[IP] The connection between NSA wiretapping and telephone industry concentration
Begin forwarded message:
From: Andy Oram <andyo@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: January 5, 2006 9:31:30 AM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The connection between NSA wiretapping and telephone
industry concentration
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8924
Andy Oram
Jan. 05, 2006 06:20 AM
I have reported in detail, in a companion blog, about an [95]
historic
public forum on NSA wiretapping. Here I'll report on one
technology-related aspect of particular interest to me: the
collusion
of the telephone companies, which has not been played up in the
press.
All the warrantless wiretapping we've recently heard about required
help from the telephone companies and Internet service providers.
These companies knew they were not only aiding the government in
breaking the law, but were themselves violating terms of service for
their customers--and in the case of telephone companies, also
breaking
the law. One law mentioned at the public form (and submitted
years ago
by the forum's moderator, Congressman Ed Markey) forbids cell phone
companies from revealing the location of cell phone users--except
with
a court warrant.
In fact, the NSA wiretapping scandal represents one of the largest
conspiracies in recent years: a conspiracy between telephone
companies
and the government to defraud Americans out of our Fourth Amendment
rights.
Pertaining to this is the issue of industry concentration--the death
of small phone companies and the mergers of larger ones into
behemoths--which was also one of the goals of the Bush
administration,
pursued with determination by Michael Powell as FCC chair.
Provisions
for competition set up in the Telecom Act of 1996, and enforced by
relatively even-handed regulations passed by earlier FCCs, were
systematically weakened and discarded under Bush. (For some history,
see an [96]earlier blog of mine.
Admittedly, it's hard for any company to buck a demand from law
enforcement. The PATRIOT Act's secrecy provisions (when the FBI
approaches you, you can't even publicize the very fact that they
have
done so) leaves the impression that you'll be prosecuted for going
public with government misbehavior, and thus contributes to the
growing unaccountability of government. A few Internet service
providers have done challenged illegal wiretaps, but not enough to
establish the pattern we now see in the wiretap scandal.
Overwhelmingly, the phone companies and ISPs just went along.
One might argue that the pressure would have been even stronger if
ISPs and phone companies were smaller, but size obviously hasn't
helped them put up any resistance. Believe me, if we had an industry
of scrappy Mom-and-Pop providers like in the 80s and 90s, word about
this civil liberties horror would have come out sooner.
Andy Oram is an editor for O'Reilly Media, specializing in Linux
and free software books, and a member of Computer Professionals for
Social Responsibility. His web site is www.praxagora.com/andyo.
Weblog authors are solely responsible for the content and
accuracy of
their weblogs, including opinions they express, and O'Reilly Media,
Inc., disclaims any and all liabililty for that content, its
accuracy,
and opinions it may contain.
This work is licensed under a [103]Creative Commons License.
References
95. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8923
96. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4616
103. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
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