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FBI to get veto power over PC software?


casekonly

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The Federal Communications Commission thinks you have the right to use software on your computer only if the FBI approves.

 

No, really. In an obscure "policy" document released around 9 p.m. ET last Friday, the FCC announced this remarkable decision.

 

According to the three-page document, to preserve the openness that characterizes today's Internet, "consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement." Read the last seven words again.

 

The FCC didn't offer much in the way of clarification. But the clearest reading of the pronouncement is that some unelected bureaucrats at the commission have decreeed that Americans don't have the right to use software such as Skype or PGPfone if it doesn't support mandatory backdoors for wiretapping. (That interpretation was confirmed by an FCC spokesman on Monday, who asked not to be identified by name. Also, the announcement came at the same time as the FCC posted its wiretapping rules for Internet telephony.)

 

Nowhere does the commission say how it jibes this official pronouncement with, say, the First Amendment's right to speak freely, not to mention the limited powers granted the federal government by the U.S. Constitution.

 

What's also worth noting is that the FCC's pronunciamento almost tracks the language of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Almost.

 

But where federal law states that it is the policy of the United States to preserve a free market for Internet services "unfettered by federal or state regulation," the bureaucrats have adroitly interpreted that to mean precisely the opposite of Congress said. Ain't that clever?

 

Posted by Declan McCullagh

 

http://news.com.com/2061-10804_3-5884130.h...84130&subj=news

 

http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F...10784&lop=nl.ex

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interesting.

 

totally unenforcable.

 

I mean if you can still download kazaa, bit torrent, slsk etc etc etc

then it's clear that they can't keep you from getting the software.

 

Just look at DVD Decrypter, you can't legally download it in the US

but they sure as hell aren't going to stop you from clicking 'I live in Spain'.

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about 4 years ago the FBI raided my house "i was only like 11 at the time" and they took al our compuers disks software and a shit load of other computer related items because a one of my family members hacked into an airforce base computers. Luckily he was to young and there was no serious damages so they could not press charges. This happened at about 7 a.m. ...... shit reminded me of somethin off of the x files. they came in and were like takin pics of like everything in the house.

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Originally posted by Biggus Dickus@Sep 27 2005, 08:03 PM

There has been full scale heuristic keyword scanning of everything you send on the internet, public or private, taking place since the mid 90s, I'm not really particularly worried about anything else.

 

yep. i know that, you know that, but how many others know that?

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Wiretapping Broadband

FCC order stretches CALEA for more than VoIP

Posted on 2005-09-27 09:45:10

Late last Friday the FCC released it's CALEA First Report and Order (pdf), which allowed law enforcement to apply the same wiretipping laws used for copper - to VoIP service. The predicted move is something we've discussed frequently, though last week's release does hold a significant surprise. The original CALEA specifically omitted broadband "information services" from such wiretaps, but the FCC has somehow stretched a few definitions to allow the wiretapping of broadband connections, something that worries both legal experts and several of the commissioners.

 

 

http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/67874

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Originally posted by POIESIS@Sep 28 2005, 02:17 AM

neo-liberals in general or neo-liberal elites?

if you mean the latter, i don't think

hegemonic net control could be attributed solely as a

"neo-liberal" agenda.

 

 

***correction: I meant neo-con, but yeah casek is right, there isn't really one side or the other to blame...plus if I remember correctly, Clinton signed a crime bill that greatly expanded the fbi's ability to monitor people

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Originally posted by casekonly@Sep 28 2005, 02:53 AM

poiesis is correct. i don't think it can be blamed on one party or the other. all want control of this "information highway". hell, i can remember when the u.s.p.s wanted to tax emails. taking away from their business, ya know?

 

I remember that. They tried to pass it off as a way to rid us of spam. The logic was that the average person doesnt send that much email and that a few cents per email would not hurt us , but that It would hurt spammers so it would cut spam. I saw it as another way for them to wax us for our flow.

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Originally posted by casekonly+Sep 27 2005, 07:23 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (casekonly - Sep 27 2005, 07:23 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Biggus Dickus@Sep 27 2005, 08:03 PM

There has been full scale heuristic keyword scanning of everything you send on the internet, public or private, taking place since the mid 90s, I'm not really particularly worried about anything else.

 

yep. i know that, you know that, but how many others know that?

[/b]

Can we have some elaboration?

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Originally posted by courtorder+Sep 28 2005, 08:29 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (courtorder - Sep 28 2005, 08:29 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>
Originally posted by casekonly@Sep 27 2005, 07:23 PM

<!--QuoteBegin-Biggus Dickus@Sep 27 2005, 08:03 PM

There has been full scale heuristic keyword scanning of everything you send on the internet, public or private, taking place since the mid 90s, I'm not really particularly worried about anything else.

 

yep. i know that, you know that, but how many others know that?

Can we have some elaboration?

[/b]

 

 

The Echelon Program - This came to light back in 1998 when some British official said something about their involvement with it against the wishes of the US. Back then the internet wasn't quite as widespread, and the vast majority of people didn't give a damn about data security, so it wasn't really an issue too many people were concerned about. I would assume that the monitoring isn't capable of covering all traffic anymore due to the massive expansion of the internet in general. I was hanging out on +Fravia's boards back then and everyone was pretty pissed off about it. We all started putting terror keywords in all e-mails and communications for awhile in some kind of failed attempt to confuse the system.

 

Carnivore - A somewhat less scary and more recent one involving the use of this commercial software by the FBI on the compuuters of various ISPs to capture and sniff all network traffic.

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Guest imported_Tesseract

Generally speaking and since i'm not american so dont take these words like they come from some angry suburban kid, the us is getting fascistic right under your noses. You better watch it people.

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Unfortunately I'm not deluded enough to believe that it will change, short of civil war, and I'm not a leader or a soldier. I'm more of a "leaver" as in I'm leaving this place after I get my education.

 

I knew where we were headed as soon as I heard 9/11 happening on the radio. I was too poor for TV at that time. My mom called and told me to turn the radio on, I was going to hear the start of World War III.

 

Honestly I don't think she was too far off on that.

 

This is going to continue as long as we have a large population of religious dickwads that would give up every freedom they had if it meant that their children would never have to see a homosexual man alive in public.

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^ as in everything the US govt does is highly contemptuous of democracy.

nobody, except sf, claims the US definitively IS fascistic, however, things are

getting to a point where one should be considering the real possibility of things

getting much much worse. for north americans to continue living the way they do,

there will have to be more strong arming of nations and more and more people

will start resisting the policies. simultaneously, north americans will not give up

the amenities of pleasurable suburban consumption..they will demand their right

to keep living way beyond their means. things are going to get much worse, guaranteed.

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oh, werd. adolph bush and the nwo. babylon will fall once again. me and my family are fucked (because my family is my no.1 concern) and im not sure what the fuck to do about it... and the vast majority of the nation is so oblivious to this shit that they would sooner hand over every constitutionaly granted right to freedom in exchange for some security... in other words... we need to abandon ship, but the rich people took all the life boats. fuck.

 

any of you canadians or abroad-ers want to take in a hippy family of four?

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