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FCC approves Net-wiretapping taxes
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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.
The FCC's initial ruling last fall had left open the question of whether broadband and VoIP providers would be reimbursed for rewiring their networks and upgrading equipment to comply with CALEA.
See more CNET content tagged:
CALEA, FCC Commissioner, university, broadband provider, homeland security
48 comments
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And, of course, end users are fee to pick up the tab as well.
Welcome to the new world.
out how to use this gaping hole in internet security.
Thanks, once again, to legislators who are completely clueless
as to how technology functions and wouldn't know the 7-step
model from a 12-step program, our rights as citizens to be
protected from intrusion into our private lives has, once again,
been removed.
Who says reincarnation isn't a fact? Joe McCarthy lives on in the
FCC!
Lee Darrow, C.H.
Chicago, IL
He said "terrorists hate us because of our freedoms."
So.. it's entirely logical that once our freedoms are eliminated we'll no longer be hated. Right?
Which rights have disappeared? We don't have a constitutional right to low gas prices, nor have we ever had the freedom to speak freely with those who are at war with the U.S. Clearly, there has been no curb on the right to dissent, freedom of the press, or any other of our Constitutionally-protected rights. You and Franklin are right - those would give up God-given rights for freedom deserve neither, but that doesn't apply. Not yet, anyway. People like you desperately want rights to disappear, I know, so that you can feel good about yourselves and your anti-productive rhetoric. I hope that day doesn't come.
Reportedly they already have the ability to enable wiretapping...
If US citizens continue to abrogate their rights, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Write and/or call your representatives and let them know this is unacceptable.
And now , we have to pay an extra impost to allow big brother to bug us all in daily life, truly amazing!, what's next, burn the constitution?
Oh well, there is always the ballot box?, for even a simple ficus tree can do a far better job, then the current house majority!(it can't fall asleep, and is too wooden, to take bribes or free lunches, from the corporate sector!)
Taxes, arbitrarily imposed without representation, are truly evil!!!!!!
Oh that's right...>WE THE PEOPLE!
Since when did this jackass-run 'government' obtain total authority and power over WE THE PEOPLE, and create a nation of SLAVES?
Buy more guns, take a stand!
Fight fire with fire!
Vote OUT those people bent on creating a dictatorship, and prevent this current MORON from usurping more power than he has a constitutional right to!
Wasn't his OATH OF OFFICE to DEFEND AND PROTECT the CONSTITUITION to the BEST of HIS ability when he was sworn in?
Is he DOING THIS NOW?
NO!
I say IMPEACH AND SEND HIM TO PRISON FOR TREASON!
Bush is allowing this chicken s***t government to do whatever it pleases and with NO accountability to the people anymore.
Time to charge and sentence Bush for: Treason and high crimes, and shove his ass in for LIFE for his despotic methods, THEN have him tried INTERNATIONALLY for WAR CRIMES AND TORTURE!
20 LIFE TERMS IN PRISON FOR BUSH!!!
If you don't the governments ability to fight terrorism will be severely restricted.
It's a well known fact that terrorists are fat (actually one of the terrorists on a cliche'd Chuck Norris movie was fat, and as such provides a clear link between the loss of 50s style exercise programs and 9/11) so if obese America drops a few lbs we will be able to implicate all remaining fat people as terrorists.
Not working for you?
Well then unfortunately, and although we recognise every American's right to religious freedom, this should not be mistaken as an excuse to for everyone to forget to carry a Bible on their persons at all times.
It is a well known fact that if a member of Al Quaeda was to even touch an official US Jesus Manual he would burst into flames.
Remember that while you have the right to religious freedom, this should not excuse your patriotic duty to be a Christian. In our revisionist version of the Constitution, not only does the President have the right to overall all levels of Government, but religious freedom is simply a reference to each American's duty to forsake Godless paganism.
Apparently they have identified a clear link between Bird Flu and Al Quaeda, and are holding meetings at the highest level to decide how to use the invasion of Iraq to explain why tax cuts and placing wire taps on all Americans phone lines will prevent the next pandemic.
Clearly the only way to combat this threat is the unrestricted ability of the NSA to record each and every American's phone sex conversations, not too mention the suspicious increase in the use of the internet to purchase unChristian reading material or worse, booking a vacation in Al Quaeda's closest Ally - France.
The most important thing to remember is that the desire for privacy is clearly a subversive tendancy, and any such people the express such a desire should clearly be watched at all times.
Remember "Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear".
Next on the President's agenda, auto-voting. To circumvent immigrant voter fraud, all valid citizens should sign up for auto-votes immediately.
You will be allocated your Republican Voter Registration Identity Number, and your local Republican Senator will cast your vote for you.
This will prevent not only voter error, which nearly proved catestrophic in the 2000 election, and without timely intervention of the Supreme Court could have resulted in a non-Republican party approved president being elected.
Whilst we wouldn't want you to stop being in fear of terrorism, at least we can comfort you with the knowledge that terrorists will not hijack your vote.
why not just use it? If everyone used it then it
would be commonplace. Perhaps PGP should be
included by default in more software? I know
people who refuse to pay their bills from their
own bank's website out of fear that hackers
might SSL packets. Ironicly those same people
think nothing of handing their credit cards to a
waitress or bartender.
It is not very difficult for even the average
computer user to install and run encryption
software that makes ISP or government snooping
practically impossible. This can easily be done
with email as the technology is very mature, but
unfortunately very few people even bother using
it. Encryption also exists for VOIP and will
probably improve but most likely people will not
use it preferring to complain how "the man" is
able to snoop in on their business.
Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, Bush screamed back. Its just a ********* piece of paper!
Ive talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution a ********* piece of paper. Thompson adds. (Doug Thompson - Capitol Hill Blue)
...Would accept being able to spy-on, track, and record everything that every single American-citizen does, in the name of "...catching terrorists, and [other] criminals".
...And, only a TRAITOR would seriously propose it.
Once, the U.S. government decided that it no longer had to obey "The U.S. Constitution", the Law, ...or "...the will of the people..." it gave up every right to call itself a legitimate-government.
Let me put this more bluntly...
Those currently in control of the United States are nothing more than heavily-armed CRIMINALS, who have ILLEGALLY seized control of our nation. And, they clearly have no qualms about using ANY force necessary to completely control "...the people", solely for the benefit of a powerful few.
I just hope I can get my children out of the country before the shooting starts.
what really needs to happen
what really needs to happen
As for the rationale about saving us from Errorists, the Guberment doesn't really want to catch the bad guys. They need a foil to keep the public in a constant state of unbalance, and a never ending money pit called protecting the Fatherland, to continue to pay for no bid contracts. Read how Arbusto turned down daily opportunities to get Zarqawi for over a year. We knew exactly where he was and The Man would not allow him to be liquidated.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1627197.htm" target="_newWindow">http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1627197.htm</a>
Just think Orwell predicted it in his novel "1984" and he was only 20 years and a few presidents off the mark.
The actions this administration is attempting are more similar to China's oppressive regime than the fantasy created about the English prior to independance.
The Founding Fathers were nothing more than rich white men who didn't want to pay their taxes - and have more in common with today's CEOs than any sort of freedom fighter we associate them with.
But requiring US Citizens to fill out travel forms detailing which countries you're visiting, where you'll be staying and reasons for your visit, as well as recording your conversations and internet activities are far more reminiscent of the propaganda we were fed during the cold war.
Also consider this. It's not related but certainly worth consideration.
Supposedly passengers of commecial jetliner that crash into remote wilderness regions of the Andes and were forced to eat their companions often stated that people taste like chicken. This has been confirmed by other groups that have taken part in weird tribal rituals and such.
So if this is true, that human flesh tastes like chicken, doesn't it follow that chicken tastes like people?
Just something to ponder over your next McChicken sandwich.
TamT
"1984" has been with us for some time!