may not know it yet. We may not have noticed it yet. But the ISP business is dead. It has been usurped by the federal government, taken over. Network design and operations are now controlled by Big Brother. Technologies and operational techniques are now mandated by federal desires to NOT HAVE TO DO ANY WORK to spy on you.

I have devoted the last 4 years of my life to building, from NOTHING a broadband business, to bring services to areas that will never get them otherwise. I have yet to earn a paycheck. Every dime I have been able to get through sales has been reinvested in this venture.

And I am seriously considering writing my customers letters tomorrow, explaining that as of a short time from now, they will have to find a new provider, as I will have to abandon the business, as I have no money with which to fund "compliance".

One more example of runamok government.

[Old_Mil]

No worries. After all, the Patriot Act and domestic surveillance are just fine as long as you're not breaking the law, right? Privacy isn't all that important. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is truth. I guess I better post this while I can.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[YoungAmerican84]

Somebody's going to be pissed about my online petitions...

[Kevmo]

Thanks for posting this. It was eye opening.

[Porterville]

Don't care. Seeing the "wild west" tamed is a good thing.

[flashbunny]

can't wait until we have government mandated thought monitoring.

[keat]

Source, please, for your claim that my internet connection is going to be tap.

[politicalwit]

can't wait until we have government mandated thought monitoring.

flashbunny....we already have it...it's called hate crimes.

[streetpreacher]

Did you get your feelings hurt? Were you outed? What?

[Zeroisanumber]

Twenty years from now our kids and grandkids are going to be shocked to hear that there was a time when we weren't constantly monitored by the government.

[ikka]

Just ignore it. That is what the VOIP companies did about E911 services. The FCC is not going to enforce it.

BTW, you don't need to worry about complying unless you are a Tier 1 ISP - if any part of your Internet connections travel over ATT/Level3/Cogent/XO etc, then the NSA is already plugged into their fiber.

[AntiGuv]

This makes no sense. First of all, I can find no confirmation of this one the Internet. Second, it's hard to believe that this would've passed in the first place with so little notice. Third, here is an article dated today that discusses a bill just introduced by Texas Rep. Lamar Smith that would do exactly what you allege is already going to be done. In fact I distinctly recall reading about his introduction of this before and that it didn't pass (and also that Rep. Marty Meehan wanted to introduce a bill that would do the opposite - require the deletion of most ISP records after a short timeframe).

So, in any case, I might certainly have missed something important, but for now I'm skeptical about this pending verification.

[GOPJ]

People who have never put together a small business will not understand the nature of your loss - my prayers are with you...

[The Watcher]

You are completely incorrect.

ALL FACILITIES BASED INTERNET PROVIDERS must comply. That means, if you have equipment that connects people or homes or businesses or places... YOU MUST COMPLY.

The VOIP providers did NOT ignore E911. I was about to get into the VOIP business. The VOIP business is all but dead, even with huge customer growth, because E911 mandates built in enough overhead on voice traffic to ensure that copper based voice wasn't in danger.

CALEA compliance for VOIP providers will be incredibly more complex and expensive, too.

[Unmarked Package]

"Second, it's hard to believe that this would've passed in the first place with so little notice"

Congress enacted CALEA in October, 1994.

[The Watcher]

You need confirmation? Ok.

http://www.askcalea.net < very "sterile" reading, government speak.

http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Digest/2006/dd061214.html

About mid page in the above URL.

A little more explanation on this next link.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/lawful-intercept/filing-date-for-calea-monitoring-report-upon-us.asp

This link should help a bit, too.

http://www.fcc.gov/calea/

Basically, it has now become unlawful to connect anyone to the internet faster than 200kbps without federal intervention, registration of your service, and statements of compliance with regulation.

Many ISP's don't even know they have to comply yet.

[FLOutdoorsman]

http://www.cybertelecom.org/voip/fcccalea.htm

Looks like May 14, 2007 is the actual date.

[The Watcher]

Congress passed CALEA in 1994. It was not until a few months (literally) ago, that the FCC and DOJ decided it would APPLY TO EVERYONE who engaged in the business of transferring information or voice anywhere.

[Gondring]

I believe the deadline is MAY 14, not MARCH 14...

See CALEA FAQ:

Question: By what date must CALEA be implemented?

Answer:

• Date: May 14, 2007
• Requirement: Deadline for Interconnected VoIP and Broadband Access providers.

• Date: June 30, 2002
• Requirement: Deadline for all assistance capability requirements.

• Date: November 19, 2001
• Requirement: Packet-mode communications assistance capability deadline.

• Date: March 12, 2001
• Requirement: Capacity requirements deadline for local exchange, cellular, and broadband PCS telecommunications carriers.

Enjoy your freedom as an American for two more months.