[A.J.Armitage]

You've shown no sources.

Neither have you. In fact, you explicitly refused to.

I've shown you why Carnivore is legal.

No, you haven't.

I've explained that machines and software MUST read every packet of data traffic in order for the Internet to function and function correctly.

You're right: the computers have to "read" the data they pass along, just as phone lines have to "listen" to every conversation they transmit.

Doesn't prove a damn thing, and never did.

I've explained that public funds were used to build the original Internet backbone.

As a military project.

I've given examples of people who legally read messages that aren't intended for them in order to diagnose technical problems.

People fixing technical issues and people spying are two different things.

In what form, exactly, do they look at it anyway?

[Southack]

"In what form, exactly, do they look at it anyway?"

Sniffers come in different forms. They can show plain text, ascii codes, binary, and hex.

Not that pointing such things out will sway your closed mind, anyway...

[Southack]

Carnivore is legal for a variety of reasons. The two that come to mind instantly are that the Internet was founded with government funds and still uses taxpayer funds for some backbone and gateway operations, as well as the principle that all machines on the internet backbone need to have public access to read the IP address in the header or every data packet for routing - and must read all other information in each packet to permit the recording, data mirroring, and re-transmission of packets. Other reasons to allow full public access to all backbone hardware would certainly include diagnostic and error correction activities. In short, the Internet doesn't work if routers can't read, decode, and properly route packets; and the Internet won't work well or for long if diagnostic and error corrections are forbidden from reading packets which are destined for other users.

Just as a techie can place software on one of her backbone boxes to track data packet destinations and routing, so too can a government machine read data packets, even if the software on that machine is called Carnivore.