FC: John Gilmore: CALEA wiretap law DOES NOT cover the Net

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 16:40:43 -0700
From: John Gilmore <gnu () toad com>
To: declan () well com
cc: politech () vorlon mit edu, gnu () toad com
Subject: Re: FC: CALEA wiretap law DOES NOT cover the Internet.

Declan, the whole compromise in CALEA when it was first passed, was that
it would apply only to basic telecommunications.  Wires.  And very basic
wireless services, when there are no wires to tap.

People anywhere else in the protocol stack don't have a requirement to
wiretap.  IP and everything built above IP is exempt.  Frame Relay and
such things are exempt.  Modem manufacturers are exempt.  Routers are
exempt.  Boxes that gateway voice phone calls to IP are exempt.  If
you want to tap those phone calls, you tap the WIRES, not the IP.

If wiring is involved, only the company that runs the wires has the
evil rotten requirement to be repulsive police state scabs.  If
wireless is involved, only the company that runs the transmitters is
required by law to be evil.

Voice is being carried over IP today.  There is no requirement that
the vendors of talk-to-your-buddy-over-the-Internet software -- or of
Internet services, rather than software, that offer voice communication --
build in wiretapping to satisfy J. Edgar Freeh.  If these services
become more popular, or even widespread, Old J. Edgar will have to
stir from his moldy grave and buy gear that will decode what they want
-- off the wires.  Without help from the IETF.

        John

PS: It's a very good thing that the honorable Los Angeles Police
Department spent the last fifteen years wantonly violating the
numerous legal and procedural safeguards that protect US residents
from illicit wiretapping.  People were starting to believe the FBI
when they lied that illicit wiretaps don't ever happen, and certainly
not on a mass scale.  The LA County Public Defender's office, which
provides lawyers for 70% of accused felons in LA, is in the process of
getting about 500 convicted people out of jail.  The evidence used to
convict them came from illegal wiretaps, which were never properly
applied for, court-authorized, or reported (either to the defendants
or to the public).  The corruption went all the way up to the elected
District Attorney of Los Angeles, Gil Garcetti.  See Deputy Public
Defender Kathy Quant's summary article at
http://pd.co.la.ca.us/CACJ.htm, or the whole web site at
http://pd.co.la.ca.us/.

I wonder what smart defense lawyer will find and expose the equivalent
high-level corruption at the FBI?  I'm sure it exists, or the FBI
Director wouldn't be so manic about insisting on ever-increasing
wiretap authority with ever-decreasing public visibility.



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