Fascinating article at [www.securityfocus.com] – I can’t help wonder if UUCP-like E-mail networks implemented over secure P2P infrastructures will arise to bypass such, my line of thinking being prompted by [www.crypticide.com] – leading to them promptly being banned, or somesuch idiocy.

When private e-mail is outlawed, only outlaws will have private e-mail, etc…

Some key excerpts: [www.securityfocus.com]

The public comment period on a Justice Department proposal to make the Internet easier to wiretap ended Monday with most of the filed comments tracing a clean line between two opposing camps: on the government’s side, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies who perform wiretaps, allied with companies who sell surveillance equipment and services; on the other, Internet companies who would be forced by the plan to make changes to their networks, along with advocacy groups concerned about slowed innovation and an incursion on Internet privacy.

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The Justice Department plan would make Internet taps as easy, though at great expense to Internet service providers and their customers.

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Finally, the proposal won the support of Massachusetts-based Top Layer Networks, which describes itself as “a leading provider of IP Interception appliances” and found the government’s argument “very logical and completely justified,” and VeriSign, which offers its NetDiscovery surveillance services to telecom companies that prefer to outsource their FBI wiretaps. VeriSign argued that tapping the Internet is good for the nation. “Criminals have the ability to act on a network in microseconds, while law enforcement is encumbered today with solutions that require weeks to institute judicially ordered capabilities,” reads the filing. The company helpfully attached a press release about it’s recent deal to provide NetDiscovery services to cable company Cox Communications for an undisclosed amount.