Does the FBI have the authority to regulate software?

12/5/2005

Several bloggers have recently drawn attention to a publicly available, FCC policy document released in September. The three page document, which discusses assorted broadband regulatory issues, contains some peculiar language that has evoked the ire of many software developers and civil liberties advocates. The language in question seems to imply that our personal software selection is subject to the regulatory discretion of law enforcement agencies (emphasis added):

To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.

Although the FCC has not provided any official clarification on the matter, the paragraph is widely interpreted as an attack on software that does not provide law enforcement agencies with a means to spy on citizens.

more...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051205-5689.html

I don't care what the FCC says. They have the authority to prosecute and investigate crimes, not place monitoring devices in everything you own.

for FBI taps.

Internet phone software on a central computer equates to a common carrier and must allow for taps.

Internet phone software that is peer to peer need not allow for taps - but the FBI refuses to admit that this is the law.

So they have the law on their side for internet phone service computors - and they are trying to scare peer to peer software into not fighting them.