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EFF Releases White Paper Opposing FBI Digital Telephony Legislation
JOINT INDUSTRY/PUBLIC INTEREST COALITION RELEASES WHITE PAPER OPPOSING FBI DIGITAL TELEPHONY LEGISLATION
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), on
behalf of a coalition of industry, trade associations, computer users,
and privacy and consumer representatives, today released a white paper
entitled, "Analysis of the FBI Proposal Regarding Digital Telephony."
The FBI has proposed legislation which would require that all
telecommunications equipment be designed to allow law enforcement
monitoring and is seeking passage in the last few weeks of this
congress. The organizations that signed the paper believe that the
proposal would cost consumers millions of dollars, damage U.S.
competitiveness in the telecommunications marketplace, threaten
national security interests, and deny American consumers and American
businesses of much-wanted security and privacy on voice and data
communications.
"Basically, the FBI's legislative proposal is premature. We hope that
the white paper demonstrates that there are too many potential dangers
inherent in the legislative proposal and that there are other means of
addressing this situation," said Jerry Berman, Executive Director of
the Washington office of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Over the past decade a host of new digital communication technologies
have been introduced and more are being developed. New telephone
services, such as call-forwarding and last number re-dial, are now
being offered. The FBI is concerned about the impact these services
-- and other digital communications techniques -- will have on its
ability to wiretap. In the future, the vast majority of computer
communications will also use this technology to transfer information
and documents.
Signatories included major telecommunications equipment manufacturers,
such as AT&T; computer manufacturers, such as IBM and Digital
Equipment Corporation; software producers, such as Microsoft and
Lotus; network providers, such as Prodigy and Advanced Network and
Services, Inc.; trade associations in the telecommunications, computer
and electronic mail businesses; and public interest groups, such as
the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU. The Electronic
Frontier Foundation, a group of 955 members of the computer community,
has been coordinating an industry/public interest working group on
digital telephony.
The working group has met with the FBI over a number of months in an
effort to work out mutually-agreeable solutions to the challenge that
the development of new communications technologies poses to the FBI.
David Johnson, a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, drafted the
white paper for the working group and serves as its legal advisor.
"We have made significant progress and both sides better understand
the other's needs and concerns. The bottom line, however, is that
those who signed the paper do not see broad-based legislation as the
right approach to this challenge. We have worked with the FBI to
develop practical, technical solutions to the problems they are
anticipating and intend to continue to do so," said John Podesta, of
Podesta Associates, Inc., who coordinates the working group on behalf
of EFF.
# # #
For a copy of the white paper, please call +1 202 544-6906, or use
anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org, file pub/EFF/legal-issues/eff-fbi-analysis.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 17, 1992
For more information contact: John Podesta 202/544-6906
Jerry Berman 202/544-9237
EFF
155 Second Street
Cambridge MA 02141
(617)864-0665
[email protected]
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