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A number of national networking policies have been much in the news lately, including CALEA (the Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act).
For those of you who may not have been following CALEA closely, CALEA is a requirement that facilities-based networks include the ability to support lawful intercept requests from law enforcement (e.g., court ordered wiretaps). While CALEA compliance had historically been required only of traditional telecommunication carriers, on May 3, 2006, the FCC released a second report and order that extended CALEA's provisions to broadband Internet providers and to universities, in part because of the increasing popularity of voice over IP (VoIP) technologies such as Vonage and Skype, with a compliance deadline of May 14, 2007.
The American Council on Education (ACE) and a variety of other higher education groups appealed the FCC's order to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. On the 9th of June, 2006, that appeal was denied in a complex ruling that is still being reviewed by attorney's at ACE, EDUCAUSE, and elsewhere in an effort to understand what that decision means for higher education, and whether further appeals are warranted.
• The FBI's CALEA site: http://www.askcalea.net/
• The FCC's CALEA site: http://www.fcc.gov/calea/
• EDUCAUSE's CALEA web site: http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=698
• EFF's CALEA web site: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/CALEA/
• The FCC's Second Report and Order and Memoranum Opinion and Order dated 5/3/2006: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-56A1.pdf
• The US Court of Appeals ruling on ACE's appeal: http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200606/05-1404a.pdf
• "Wiretap Report 2005," Administrative Office of the United States Courts: http://www.uscourts.gov/wiretap05/contents.html
• "The Implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act," US Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, Audit Report 06-13, March 2006 (with redactions): http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0613/final.pdf