Posted on 02/12/2007 9:19:55 PM PST by 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.
There isn't enough data storage infractructure on the planet to accomplish that.
What 'Watcher' is talking about the enactment of The Digital Telephony Act of 1994 (CALEA)...then what it requires is that phone companies and ISPs provide law enforcement officials with assurance that they will be able to "tap" or have access to the content of any communications incorporating new digital technology.
That is different than requiring these companies to actually record said data. Quite a different thing.
Warrant?
This statement isn't completely clear.
The part I have placed in bold is a non-sequitur.
However, if by this statement you mean that all ISPs will be REQUIRED by the federal government to tap and record digital communications usage by ANY specific user....then you are wrong.
What you refer to as CALEA is called The Digital Telephony Act of 1994.
It requires phone companies and ISPs to provide law enforcement officials only with assurance that they will be able to "tap" or have access to the content of any communications incorporating new digital technology in the same way that traditional voice transmissions are currently accessible.
That is quite a different thing than actually recording these communications. Quite a different thing indeed.
The infrastructure needed to make these assurances was far more cumbersome for analog data, yet there was not the same hue and cry as we are seeing for the enactment of the digital data portions of the Act.
This isn't about warrants, its about whether or not some new communications system should be un-tappable. Warrant or not, when has there ever been a communications system that was beyond the reach of government agencies?
People are reacting to this as if there was some golden past when they had a system that was out of reach of law enforcement. That the Constitution somehow promises some such ability. That's simply never been the case.
Grow up! We are living in a world of Terrorists. So sad you cannot view your kiddie porn in private. I personally have nothing to hide from the feds.
Ever read "Digital Fortress"? Whadya think of it? Pucky?
It will happen eventually.
Piece by piece, decree by decree, we're losing our rights. The Republicans better realize that most of us conservatives believe in less government and more personal freedoms, not less.
With a few more good citizens like you, we will finally defeat Emmanuel Goldstein forever!
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
---James Madison
Poor James, he never envisioned how much more powerful Kiddie Porn could be used as a justification for State power.
I wonder how long that will last. Some places are plastered with them now. Last fall, I was able to track a car for miles on web-accessible ones.
I was waiting in traffic right next to a traffic video camera while on a freeway onramp yesterday. I remember thinkging at the time, "I should get a wrist rocket and some ball bearings.
I spend time quite a bit of time at traditional Christian sites.
It concerns me that with a future government that may be a reason for persecution.
It basically is right now in certain countries.
I understand, but it doesn't make it right, nor does that mean we should just allow this to occur.
Yep, and train wrecks happen on broken lines.
LINK ONLY SITE:
Privacy Groups Hit ISP Data Storage Bill
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/print.php/3660201
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