Re: The Telecom Programmers Full Employment Bill -- a personal view from your humble editor -- *****

[Stephen D Crocker <>]

I may be naiive, I don't quite see how the surveillance can be applied
to the Internet.  The Internet is built outside of the common
carriers.  The protocols are defined by the user community.  The most
one can tell from the visible addressing is the IP address; deeper
information is usually hidden from view.  With the greater use of
application gateways, the visible IP addresses don't tell you much.
Unless the Gov't is going to insist that every machine connected to
the Internet be tappable and maintain information in a form they can
interpret, I don't see quite how the surveillance idea will work.


Perhaps the direction the Gov't will push things is that each user has
to get service from an authorized provider, i.e. no sharing of services.
With that rule in place, laws and regulations governing authorized
providers will have the desired effect.


This fits right in with the rhetoric about retaining the existing
balance.  It now becomes evident how terrible the breakup of AT&T is.




Steve