Posted on 03/07/2007 8:43:09 PM PST by The Watcher
I posted a while back about the financial and business aspects of CALEA on your local ISP's.
Oddly enough, most people thought I was just ignorant. Well, THEY are ignorant.
There's an interesting blog thread here: http://blogs.globalcrossing.com/paulk?from=60
He makes a very sharp point. While the original CALEA legislation was little other than requiring (and paying) the telcos to ensure that normal phone taps could occur, the DOJ and FCC have suddenly strayed far beyond that. VIOP was unknown at the time CALEA was written. But, it's been construed by the FCC to apply to all services that carry voice, chat, or communication that COULD be intercepted over the internet, as well.
Thus, your ISP, local community network, local school, university, EVERYONE that connects you to the internet at faster than 200 kilobits per second is required to pre-tap your 'net connection.
To make a relevant comparison, to which the non-techie can relate.. It's as if tomorrow, federal housing laws required that peepholes be installed, and stands at every window, remotes controls for the curtains, be installed on every home so that law enforcement could look in without hindrance. EVERY home, and that no rooms in the home be invisible from outside the home, for law enforcement purposes. If that means gutting the house to reveal otherwise hidden rooms, that's what it takes.
To top it off, the building codes were vague and said merely that "the means of seeing every place in the house" must be installed, and that you must hire consultants and lawyers to ensure that your home complies. And that if the cop sent to spy on you is too short to look through the peep hole in the door and bathroom wall, then you're going to be fined as a builder, homeowner, or landlord, EVEN IF YOU GOT APPROVAL FOR YOUR DESIGN AND THE CONSULTANTS AND LAWYERS SAID IT WAS OK and you got approval for your plans on paper.
The FCC and FBI have publicly stated that they do not give legal advice, and so, you must hire lawyers to figure out IF and HOW you must comply, and consultants to tell you how to do it, unless you comply with "industry standards", except that there's no industry standard, and if there ever becomes one, it may bankrupt you to try to implement it.
NO, there is no money from the government to become compliant. That was exhausted long ago and it was only for the telcos anyway.
Of course the idea of requiring homes to have the means of letting law enforcement look in anywhere and any spot at will is absurd. But CALEA is interpreted as EXACTLY THAT for all digital communications, period. And not only that, it's required of everyone AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE, as well.
Just for those of you who wonder, I run an ISP.
BTW, a few days ago, the FCC required every ISP, telco, network provider, and so on, file documents attesting to their readiness for CALEA. They required all of us to explain how and what we're doing to be compliant, if not, why not, and when that will be rectified. Yet many of us have absolutely NO idea how to comply, or even what is required to comply, since both the FCC and FBI adamantly refuse to specify.
"Hire lawyers and consults" is all they say.
Talks are underway in DC between the FCC, FBI, and a few industry representatives... And that effort is likely to control the nature and behavior of your provider and possibly even the way you connect to the internet from now on.
Look at the bright side, there are 400 million people in this country and probably 600 million guns.
They can't control Iraq with our military, its unlikely they will control the USA if we don't let them.
BTTT
Our society no longer values freedom and privacy.
The funny thing is all the idiots that think inet communications (or even phone calls) were ever private.
tee hee
"To top it off, the building codes were vague and said merely that "the means of seeing every place in the house" must be installed, and that you must hire consultants and lawyers to ensure that your home complies. And that if the cop sent to spy on you is too short to look through the peep hole in the door and bathroom wall, then you're going to be fined as a builder, homeowner, or landlord, EVEN IF YOU GOT APPROVAL FOR YOUR DESIGN AND THE CONSULTANTS AND LAWYERS SAID IT WAS OK and you got approval for your plans on paper.
Wow!
This sounds very much like affirmative action and preferential treatment in hiring in that the employer has to take affirmative action and find the minorities to hire even if there are no qualified minorities for the job. And if they're not qualified, the employer must train them for the job. All this within a given geographical area of the employer in which a percentage equivalent to the percentage of minorities in the employer geographical are must be employed by the employer. And, if the employer cannot find the unqualified employees within his area, he then must go outside his prescribed area and look in there for unqualified minorities for the job who then must be trained and provided transportation to commute to the place of employment.
Good that the hackers wrote those cool programs to allow the repressed Chinese their freedom of speech, and to see banned content. I didn't think we'd need them ourselves any time soon, but it appears that time isn't far off. At least the tools are there.
That is until they're outlawed.
this does not mean that every piece of data is logged (although there are proposals to do this) - it simply means that carriers must be able to comply with lawful wiretaps from law enforcement on services that involve data (VOIP, etc). that the technology must permit such a tap to be possible, not that all pipes must be tapped all the time.
"You have nothing to worry about, if you have nothing to hide..."
"It's for the children..."
My deceased brother in law was a judge. He once told me to think before I spoke. Never threaten anyone, be very careful what I wrote and to never let anyone take nude pics of me. He was quite a bit older then I was when he told me this advice but I did try to follow it. When I got a computer he told me to always remember someone is watching you. So I have always thought that although I don't like or agree with it. Somebody is watching everyone's move online. Could be anyone... who knows. I feel very bad for what you are going through with your business. I hope somehow it works out for you.
Intercepting communications is nothing new. There were hundreds of dead Roman messingers found along the road. The message they were carrying were never recieved by the reciprient.
Our know all, defend all government can't even keep track of where FEMA spends it's money after a hurricaine. The FBI can't even translate the Arabic terror cell messages for over 30 days. It's one thing to collect information. But they simply don't have enough resources to investigate every email or IM.
They may be able to target one group for investigation every day. That only leave 200 million computer users in America alone left for intercepts. Should we worry?
Yes. Just the thought of government forcing ISP's to have ports open to random wiretapping is disturbing. Free speech should not be limited by intimidation.
When bits are outlawed only outlaws will have bits...
Bump.
ping
Which is why in the 90s Al Gore was trying to force everyone to give the government a backdoor key to their encryption.
Most of the country sees Gore as this nice guy who's trying to save the world, but he was trying to do more to bring the US into a police state than the Patriot Act ever did. CALEA was passed and signed under the Cinton/Gore reign.
The problem is, too many people in this country worship the law. There are many of those right here on freerepublic that would turn in their neighbor if the government tells them that it is their "duty".
The proportion of "good germans" in this country is shockingly high.
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