[IP] Easing of Internet Regulations Challenges Surveillance Efforts
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 02:57:27 -0800
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Easing of Internet Regulations Challenges Surveillance
Easing of Internet Regulations Challenges Surveillance Efforts
By STEPHEN LABATON
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/22/technology/22VOIC.html?hp>
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 - The Federal Communications Commission's efforts to
reduce regulations over some Internet services have come under intense
criticism from officials at law enforcement agencies who say that their
ability to monitor terrorists and other criminal suspects electronically is
threatened.
In a series of unpublicized meetings and heated correspondence in recent
weeks, officials from the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration have repeatedly
complained about the commission's decision in 2002 to classify high-speed
Internet cable services under a looser regulatory regime than the phone system.
The Justice Department recently tried to block the commission from
appealing a decision by a federal appeals court two months ago that struck
down major parts of its 2002 deregulatory order. Justice Department
officials fear that the deregulatory order impedes its ability to enforce
wiretapping orders.
The department ultimately decided to permit the F.C.C. to appeal, but took
the highly unusual step of withdrawing from the lawsuit, officials involved
in the case said.
As a result of the commission's actions, said John G. Malcolm, a deputy
assistant attorney general who has played a lead role for the Justice
Department, some telecommunications carriers have taken the position in
court proceedings that they do not need to make their networks available to
federal agents for court-approved wiretapping.
"I am aware of instances in which law enforcement authorities have not been
able to execute intercept orders because of this uncertainty," Mr. Malcolm
said in an interview last Friday. He declined to provide further details.
The clash between the commission and officials from the Justice Department
and other law enforcement agencies pits two cherished policies of the Bush
administration against each other. On one side stand those who support
deregulation of major industries and the nurturing of emerging
technologies; on the other are those who favor more aggressive law
enforcement after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The outcome of the debate has far- reaching consequences.
Law enforcement officials say it will determine whether they can
effectively monitor communications between suspects over new kinds of phone
services that otherwise might allow them to escape detection. Also at stake
is whether the government or industry will bear the considerable costs of
developing the technology for such surveillance.
By contrast, some F.C.C. officials and telephone industry executives say
that if the commission buckles to the other agencies and forces the
industry to take on a host of expensive obligations the development of
promising new communications services may be stalled or squelched for years
to come.
The law enforcement officials have also raised concerns about recent
statements by the commission's chairman, Michael K. Powell, that suggest he
intends to propose rules soon that would place nascent Internet-based
telephone services under a looser regulatory regime than the traditional
phone system.
Through a spokesman, Mr. Powell declined to discuss the subject.
David Fiske, the commission's chief spokesman, said that he could not
respond to Mr. Malcolm's statement that the F.C.C.'s interpretation of the
rules was making it more difficult to execute surveillance orders.
A senior official at the F.C.C. said the commission was not unsympathetic
to the concerns of the law enforcement agencies. "We're an economic
regulatory agency as well as a law enforcement agency and we have to look
at the interests of everyone," the official said.
Some industry experts say that their biggest worry is that law enforcement
demands may reshape the technical specifications of the new Internet voice
services, an accusation that officials at the Justice Department and the
F.B.I. deny.
"What's most scary for industry and perhaps some people at the F.C.C. is
the notion that the architecture of the Internet will depend on the
permission of the F.B.I.," said Stewart A. Baker, a former general counsel
of the National Security Agency, which monitors foreign communications. Mr.
Baker now represents a number of telecommunications companies as a partner
at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson.
<snip>
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