Re: Legal question

["Larry Fitzpatrick" <lef () acm org>]

A bit more information. I hope Mr. Chabinsky (many thanks, and sorry for mis-spelling his name last time) doesn't mind 
my relaying
more of his commentary.  He says:

> Best always though to look straight to the source to capture all the details, so here are the federal law citations 
> (available
on-line, for free).  For montoring content, see 18 U.S.C. 2511 () , and with respect to reporting child pornography you 
might look
at  ISP Child Abuse Reporting ().  The trap and trace question is not easily answered on the face of the statute, and 
would be
subject to judicial interpretation, because the statute when written did not anticipate network traffic, see 18 U.S.C. 
3127() .

18 U.S.C. 2511
(http://law2.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t17t20+1057+0++()%20%20AND%20((18)%20ADJ%20USC):CITE%20AND%20(USC%20w/1
0%20(2511)):CITE)

ISP Child Abuse Reporting (http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/report.htm)

18 U.S.C.
3127(http://law2.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t17t20+1164+0++()%20%20AND%20((18)%20ADJ%20USC):CITE%20AND%20(USC%2
0w/10%20(3127)):CITE)

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Fitzpatrick <lef () acm org>
To: Crumrine, Gary L <CrumrineGL () state gov>; firewall-wizards () nfr net <firewall-wizards () nfr net>
Date: Monday, January 17, 2000 7:39 PM
Subject: Re: Legal question


> I asked this question this week of Steven Chabinski (the chief legal advisor for the NIPC and assistant legal counsel 
> for the FBI)
> at a DC-ISOC meeting on privacy. I don't have perfect recall, so any errors are totally mine.  Here's what I heard him 
> say:
>
> There are three conditions that allow a person to peer into the content of network traffic. 1) the people who generate 
> the traffic
> have been notified that the traffic is being monitored, 2) a law enforcement organization has a court order to do a 
> wire tap, 3) a
> sysadmin is doing so to "protect his system".  It doesn't matter whether the traffic is intra-corporate or internet 
> traffic. There
> is clearly gray-ness in point 3.  Additionally, if the inspector sees that the content contains child pornography and 
> the inspector
> is an ISP, there is an obligation to report this to the FBI.
>
> From: Crumrine, Gary L <CrumrineGL () state gov>
>
> > After wearing out my fingers during a heated conversation with another
> > colleague over legalities of certain actions, a question came up in my mind
> > concerning sniffers and their usage.
> >
> > If a sniffer was placed on the outside of a given network, and was
> > configured to sniff packets coming from that network only, does this
> > constitute an illegal wire tap?  And do the same rules apply to data as they
> > do voice?  In some cases it transits the same copper wire... ouch I am
> > getting a headache..