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From Wikipedia, the point of the CALEA is to require telephone companies to add in back channels, not software companies [1]. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C
by chacham15 14y ago
From Wikipedia, the point of the CALEA is to require telephone companies to add in back channels, not software companies [1].
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_for_Law_Enforcement_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_for_L...
- pdpi 14y agoWhich is exactly the same issue we have everywhere else where laws that were made before the age of the internet use very narrow language that exclude computer systems in general and the internet in particular. It's just that this time, it's convenient for us.
- chacham15 14y agoNo, think about the logical consequence of such an expansion. It would effectively make all encryption such as SSL/TLS illegal.
- rsingel 14y agoThe Justice Department successfully convinced the FCC to expand CALEA to ISPs by having the FCC treat ISPs as common carriers. (CALEA is a long story, but basically the internet freedom fighters agreed to not oppose CALEA so long as the internet was left alone. That backfired and the EFF hightailed it out of DC to SF.) The choice is odd because the FCC deregulated the internet to make ISPs "information services" not "common carriers". So there is precedent for expansion that makes no logical sense.