CALEA and Ownerless Networks

Meinrath, Sascha (2007). CALEA and Ownerless Networks. AKA FCC Mandated
Hacking. March 2, 2007. http://www.saschameinrath.com/blog_tags/calea
“It's impossible to create centralized surveillance capabilities on a
decentralized, often ad-hoc, network that spans numerous users,
gateways, providers, and equipment owners.”
This blog entry criticizes the failure of the FCC’s Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to take into account
alternative network infrastructures and business models other than the
ISP/end-user one. CALEA is intended to preserve the ability of law
enforcement agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring
that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of
telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment,
facilities, and services to ensure that they have the necessary
surveillance capabilities. The only way for ownerless networks to be
compliant with CALEA would be to, essentially, illegally hack into the
hardware and ISP accounts of ownerless network participants in order to
provide the necessary surveillance capacity.
For more details on CALEA see:
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)
http://www.fcc.gov/calea/