From: Carl Ellison <cme@sw.stratus.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 22:08:52 PST
To: mnemonic@eff.org
Subject: Re:  story on digital telephony from today's Washington Post (fwd)
Message-ID: <199402250608.BAA02031@galt.sw.stratus.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>
>Message-Id: <199402250044.TAA04129@eff.org>
>Subject: story on digital telephony from today's Washington Post (fwd)
>To: eniac@prudence.fof.org (eniac@prudence.fof.org),
>        cypherpunks@toad.com (cypherpunks)
>Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 19:44:42 -0500 (EST)

>The FBI and the Justice Department say the initiative would not expand
>their power, but would ensure access to the type of communications they
>have been entitled to tap for years.


This is totally bogus.

The FBI has never had the right to watch computer programs execute.
Now that computer programs are being written as distributed systems,
what was originally written to be an internal subroutine call can look like
a message over the phone system.

The FBI never had the right to bug corporate conference rooms.  Now that
companies are using videoconferencing, a private corporate conference
could look like a phone call.

Etc.

This needs to be fought.

 - Carl

P.S.  Even though the FBI has had the wiretap law of 196?, we need to keep
reminding them that this law wasn't a constitutional amendment.  It's
entirely possible for a new routine law to invalidate their law -- or for
technology to invalidate their preferred M.O.  It might even be reasonable
to pass a law prohibiting all wiretaps. That is, now that the FBI has shown
that it intends to act like an Iron Curtain surveillance agency, perhaps it
should be treated like one and shut down.