A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the government's authority to force high-speed Internet service providers to give law enforcement authorities access for surveillance purposes.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a petition aimed at overturning a decision by regulators requiring facilities-based broadband providers and those that offer Internet telephone service to comply with U.S. wiretap laws.
The court concluded that the FCC requirement was a "reasonable policy choice" even though information services are exempted from the government's wiretapping authority.
Read this article from Yahoo (via Reuters)
ALSO: Public Knowledge discusses a net neutrality angle on this ruling:
In an ironic twist to the Net Neutrality debate, a Federal Court ruled that Broadband service could not be considered an Information service (as opposed to a Telecommunications Service) for purpose of law enforcement wiretaps. It is the Information service designation that large cable and telecom companies are using to justify their right to deliver tiers of service or deny customers the right to attach their own devices to the wire. If the services are not “private networks” for purposes of law enforcement, should they not be “Common Carriers” for purposes of Net Neutrality regulation?
Read this blog entry from Public Knowledge (PK). PK also offers a running stream of net neutrality updates and analysis.
