FC: IETF pulls the plug on Internet wiretap standards

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34055,00.html

                       Thumbs Down on Net Wiretaps
                       by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                       3:00 a.m. 3.Feb.2000 PST
                       WASHINGTON -- It took four months, a
                       grim debate, and thousands of mailing list
                       messages, but the group that sets
                       Internet standards has decided not to
                       support wiretapping.

                       The executive committees of the Internet
                       Engineering Task Force dismissed the idea
                       with characteristic understatement,
                       saying they would not "consider
                       requirements for wiretapping" in
                       protocols.

                       The 15 KB draft document released this
                       week caps an unusually public debate
                       inside IETF that was marked by an FBI
                       call to permit wiretaps, Congressional
                       condemnation of the idea, and a
                       flame-ridden mailing list called "raven"
                       that lived up to its homophonous name.

                       But in the end, most members of the
                       loose-knit group that met here in
                       November opposed the idea, and the
                       draft written by the Internet Architecture
                       Board and the Internet Engineering
                       Steering Group is the result.

                       [...]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
To subscribe: send a message to majordomo () vorlon mit edu with this text:
subscribe politech
More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------