[Infowarrior] - FCC approves Net-wiretapping taxes

[Richard Forno]

FCC approves Net-wiretapping taxes

By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/FCC+approves+Net-wiretapping+taxes/2100-1028_3-6067971.h
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Story last modified Wed May 03 11:41:46 PDT 2006

WASHINGTON--Broadband providers and Internet phone companies will have to
pick up the tab for the cost of building in mandatory wiretap access for
police surveillance, federal regulators ruled Wednesday.

The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to levy what likely
will amount to wiretapping taxes on companies, municipalities and
universities, saying it would create an incentive for them to keep costs
down and that it was necessary to fight the war on terror. Universities have
estimated their cost to be about $7 billion.

"The first obligation is...the safety of the people," said FCC Commissioner
Michael Copps, a Democrat. "This commission supports efforts to protect the
public safety and homeland security of the United States and its people."

Federal police agencies have spent years lobbying for mandatory backdoors
for easy surveillance, saying "criminals, terrorists and spies" could cloak
their Internet communications with impunity unless centralized wiretapping
hubs become mandatory. Last year, the FCC set a deadline of May 14, 2007,
for compliance. But universities, libraries and some technology companies
have filed suit against the agency, and arguments before a federal court are
scheduled for Friday.

"We're going to have a lot of fights over cost reimbursement," Al Gidari, a
partner at the law firm of Perkins Coie, who is co-counsel in the lawsuit,
said in an interview after the vote. "It continues the lunacy of their prior
order and confirms they've learned nothing from what's been filed" in the
lawsuit, he said.

The original 1994 law, called the Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act, or CALEA, authorized $500 million to pay telecommunications
carriers for the cost of upgrading their networks to facilitate wiretapping.
Some broadband and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers had hoped
that they'd be reimbursed as well.

Jonathan Askin, general counsel of Pulver.com, likened Wednesday's vote to
earlier FCC rules extending 911 regulations to VoIP. "It essentially imposed
a mandate on the industry without giving the industry the necessary support
to abide by the rules--and the same thing seems to be happening here," Askin
said.

Even without the CALEA regulations, police have the legal authority to
conduct Internet wiretaps--that's precisely what the FBI's Carnivore system
was designed to do. Still, the FBI has argued, the need for "standardized
broadband intercept capabilities is especially urgent in light of today's
heightened threats to homeland security and the ongoing tendency of
criminals to use the most clandestine modes of communication."

The American Council on Education, which represents 1,800 colleges and
universities, estimates that the costs of CALEA compliance could total
roughly $7 billion for the entire higher-education community, or a tuition
hike of $450 for every student in the nation. Documents filed in the lawsuit
challenging the FCC's rules put the cost at hundreds of dollars per student.

But during Wednesday's vote, commissioners dismissed those concerns as
unfounded. "I am not persuaded merely by largely speculative allegations
that the financial burden on the higher-education community could total
billions of dollars," said FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, a
Republican.