Cops Have Got Your Number

explosionhead writes "Salon has a nice article about the FBI's stretching their powers for phone taps under the 'Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act' and how this could apply to digital communication. The FCC tried to apply this 3 years ago, and it was fought off, but the article also comments that many of the Telcos were hesitant to argue this time around for fear of bad post Sept-11 publicity." We covered this when it happened, with a lot of good information if I do say so myself. Salon is now noting that no one is willing to challenge the revised FCC rules, running scared in the (dare I say it?) post-September 11 world.

Comments

Forefathers's Quotes - They New....

[Anonymous Coward]

"There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
-- James Madison, speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788

"Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Ben Franklin, Respectfully Quoted, p. 201, Suzy Platt, Barnes & Noble, 1993

These were found at http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/quote s/govt.html

People who don't care about this since 9-11 are in trouble.

Re:Wiretap?

[Andorion]

You're talking about an Inductive Wiretap. There's a brief blurb on the different types of wiretaps here.

Now, I don't know if the fact that it's not physically connected to the wire makes it legal, but I'd think it does not.

-Berj

Re:Wiretap?

[yoyoyo]

As I have heard, read, and understood, the FBI has devices they can just SET near the wire/line and it picks it up via electrical waves outputted by the wire/line. So, in reality, it isnt really a 'wiretap'. I could see this as being a way to get around the law

No such luck. The courts have ruled that sense-enhancing techology requires a warrant. For example, using thermal imaging to see if you are using heat lamps to grow MJ is a no-no. Nice FUD though.

Re:I dont get it at times

[Dolly_Llama]

I see it happening time and again and can't help thinking that once taken, civil liberties are never given back.

you have a good point, but I think you're taking it just a bit too far. Wartime enroachments on civil liberties are generally repealed (or ruled unconstitutional) after the hostilities cease. A good example would be the Sedition Act during WWI or any number of the police-state/ command-economy acts of FDR during WWII.

The fundamental problem is that since these 'hostilities' are extra-national, it's going to be very hard to have a cessation in hostilities, much less one as simple and discrete as a German surrender eg. Furthermore, in supporting particular national governments against 'terrorists' the US has a very poor record. Ask Peru or Nicaragua or Afghanistan or Indonesia. I am more and more thinking that this problem will only really be solved by (get your tinfoil hats ready here) a fundamental upheaval in the way the world is governed and how wealth is distributed.