This is an interesting little tidbit just sent to me (along with humorous comments):
*FEDS SEEK INCREASED SURVEILLANCE POWERS
Concerns that Internet communications–such as VoIP and e-mail–may be used to conceal criminal communications have spurred the FBI and Department of Justice to request additional eavesdropping powers from federal lawmakers. The DoJ is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reinterpret the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
(CALEA) to cover DSL and cable modem service, including Web surfing, e-mail and other wire transmissions. (Now isn’t this just a pisser!) CALEA requires telecommunications carriers to modify their networks to be wiretap-friendly for the FBI. (Maybe the FBI is already tapped into your webcam, so be careful which body parts you handle.) According to SecurityFocus, the filing by U.S. law enforcement “was prompted by the efforts of telecom entrepreneur Jeffrey Pulver to win a ruling that his growing peer-to-peer Internet telephony service, Free World Dialup (FWD), is not subject to the regulations that govern telephone companies.” Questions remain whether CALEA applies to Voice over IP–or VoIP, which is telephony service over packet-based networks.