ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 14, Number 77 August 9, 2005 In This Issue: Update on CALEA and VOIP On Friday, August 5, the Federal Communications Commission determined that providers of facilities based broadband and interconnected voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services must take additional steps to accommodate law enforcement wiretaps. The Commission found that these services serve as a " substantial replacement" for conventional telecommunications services, and therefore are covered by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). CALEA was adopted by Congress in 1994, and created a set of statutory obligations for telecommunications carriers to assist law enforcement in executing electronic surveillance. Most importantly, the law requires carriers to design or modify their systems - usually at their own cost - to ensure that lawfully authorized electronic surveillance can be performed. The law imposes additional obligations on carriers to collect and deliver this information to law enforcement. The Commission also announced that they will soon be releasing a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that will seek more information about whether certain types of facilities-based broadband Internet access providers - such as educational and research institutions - should be exempt from CALEA. What Does this Mean for Libraries? ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy has watched this issue carefully over the past year. Working with a coalition of higher education, K-12 and other organizations, we have repeatedly made the argument to the FCC and to the Department of Justice that forcing libraries to comply with CALEA would represent an unreasonable burden that is not in the public interest. We see the Commission's decision to do a separate inquiry into the application of CALEA to small providers and educational institutions as a good opportunity to continue to build political support for exclusion of libraries. For more information on libraries and CALEA, please see http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/techinttele/calea/calea.ht m The FCC's press release is available at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-260434A1.pdf Stay tuned for more information on this issue and the upcoming NPRM. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.