Originally published November 25 2005
U.S. government intends to tap VOIP services
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
New rules established by the Federal Communications Commission state that VOIP services must be monitored with the same wiretapping capabilities as traditional phone services, and civil liberties groups are planning to fight the new guidelines.
The order expands a controversial 1994 law known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, which required phone companies to buy or retrofit switching equipment to meet stringent, government-approved wiretap standards that permit law enforcement to more easily wiretap digital phone calls, and to capture information such as voicemail PINs typed on a phone after a call is completed.
Under the new order, VOIP services that can both dial into, and be called from, the traditional phone network also have to comply with the costly requirements, pulling services like AT&T CallVantage and Vonage into the wiretap regime.
Critics say the rules make it harder for new U.S. internet telephony companies to get off the ground.
"What the FBI has asked for, and what the FCC has to date given them, would require any new developer of a voice-based technology to submit their application for the FBI's approval before even one single person on the internet can try it," said John Morris of the Center for Democracy and Technology.
"If the FCC continues to give the FBI every power it asks for, we will see a tremendous diminution of innovation in the United States and innovation will move overseas to places that are more supportive of small innovators."
The ruling could be particularly troublesome for companies using a peer-to-peer architecture that doesn't route calls through a central server, and which may not technically be able to comply.
"This comes at a time when it's most susceptible to being screwed up," Pulver said.
This is a transformational current -- we are talking about the communications and computing industry transforming into something that has never existed before.
Skype offers optional pay services called SkypeIn and SkypeOut that permit customers to receive calls from, and make calls to, the traditional phone system.
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