ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 15, Number 70
Date: July 20, 2006

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In This Issue: Campus Libraries and CALEA

To read this ALAWON in HTML, please visit:
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/washnews/2006ndx/070jul20.htm

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The September 2005 order by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") extending CALEA to all facilities-based broadband Internet access providers and the recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision concerning the applicability of CALEA to higher education institutions contain some ambiguities. As a result, many academic institutions are in the process of examining their status under CALEA. There are differing interpretations of who must comply and what compliance entails exactly. Determining an academic institution's status will be a local decision.
 
With regard to the status of libraries (of all types), the Federal Communications Commission deemed it not to be in the public interest at this time to extend CALEA to libraries "that acquire broadband Internet access service from a facilities-based provider to enable their patrons or customers to access the Internet." Thus, any library that acquires its Internet access from another provider has no CALEA obligation whatsoever. The access provider may be a commercial ISP or a state or local network operator, or a university or college.
 
To assist in campus-based discussions following the ACE statement on the Communications Assistance Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and its applicability to academic institutions, ALA requested a legal opinion on whether libraries were exempt from CALEA wiretap obligations.  The opinion -- and much more information on CALEA and libraries -- is available on ALA's CALEA web site at: 
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/techinttele/calea/calea.htm

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ALA Washington Office, 1615 New Hampshire Ave., N.W., First Floor, Washington, D.C. 20009-2520; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff ; Contact the Washington Office: alawash@alawash.org ; Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Don Essex, Melanie Anderson, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. Andrew Bridges, Communications Specialist. ALAWON Editor: Andy Bridges.