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Republicans Making Concessions on FISA Surveillance RulesBy Pamela Hess, Associated Press May 23, 2008 Washington (AP) - A months-long logjam over a new government surveillance bill may be coming to an end, with Republicans offering a compromise that would let people who think they were illegally spied on by the government have their day in court -- albeit a secret one. House and Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled their latest proposal aimed at resolving the roughly 40 civil lawsuits filed against telecommunications companies that allegedly cooperated in the so-called warrantless wiretapping program. The Republican proposal makes other concessions. It would:...

A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials. The information would be held for at least 12 months and the police and security services would be able to access it if given permission from the courts. The proposal will raise further alarm about a “Big Brother” society, as it follows plans for vast databases...

The growing use of encryption software -- like Microsoft's own BitLocker -- by cyber criminals has led Microsoft to develop a set of tools that law enforcement agents can use to get around the software, executives at the company said...Microsoft first released the toolset, called the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE)...Microsoft gives the software to agents for free.

The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps. Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said...

The man who spoke for Comcast at Harvard last month has told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency has no legal power to stop the cable giant from engaging in what it calls "network management practices" (critics call it peer-to-peer traffic blocking). Comcast vice president David L. Cohen's latest filing with the Commission claims that regulators can do nothing even if they conclude that Comcast's behavior runs afoul of the FCC's Internet neutrality guidelines. "The congressional policy and agency practice of relying on the marketplace instead of regulation to maximize consumer welfare has been proven by experience (including the...

WASHINGTON - House Democratic leaders agreed Thursday to a rare closed-door session — the first in 25 years — to debate surveillance legislation. Republicans requested privacy for what they termed "an honest debate" on the new Democratic eavesdropping bill that is opposed by the White House and most Republicans in Congress. The closed-door debate was scheduled for late Thursday night, after the House chamber could be cleared and swept by security personnel to make sure there are no listening devices. The last private session in the House was in 1983 on U.S. support for paramilitary operations in Nicaragua. Only five...

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee hinted Sunday that a battle over an expired eavesdropping law might be moving toward a conclusion that gave phone companies the retroactive legal protections long sought by President Bush. The chairman, Representative Silvestre Reyes, Democrat of Texas, said in an interview on CNN that the committee had been talking to the companies “because if we’re going to give them blanket immunity, we want to know and understand what it is we’re giving immunity for.”Mr. Reyes did not specify what provisions a House bill might contain. But his use of the words...

Well, the sky has not yet fallen. The country was not invaded by terrorist cells over the weekend. Even though the expanded electronic surveillance powers the government granted itself last August expired the end of last week, the United States has not lost the ability to listen in to those phone calls and internet transmissions needed to gather necessary intelligence on al-Qaeda and other adversaries. Still, the drumbeat of fear from the Administration continues. Essentially, the president is claiming that if the expanded surveillance powers are not renewed, the country will be left defenseless and unable to listen in to...

CFIF today voiced its opposition to the recently released "Net Neutrality" bill sponsored by Representatives Ed Markey and Chip Pickering. "If enacted, the dubiously-titled "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008" would undo many of the framework policies that have fostered growth and innovation in telecommunications services in recent years," said CFIF President Jeffery Mazzella. "This legislation won't preserve Internet freedom. Rather, it will cripple a free and open market that continues to encourage unprecedented innovation and benefits consumers." "This legislation is nothing more than the heavy hand of government dictating the terms of service for the Internet," Mazzella continued.

See link for video -- John Boehner leads Republicans out of the House, protesting the Democrats not addressing FISA extension.

Anonymous trolls on the Internet are allowed to remain anonymous, a judge in a California appeals court ruled yesterday. Not only that, but they're allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights and speak their minds, no matter how scathing their comments may be. The court opinion reversed a previous decision that would have allowed Lisa Krinsky, COO of a Florida-based drug service company, to subpoena 10 anonymous Yahoo message board posters' real names. --- These posters regularly made what the judge described as "scathing verbal attacks" against these officers. This included referring to the trio as "a management consisting of...

Even as Governor Deval Patrick seeks to license three resort casinos in Massachusetts, he hopes to clamp down on the explosion in Internet gambling by making it illegal for state residents to place a bet on line. He has proposed jail terms of up to two years and $25,000 fines for violators. The provision, buried deep in Patrick's bill to allow three casinos to the state, puts the governor at odds with a fellow Democrat: US Representative Barney Frank, the sponsor of federal legislation to license and regulate online gambling nationally. Yesterday Frank strongly criticized the governor's plan to punish...

AT&T is getting together with Hollywood studios and recording companies to develop technology to snoop on your Internet traffic in search of pirated material, according to a story posted today by the LA Times. You'll need to register for free with the Times site to read the original story. At a time when Apple, EMI and other companies are making the no-brainer, money-making decision to sell music without cumbersome and annoying digital-rights management, AT&T has decided to go the "Privacy? What privacy?" route. This should flat out be illegal. To me, it's akin to AT&T deciding they're going to wiretap...

It bills itself as the world's "most prestigious college discussion board," giving a glimpse into law school admissions policies, post-graduate social networking and the hiring practices of major law firms. But the AudoAdmit site, widely used by law students for information on schools and firms, is also known as a venue for racist and sexist remarks and career-damaging rumors. Now it's at the heart of a defamation lawsuit that legal experts say could test the anonymity of the Internet.

Well, it appears that even Freepers don't get what's going on around them, and so I have to start from the beginning. In the early '90's Law enforcement, specifically, the FBI was increasingly concerned that new physical methods of providing phone service would make wiretapping all but impossible. Congress wrote and passed CALEA - Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Agencies. Included with this effort was a considerable amount of money which was specified to be used for programming and other technical needs, to compensate providers of phone services (telco) and equipment makers for the extra work required to add "tappability"...

I posted a while back about the financial and business aspects of CALEA on your local ISP's. Oddly enough, most people thought I was just ignorant. Well, THEY are ignorant. There's an interesting blog thread here: http://blogs.globalcrossing.com/paulk?from=60 He makes a very sharp point. While the original CALEA legislation was little other than requiring (and paying) the telcos to ensure that normal phone taps could occur, the DOJ and FCC have suddenly strayed far beyond that. VIOP was unknown at the time CALEA was written. But, it's been construed by the FCC to apply to all services that carry voice, chat,...

I am a long time telephone company COT (central office tech). I have some insight into our government's Homeland Security call "tapping" and I am getting more and more frustrated at people throughout the political spectrum who have stong opinions about it, yet they are uninformed. The equipment used to "tap" phones resides in telephone central offices and within the last few years I have seen equipment labelled CALEA. I knew from the location of the equipment that it is associated with the SS7 network and was told that it was Homeland's spy gear. This information was already enough for...

"The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build inbackdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned." "One source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of last Friday's meeting, said the FBI viewed its CALEA expansion as a top congressional priority for 2007."

The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned. FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. The draft bill would place the FBI's Net-surveillance push on solid legal footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a legal challenge from universities and some technology companies...

In 1994 Sen. Pat "Leaky" Leahy co-wrote a law that forced telecommunications carriers to build convenient wiretap features into their networks enabling the kind of telephone records collection now at the heart of the controversy over the National Security Agency's terrorist surveillance operation. In recent days Leahy has called the NSA's actions troubling and potentially illegal - saying they show that the Bush administration is treating Americans like terrorists. "'The secret collection of phone call records of tens of millions of Americans?" he exclaimed after USA Today blew the lid off the program last week. "Are you telling me that...