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Time Warner To Comply With Wiretap Law 452

Posted by timothy from the panopticonjob dept.
rekkanoryo writes "Time Warner Cable is taking steps to comply with the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act, which requires telecommunications providers 'to help police conduct electronic surveilance.' Note that broadband providers are not yet required to comply with the law, but the FBI has stated its desire to force broadband providers under the law's jurisdiction. Invasion of privacy anyone?"
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Time Warner To Comply With Wiretap Law More

Time Warner To Comply With Wiretap Law

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  • Just another step closer (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sir Haxalot ( 693401 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:50PM (#8589404)
    to 1984.
    • I doubt it. It's not a big effort for an ISP or the Feds to record all packets being sent from a given IP end point. And since computer traffic is a lot easier to encrypt then phone traffic, if you're paranoid, it's easy to hide what you're doing. Use good crypto and what's the government know? that you sent and recieved packets from a select number of hosts.

  • Canadian laws (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lordofohio ( 703786 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:52PM (#8589424)

    That's funny, on my other tabbed paged right now I'm reading about the formalities of moving to Canada :-)

    • Re:Canadian laws (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The Canada that's working on abolishing anonymity on the net? That Canada?

    • Re:Canadian laws (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Fishead ( 658061 )
      Take a job in construction.

      The housing market is so hot right now that we don't have enough labourers to build houses fast enough so we are outsourcing. I just read in the paper the other day that Ottawa is allowing Canadian companies to hire Americans.

      Best thing about being in Canada is that our politicians are all crooked (sponsorship scandal?) but at least we are not scared of them.

      Rule #1 if you want to work in Canada?

      Roof rhymes with Goof

    • Re:Canadian laws (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DR SoB ( 749180 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:29PM (#8589840) Journal
      I'm a Canadian. Big Brother is here, watching. CSIS works hand-in-hand with the CIA.

      We now have anti-biker laws that go wayyyyy beyond what is happening in USA right now. Being part of a criminal organization here is harmful to your health! The CIA/DEA/FBI _ALL_ have offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, etc.

      If I could suggest a place to move it would be Holland, so far they are BY FAR the most Liberal, free country on earth. I'm not talking about drug laws either.

      • Re:Canadian laws (Score:5, Interesting)

        by saforrest ( 184929 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:39PM (#8589970) Journal
        I'm a Canadian. Big Brother is here, watching. CSIS works hand-in-hand with the CIA.

        As does the RCMP, apparently:

        http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/arar/

        That said, we have only so much tolerance for Big Brother, and especially for the wishes of our southern brethren. CSIS may do the CIA's bidding, but when an issue is outed and has popular support, they will often back down.

        Plus, CSIS has a reputation for being bloody incompetent. It may be unjustified, but it's true.

      • Re:Canadian laws (Score:4, Funny)

        by Unregistered ( 584479 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @02:30PM (#8590492)
        If I could suggest a place to move it would be Holland, so far they are BY FAR the most Liberal, free country on earth. I'm not talking about drug laws either.

        Can you own guns? Can you get GM car parts easily? If so, i'm there.

      • Yeah, keep dreaming (Score:4, Interesting)

        by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @02:34PM (#8590523) Journal
        I live in holland. Drugs are here more or less legal. So what do we do with a person who deals LEGAL drugs in holland and just happens to sell stuff to american tourists who themselves smuggle it to the US?

        Hand them over ofcourse. Despite the fact people in america do not get a fair trial. If you believe they do look a little bit closer at the system of plea bargaining, people are in jail in america without ever having been found guilty or even have had a trial in front of a jury or judge. Nice eh? Oh sure you can refuse the plea bargain. couple of years in jail vs life when you got no money and no experience with the legal system.

        No I am afraid that the worst thing in the world that ever happened was the collapse of the soviet union. At least when they were around america had some opposition. Sure sucked if you lived in the soviet union but now the whole world is living in the US.

    • Re:Canadian laws (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mdielmann ( 514750 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:41PM (#8589986) Homepage Journal
      That's kind of ironic. Before 9/11, I would have been interested in moving to the U.S.

  • PGP (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slavefishy ( 728826 ) <fukmsNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:54PM (#8589436) Homepage
    Now would be the time to get using PGP and similar software.
    • Now would be the time to get using PGP and similar software.

      Thats great amongst a few like-minded people, but most people I know don't want to fiddle with encryption or even care if the messages are intercepted by persons or agencies unknown. You can't encrypt something by yourself (message-wise anyway).

      • Re:PGP (Score:2, Interesting)

        by jagilbertvt ( 447707 )
        I've seriously considered offering a service providing ssh tunneling from say, a pc on a cable modem to a server at a remote location, which would then route the traffic as requested. This should be plenty feasible, as you should be able to use ssh tunneling w/ just about any application.

        Now might be a good time to look into this further.

        • Re:PGP (Score:3, Insightful)

          by dillon_rinker ( 17944 )
          I'm not sure you realize it, but you are seriously considering getting the FBI to bother you. If you provide a centralized service that makes it impossible for them to wiretap people, they will focus their efforts on your service. Centralizing people's encryption gives them a single point of failure.

          I'd also point out that if you are a lone individual and not a corporation with a pack of lawyers, the FBI can lean on you hard. Real hard. It doesn't matter if their actions are illegal if you can't prove it.
      • > > Now would be the time to get using PGP and similar software.

        > Thats great amongst a few like-minded people, but most people I know don't want
        > to fiddle with encryption

        Just 8 years ago we said the same exact thing about the Internet.

        "Oh, thats great for a few like minded people, but no real person would want to buy a computer just to send this email stuff that no one they know can read!"

        Now look at us...

    • Re:PGP (Score:3, Interesting)

      by e9th ( 652576 )
      I wonder how long it will be before we have mandatory key escrow? "To protect us against the terrorists," of course.

    • Re:PGP (Score:3, Interesting)

      by chihowa ( 366380 )
      So the obvious follow-up is:

      I use gpg in Evolution to clearsign messages. A few of my Windows packing friends and family have expressed an interest in using encryption in their email. Not having a Windows system at my disposal, I haven't found any good drop-in PGP (or gpg) plugin for Outlook Express or Mozilla Mail. Of course, I haven't spent a hell of a lot of time looking.

      Yeah, yeah... I should tell them to ditch OE, but doing that implies that I'll be their tech support until the end of time (and I

    • Re:PGP (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pla ( 258480 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @02:11PM (#8590293) Journal
      Now would be the time to get using PGP and similar software.

      Not a bad point at all - Such tools have existed for well over a decade, yet very few people use them. Time to really get on the ball and start teaching our friends and relatives - Even if we make it totally automated at their end, the goal has changed somewhat. Thanks to this new law, it doesn't really matter if physical access to either end compromises the connection, we just need to make sure nothing goes out in cleartext. So, even something as simple as "Okay Mom, if a little box pops up saying something about GPG, just type my birthday, okay?" would represent a dramatic improvement over our current situation.

      However, we need to make the use of encryption more ubiquitous than just email. For example, almost no traffic leaves my house that doesn't use SSL. However, for *incoming*, therein we have the biggest flaw in security. Currently, we have almost no way to prevent our ISP (or the feds through them) from watching our web browsing. Even using an anonymizing proxy doesn't help much, if the traffic itself comes to me in the clear.

      Ah, I babble a bit. Overall, I just want to make the point that we need to stop talking about how we can get around stupid laws like this with encryption, and start doing so, before it becomes a real problem. So, anyone reading this... Don't put it off until tomorrow. Install GPG on the PCs of everyone you know today. Tell their browser to use an anonymizing proxy that always uses https (Do any? If you know of one, please reply with a link). Outright remove any telnet and FTP clients from their machine, and replace them with SSH and SFTP clients. Kill AIM, and replace it with the encryption-enabled version of Trillian.

      We need to make sure that everything going in or out uses encryption.


      As an aside, if everyone used encrypted email, spam would cease to exist. It just costs to much CPU time for the spammers to encrypt ten million messages, thus making a "perfect" email filter as simple as dumping any unencrypted messages. Who needs Bill Gates? We just need to start using the tools already available.

      • Re:PGP (Score:3, Insightful)

        by iminplaya ( 723125 )
        All this crypto stuff is real nice and all, but if "they" want the info, you will be locked up until you give up the key. Besides just watching where the traffic goes tells them more than you can hide with crypto. In this war on privacy, the ISP can be a real weak link in privacy protection. So we need to ditch the ISP. The only way I know how is going truly wireless in some P2P kind of way. This could stop any tracing of traffic. I'm aware of the latency involved with all the "island hopping" that would be

        • Re:PGP (Score:3, Insightful)

          by pla ( 258480 )
          All this crypto stuff is real nice and all, but if "they" want the info, you will be locked up until you give up the key.

          True enough. However, at least currently, locking a person up until they reveal their key would require at least a court order (or even an actual trial? Not sure on that one).

          Providing an easy passive backdoor into every ISP, on the other hand, makes it far to easy to casually snoop around looking for illegal material to follow up on.

          If the FBI needs to investigate someone for an

  • Globalization + due process (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lichen ( 13438 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:54PM (#8589440)
    Broadband providers say the FBI's request would, for the first time, force cable providers that sell broadband to come under the jurisdiction of 1994's Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which further defined the already existing statutory obligations of telecommunications carriers to help police conduct electronic surveillance. Telephone companies that use their networks to sell broadband have already been following CALEA rules.

    Ok, fair enough I suppose. But the fact however, as has been pointed out here, is that not all programs are being written in the US. To make IM, VoIP, IRC, and or whatever other type of program that allows communication over IP have backdoors is bad enough. But to expect that every program on the planet has one is just downright silly. But, thats not really the bad part...

    Under CALEA, police must still follow legal procedures when wiretapping Internet communications. Depending on the situation, such wiretaps do not always require court approval, in part because of expanded wiretapping powers put in place by the USA Patriot Act.

    Bad, bad, bad. Is it so much to ask for due process here? I mean it's part of our own set of friggen laws. Is it so much to ask that the Feds follow the laws before they make new ones?
    • Bad, bad, bad. Is it so much to ask for due process here?

      Yes! They need to stop terrorists now! Imagine if they had to wait for a warrant! A terrorist could blow up your car! Or your child's daycare! Think of it, all those children, dead! Think of the children! For god sake, won't somebody think of the children!
    • Ashcroft doesn't believe in such things as the bill of rights or the constituion

      I would also like to know how they intent to read all the encrypted traffic, they mention forcing isps, not software companies so they can listen to packets but I'm not sure how much could that would do considering like me for instance, I check all my email from an ssl secure site.

      Either way this is quite disturbing, I don't like the wire tapping laws of the Patriot Act so naturally I don't like them being expanded, especiall

      • Re:Globalization + due process (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Ron Bennett ( 14590 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:52PM (#8590111) Homepage
        You really think that 128 bit SSL can't be cracked in real-time...nonsense?...maybe not?...given various mathematical shorcuts combined with large amounts of memory, SSL may not be as secure as most folks are led to believe.

        But even if 128 bit SSL is as secure as folks believe, unless one encrypts everything, they are still likely vulnerable.

        For example, you may check your email from a SSL secure site, but I'd bet much of that email you receive was sent in the "clear" at some point...and how do you send encrypted email...or don't you? Unless you are encrypting most everything, eventually enough little bits and pieces will leak out in the "clear". Do you encrypt your URLs...if not, that alone will reveal a lot about you to eavesdroppers.

        In short, the only real answer is for people to rise up and demand better legal protections of their rights for technical measures alone won't do it...

        Ron

        • the only real answer is for people to rise up and demand better legal protections

          That doesn't work. The government isn't your only threat. The other threats are going to ignore the law. Maybe if you pass a law that LEOs need a warrant to snoop, they'll obey. But organized crime won't obey. The pervert who works at your mistress' ISP who is going to show your love letters to your wife unless you pay him $500, won't obey. B1FF the 31337 H4XX0R won't obey.

          Legal protections aren't enough. You have to

    • Ok would someone please please please point out the relevant sections [thebaka.com] which indicate that any wiretaps can be obtained without a court permission? I haven't found it yet.

  • The law, anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SunPin ( 596554 ) <slashspam@cyber i s ta.com> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:55PM (#8589449) Homepage
    What happens if they don't comply? This is a serious case of "resistance is futile." Time Warner and the FBI are just playing their proper roles. Congress is the group that needs a clue.
    • Um, it's the President the overseas the FBI. Their in the Executive branch, remember?

      • Re:The law, anyone? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I would think that is his point. The FBI is only enforcing laws created by the Legislative branch. It is not their job to create laws or overturn laws (which is the judicial branch's responsibility). You can't whine about the laws to the FBI. Write your senator instead.

  • What about satellite ISP? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by YetAnotherAnonymousC ( 594097 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:55PM (#8589454)
    So the article mentions new laws for cable and DSL. I wonder if they have covered their bases with wiretap laws for satellite ISPs?
    I know little about how staellite internet access is set up beyond the cost and latency specs. Anyone know if there's less/more/similar difficulty involved something like direcway traffic? I would imagine they can still stick something like our friend "carnivore" at the direcway base station?

  • That's why I use DECNET for my networking needs (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:56PM (#8589462)
    I'm really lonely since all I can talk to are my other friends who have VAX & VMS in their basement, but by golly nobody is wiretapping me!
    None of this Tee Cee Pee Eye Pee for me!

    Thomas

  • Alright, I understand the privacy issue... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ERJ ( 600451 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:56PM (#8589464)
    But is this really Time Warners fault? They are making provisions to comply with a law. Yes, it does not yet apply to them, but there is a good chance that it will and they are preparing for that. Shouldn't the real issue here be with the law, not the company?

  • Amazing. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by musingmelpomene ( 703985 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:56PM (#8589465) Homepage
    Megacorporations, for once, have amazing power to do a huge amount of good for freedom in this country - by refusing to comply. They wield enough political power to shut this ridiculous new measure down. Their "pull" could be used to make sure this law never took effect.

    But instead, they're kowtowing to the government, ensuring that we lose another of the few shreds of privacy we had left.

    Organized resistance by individuals is great - but organized resistance by corporations (who should realize that, with all the corporate scandals, may be hurting themselves by giving more wiretap power to the government) would be fantastic and pretty much unstoppable.

    Let's see a show of corporate brute force! Who's with me?

    • Re:Amazing. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cybermace5 ( 446439 )
      Be careful what you wish for.

    • Re:Amazing. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by RLiegh ( 247921 )
      However, megacorporations -by nature of their international status- do not feel any moral obligation.

      Also, given the hefty $ handouts to the corporations from the government, it's not likely that any of them are giong to stand up for the little guy, either.

      What's good for the government, is good for the coporations, what's good for the corporations, is good for the government. We do not figure into it. At all.
      • Stand up for the little guy, hell.

        Those corporations are corrupt to the core, and it strikes me that wiretaps being made more easy might have negative effects on their bottom line and on the bottoms of the executives (once they get sent to "federal pound you in the ass prison").

        I think it's a matter of rational self interest for 'em.

    • Re:Amazing. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by seanmcelroy ( 207852 )
      Organizations are powerful in this regard, but by taking voluntary measures, even if they are to the detriment to the consumer, they can show due dilegence both in court cases that relate to criminal activities that occur over their networks and for public relation issues that call for increased monitoring.

      Also, by taking such preemptive actions, they may offset legislative controls which would in the end be more costly to implement. God knows I'd pick voluntary measures over the hours I spend trying to f

    • Re:Amazing. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Ytsejam-03 ( 720340 )
      Great idea, but how exactly to you plan to motivate these corporations to use their "pull" with the government? Corporations are in business to make money, and unless money is involved then they won't do a thing. Why take a business risk by refusing to comply with the law if you have nothing to gain from it?

      Sure, all of us in the Slashdot crowd can "vote with our wallets," and switch from Time/Warner to some other ISP that respects our privacy. But chances are that Joe Sixpack is not going to know or car
      • As I said above, I think it will hurt the assets of the companies and the asses of their CEOs (that "federal pound you in the ass prison" thing again) when they give the government unrestricted wiretap power - imagine the potential exposure of corporate corruption! I'd imagine these companies have quite a bit to hide, more than Joe Sixpack ever would.

    • Re:Amazing. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworldNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:12PM (#8589637) Homepage
      Megacorporations, for once, have amazing power to do a huge amount of good for freedom in this country - by refusing to comply.

      Oh god no. The day corporations stop complying with the laws you don't like is the day they'll stop complying with the laws you do like.

      Environmental regulations? Out the window. OSHA laws? Gone. Child labor? Hiya kids, grab a pick and head to the mines. We can go back to the early part of the century when companies could spy on their workers' private lives in order to ensure they were living "morally".
      • They already DO ignore a lot of those laws. Bribery and corruption is rampant. And the one time they have a chance to say no in a GOOD way, they refuse it.
    • The words 'megacorporations' and 'good' do not belong together. That is like meeting your anti-self in a difference universe.. don't touch or the universe will explode!

  • encrypted (Score:5, Insightful)

    by millahtime ( 710421 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:56PM (#8589472) Homepage Journal
    So, how do you tap something with 128bit or better encryption???? What happens when it gets to 512bit encryption???? Can the FBI really decrypt that to tap it???

    • Re:encrypted (Score:5, Informative)

      by gnuzip ( 670049 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:03PM (#8589548) Journal
      I think it'd be pretty difficult or impossible (depending on what you do) to encrypt all internet transactions. Email should be pretty straightforward, but what do you do about HTTP, FTP, IRC, and all the other protocols which are completely built around unencrypted transmission? The best rule to go by, it seems, is: "If you don't want someone to read it, don't send/receive it".

      • Re:encrypted (Score:3, Informative)

        by kableh ( 155146 )
        That's what stunnel [stunnel.org] is for.
      • You can encrypt HTTP, FTP, and hopefully (if this wiretapping crap ever went into effect) they'll come out with an encrypted IRC.

        I know if it goes into effect, I personally will start using WASTE and Freenet a lot more often. I won't really communicate with those who aren't encrypted on the other end.

        They might be able to wiretap, but they'll be screwed once everything IS encrypted (and it will be).

  • Verint AKA Comverse InfoSys (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ka9dgx ( 72702 ) * on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:56PM (#8589476) Homepage Journal
    Oh great, more contracts for Verint [cominfosys.com] A.K.A. Comverse InfoSys, the Israeli company suspected of leaving backdoors for themselves. [mideastfacts.com] How much more can be possibly do to make ourselves puppets for other nations?

    --Mike--

  • There is nothing about invasion here (Score:5, Interesting)

    by arivanov ( 12034 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:57PM (#8589481) Homepage
    Move along people.

    It was possible to wiretap anything 10 years ago. At about that time Cisco started shipping some cards that were too fast for capturing traffic on them in real time.

    In 3-4 more years they deployed CEF which made NATing traffic to a remote server for collection not work either. Search the net for people swearing about D.O.S.track not working anymore.

    The only reason for doing so was profit and that their gear did not have enough CPU. There was nothing about any bloody privacy.

    As for one thing I will be very happy if the routers will be forced to have a working debug mode by law.

  • Invasion of Privacy? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:57PM (#8589487)
    Invasion of privacy anyone?

    Hurm... a quote from AskCALEA

    "The law further defines the existing statutory obligation of telecommunications carriers to assist Law Enforcement in executing electronic surveillance pursuant to court order or other lawful authorization." (Emphasis mine)

    Has pretty much the same restrictions as a phone tap, just applied to different media.

    And you if think ** anything ** going across the internet is private you are quite mistaken.

  • Encryption (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lofoforabr ( 751004 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:57PM (#8589489)
    That kind of thing won't work. At least not for the more sophisticated criminal networks, who will surely use encryption to do away with wiretapping.
    It's like banning guns in the hope that criminals won't get them either. They will still do what they are used to do, but by other means.
    • "That kind of thing won't work."

      Who says this will just be used on sophisticated criminals. They already are useing encryption and are already getting around phone bugging. This would help them catch the dumb ones. And there are a lot of those.

  • Tired of it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by robslimo ( 587196 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:57PM (#8589494) Homepage Journal
    Good Dog. I'm tired of this erosion of my rights. Yeah, 9-11 was a Bad Thing (tm) and something had to be done, but the situation is getting out of hand. It ain't just GWB, either. The lawmakers as a whole are either reacting to or catering to the fear factor.

    Wiretapping has worked pretty well in the past... but with the proper legal steps taken first (court orders, whatever). Even this has been abused, but I can't see how wholesale wiretapping can be a good thing, ever.

  • Come To My Country! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by osewa77 ( 603622 ) <naijasms@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:58PM (#8589495) Homepage
    So, guys, you prefer an environment where nothing is regulated, where criminals can do their jobs in peace without their privacy being invaded by the 'big bad guys' in law enforcement. Well, come to my country; we are new to democracy, I am sure you would feel more at home!
    • Hmm, would that be Columbia, or Cuba?

      There are two extremes in governmental interference. No control at all, and you're at the mercy of the bullies, whether they be big business, organized crime, or social pressure (maintaining the 'status quo'). Too much control, and you're at the mercy of the government, and you may not be able to tell the difference compared to the other extreme. But there's this medium, where government does those things that individuals can't do easily, like provide a police force,

  • Business idea. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:58PM (#8589497) Homepage Journal

    I'm convinced that a promising business venture would be a non-US ISP which would sell IPSec tunnels to anyone. The termination point would be outside the US and would preserve privacy.

    • I'm convinced that a promising business venture would be a non-US ISP which would sell IPSec tunnels to anyone. The termination point would be outside the US and would preserve privacy

      You took the words right out of my mouth. However, I think that HavenCo [havenco.com] on the Principality of Sealand [sealandgov.com] may have beaten you to the punch. However, I think that there is some question as to their sovereignty as a nation.

      Provided that they have the proper bandwidth to handle this, I'd love to proxy most of my communicatio

    • Isn't this exactly what AnonX [anonx.com] promises? For $6/month, you can tunnel all of your traffic over an encrypted VPN to Vanatua and then to the Internet at large. Vanatua has excellent privacy protection, and AnonX doesn't keep any logs, anyway. The FBI's pressure on ISP's makes AnonX seem even more attractive.

  • Questions... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by vchoy ( 134429 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @12:59PM (#8589515)
    Quote: "Legal experts said the 85-page filing includes language that could be interpreted as forcing companies to build back doors into everything..."

    How would they enforce this with regards to encryption technologies?
    My point is if people have something to hide, then they will use whatever mechanism there is out there to hide it. Can authorities really achieve their goals by simply imposing wiretapping laws on broadband providers?

  • would be required to (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Phrack ( 9361 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:04PM (#8589561)
    Given some previous announcements of Time Warner to get into the phone biz (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/36287 for one example), they would already be required to comply with wiretap laws. Nothing surprising here.

    Don't blame the provider for the law. Blame your lawmaker.
  • It's none of their business what I or anybody else does with a network. Just another great reason to encrypt your traffic. Seems like their just shooting themselves in the foot to me. My first instinct is to say let them go for it, but then the idea of "your tax dollars at work" comes to mind and on second thought I think it's a rather lame waste of money as all they'll see from me is line noise ;)

  • use encryption... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by iwadasn ( 742362 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:10PM (#8589623)
    OK, I'm officially the crackpot at work, because I tell them to USE ENCRYPTION! Encryption costs basically nothing, there's no reason why anyone would host a website that didn't use, or at least offer SSL. Everyone out there should use encryption for everything. Get rid of telnet, use ssh, and sftp rather than ftp. Use SSL on your websites, etc.... Encryption literally costs nothing, there is no advantage to not using it, WHY DON'T YOU USE IT? If you're too stupid to protect yourself when doing costs you nothing, then maybe you never really needed rights to begin with.

    I just don't understand. It's so incredibly easy to protect your rights in this area, do you want someone else to do it for you. Clicking a button renders all their BS moot. With the effort you spend complaining you could solve the problem, it's just a button click away.

    If you want untappable phones, use VPN to run your VOIP from another jurisdiction, simple as that.

  • Privacy is your own responsibility. Even without the concern of government wiretaps, you have to assume that all your packets which pass through the public internet, may be watched by someone. Take away the government wiretap threat, and it's still irresponsible and reckless to not be using encryption.

  • Daleks versus the Borg (Score:5, Funny)

    by HarveyBirdman ( 627248 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:12PM (#8589644) Journal

    AOLTIMEWARNER: We are AOLTIMEWARNER. Resistance is futile.

    FBI: Exterminate! Exterminate!

    AOLTIMEWARNER: Your unique markets will be added to our own until all media is an even gray mass of mediocrity.

    FBI: Exterminate! Exterminate!

    AOLTIMEWARNER: And, um, we, uh, you know. Customer privacy and, um.

    FBI: The only interest we have in privacy is its total extermination!

    AOLTIMEWARNER: Yeeeah. Um, look, we're going to go over there for a while and-

    FBI: Obey all FBI commands! Obey instantly! Obey without question! Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey!

    AOLTIMEWARNER: Uh, OK.

    FCC: Breasts are evil!

    To quote the great Kurt Vonnegut, "...and so on."

  • ...Gary Winston to spy on me now when I'm writing code. Then he's going to steal my work so he can finish Synapse.

  • Privacy? Over PUBLIC wires? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blcamp ( 211756 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:13PM (#8589665) Homepage

    C'mon people.

    The internet is a PUBLIC network of public content. Where the hell does anyone get the idea that there is a concept of privacy involved here?

    (This is not intended to be sarcastic, rhetorical, nor trolling.)

    If you have (or seek) private information, encrypt it (or have it encrypted), (have it) wrap(ped) it in a .zip or other file, and encrypt the thing again.

    If you don't want the Government to watch what you are saying and/or doing, then don't give them anything to watch.

    This isn't a Bush or Ashcroft thing... this is a technology thing. Any time technology is seen as capable of doing something, ANYTHING, you can bet someone will try do do so... without regard to whom is in charge.

    • The internet is a PUBLIC network of public content. Where the hell does anyone get the idea that there is a concept of privacy involved here?

      Yes and if you go out on the PUBLIC street and down to the PUBLIC store and make some purchases and maybe a cash withdrawal at a PUBLIC ATM, and meet some friends in a PUBLIC cafe, you wouldn't have any problems with a government agent following you 2 steps behind all around would you?

      If you don't want the Government to watch what you are saying and/or doing, then

  • This may be illegal (Score:5, Informative)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:19PM (#8589732) Homepage
    Check out the Cable TV Privacy Act of 1984. [epic.org]
    • (h) Disclosure of information to governmental entity pursuant to court order

      A governmental entity may obtain personally identifiable information concerning a cable subscriber pursuant to a court order only if, in the court proceeding relevant to such court order -

      (1) such entity offers clear and convincing evidence that the subject of the information is reasonably suspected of engaging in criminal activity and that the information sought would be material evidence in the case; and

      (2) the subject of the information is afforded the opportunity to appear and contest such entity's claim.

    This is stronger than the laws on wiretapping. This applies to both cable TV and "other services" provided by a cable TV operator.

    If the cable operator owns its own ISP, then that ISP may also be subject to these restrictions.

  • Shut Up and Pay Your Taxes, Suspect (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ddelrio ( 749862 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:27PM (#8589808)
    Interesting.. It seemed so wrong when it was happening to my grandparents in Cuba. As a child, I was told to watch what I say (I was nine) when writing to my grandparents because my mail would be read by the Cuban government. At the time, I thought it was the craziest thing in the world--but it seems Americans are getting used to this sort of thing. Unfortunately, encryption wasn't an option. The Cuban government took my grandfather's secret decoder ring.

  • Watching the Sun Set on the USA (Score:5, Interesting)

    by serutan ( 259622 ) <snoopdoug AT geekazon DOT com> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @02:07PM (#8590262) Homepage
    Face it people, all this surveillance is going to happen. The government is going to have complete information about you and contrl over you in a few short years. The Internet can be a great tool for communication and education, just like television could have been. It can also be a tool for control, just like television is.

    America is in the hands of the bad guys, and within our lifetimes we will have a totalitarian government ruling a flock of consumer/workers who generate wealth for the top 2%. Just like in the good old days [learner.org], only with HDTV. It's pretty much that way now, but in the future it won't be a secret, and people won't really care as long as the can buy cheap gas, eat Big Macs and watch American Idol on a 42-incher.

    I've come to the conclusion that it's just the way the human race works. Some people take charge because the rest let them. Unless you are one of those take-charge types, the best thing you can hope to do is take care of yourself, your family and other people you care about, stay under the radar and live as well as possible. Democracy is like every other good thing that survives until They Who Must Own Everything figure out how to hack it.

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