WASHINGTON, June 9 (UPI) -- A U.S. appeals court ruled Friday that companies providing Web-based telephone service must allow law enforcement to wiretap.
The 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel in Washington upholds a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act applies to companies like Vonage, the Washington Post reported.
The court said private networks, including those at universities, are exempt, as are computer-to-computer communications like instant messaging.
Philip J. Weiser, a professor of law and telecommunications at the University of Colorado, told the Post the ruling is likely to impose significant costs on Internet telecommunications companies.
"Any provider of broadband networks now needs to make accounts wire-tappable," he said. "That's not the way they're engineered and it's certainly not the cheapest way."
