ANOTHER IMPT. Report Re- Our Rights on the Internet

[snot]

Again, I'm not vouching for this, but am deeply concerned.

If anyone thinks the neocons might pause and take a breather just because they've wrought so much havoc already, I hope they'll think again.

FBI to get veto power over PC software?
The Federal Communications Commission thinks you have the right to use software on your computer only if the FBI approves.

No, really. In an obscure "policy" document <http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fhraunfoss.fcc.gov%2Fedocs_public%2Fattachmatch%2FFCC-05-151A1.pdf&siteId=3&oId=2061-10804_3-5884130&ontId=10784&lop=nl.ex> released around 9 p.m. ET last Friday, the FCC announced this remarkable decision.

According to the three-page document, to preserve the openness that characterizes today's Internet, "consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement." Read the last seven words again.

The FCC didn't offer much in the way of clarification. But the clearest reading of the pronouncement is that some unelected bureaucrats at the commission have decreeed that Americans don't have the right to use software such as Skype or PGPfone if it doesn't support mandatory backdoors for wiretapping. (That interpretation was confirmed by an FCC spokesman on Monday, who asked not to be identified by name. Also, the announcement came at the same time as the FCC posted its wiretapping rules <http://news.com.com/Wiretap+rules+for+VoIP%2C+broadband+coming+in+2007/2100-7352_3-5883032.html?tag=nl> for Internet telephony.)

Nowhere does the commission say how it jibes this official pronouncement with, say, the First Amendment's right to speak freely, not to mention the limited powers <http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cato.org%2Fccs%2Fenum-powers.html&siteId=3&oId=/Wiretap+rules+for+VoIP%2C+broadband+coming+in+2007/2100-7352_3-5883032.html&ontId=10784&lop=nl.ex> granted the federal government by the U.S. Constitution.

What's also worth noting is that the FCC's pronunciamento almost tracks the language of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Almost.

But where federal law states <http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww4.law.cornell.edu%2Fuscode%2Fhtml%2Fuscode47%2Fusc_sec_47_00000230----000-.html&siteId=3&oId=/Wiretap+rules+for+VoIP%2C+broadband+coming+in+2007/2100-7352_3-5883032.html&ontId=10784&lop=nl.ex> that it is the policy of the United States to preserve a free market for Internet services "unfettered by federal or state regulation," the bureaucrats have adroitly interpreted that to mean precisely the opposite of Congress said. Ain't that clever?

Posted by Declan McCullagh <mailto:[e-mail]?subject=FEEDBACK:%20FBI%20to%20get%20veto%20power%20over%20PC%20software?>
http://news.com.com/2061-10804_3-5884130.html?part=rss&tag=5884130&subj=news

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[papau]

1. Internet Telephone - VoIP= peer to peer can't be tapped - so FBI

and FCC want ISP's to perform VoIP and to tap - and to outlaw peer to peer that does not require an ISP program.