P2Ps may have to toe CALEA's line

We here at FierceVoIP sure hope you haven't forgotten about CALEA. You remember CALEA--the federal Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. Last July, the FCC said that VoIP carriers that terminated calls on the PSTN had until May 14, 2007 to comply, which would mean giving duly documented authorities the ability to tap into Internet telephony. That's a little more than three more months, so you'd best be preparing. To date, the FCC hasn't said whether P2P services like Skype would have to comply, but one commentator suggests that the FBI is getting ready to ask the FCC to order them to play along, too. Technologists suggest that might require P2P networks to either totally reconfigure their networks or build in backdoors. Neither option is appealing.

For more information on the coming CALEA deadline:
- read this article from the Mercury News