Federal Eavesdroppers Could Veto innovation

San Jose Mercury News ^ | April 25, 2004 | Dan Gilmore

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Step right up, Silicon Valley, and tell Uncle Sam what you're working on.

One of these days, the tech industry may need government permission to create new applications for the Internet. Federal law enforcement agencies, asking for increased surveillance capabilities, could end up exerting unprecedented control over innovation.

[Seadog Bytes]

...while law enforcement wants the FCC to require a surcharge on communications to pay for the CALEA expansion, it doesn't want service providers to show any such surcharge separately on customers' bills. Sneaky, eh?

A Tax is a Tax is a TAX IS A TAX...Beyond the obvious privacy issues...What ever happened to 'transparency' in Government ???

[Admin Moderator]

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[glorgau]

Also, it would be a pain to add to an application. Alsways having some beureaucrat hanging over your shoulder ready to shut down your business is intolerable. Why even bother going to trouble of creating something.

As an example, I released a simple application for free and said there'd be no tech support on it. Afterwards, I got email from people _demanding_ I add features. No offer of money of course. They are to be laughed at and publically abused. As is this proposal.

[TBP]

"They want YOU to Pay for it..."