The Jeff Pulver Blog: Update on our Appeal of the FCC's CALEA for VoIP Order:

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August 04, 2006

Update on our Appeal of the FCC's CALEA for VoIP Order:

Last week, pulver.com along with the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Library Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Media Access Project sought en banc review of the DC Circuit's ruling upholding the FCC's Order extending CALEA obligations to VoIP and broadband Internet access services. We had lost the case before a three-judge panel a few weeks ago, and had asked the DC Circuit for a rehearing. I am glad to report that the DC Circuit has directed both the FCC and DOJ to file 15 pages responses to the rehearing petition that we filed.

The fact that the Court has asked for responses from the government means that at least the Court is carefully considering our petition. Rehearing petitions are not often granted, but we will be keeping our fingers crossed. And we will keep you posted.

We are trying to fight to uphold the broader principle that Internet applications (be they voice, video, data) should not be subject to onerous, legacy regulation. As I have mentioned before, it strikes me as absurd that the traditionally-regulated telecom services are no longer subject to telecom regulations, while traditional regulations are being imposed upon the emerging Internet-based applications that ride on those unregulated telecom services. We are moving inexorably into bizarre world, where the monopoly services are unregulated and the competitive applications (beyond US jurisdiction) are regulated.

Tags: CALEA, Jeff Pulver

(c) 2006 Jeff Pulver. All Rights Reserved.
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