Legal Searches and Wireless Devices: Rules Are As Clear as Mud

Legislators and judges struggle every day to keep laws relevant and applicable.  In fact, while technology changes at warp speed, laws and regulations enacted to protect rights are modified—if it all—at a glacial pace.  Such laws, drafted to protect one set of interests, often create unimaginable constitutional quandaries and challenges as technology and society evolve.  Such issues are often unforeseeable at the time the laws were drafted, but become hornets’ nests when circumstances force collisions either with existing laws or the U.S. Constitution itself.  Privacy, in an electronic world, is one of the most challenging of these issues, because concerns falling under this big umbrella often pit individual rights against public safety interests.

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Urban Legend Meets Reality

It’s a classic urban legend that has some truth to its roots.  Periodically, I receive an email that reads something like this:

It was about 1:00 p.m., and Lauren was driving to visit a friend. An UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put his lights on. Lauren's parents had always told her to never pull over for an unmarked car on the side of the road, but rather to wait until she got to a gas station, etc.  Lauren promptly called 112 on her cell phone to tell the police dispatcher that she would not pull over right away.

And the tale goes on.  Lauren’s life was saved and the bad guys who tried to pull her over were captured, and they all lived happily ever after.

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Telemarketers and Crammers Beware: The FCC, FTC and the NY Legislature Are Not Only Watching, But Taking Action

Today, when I got back to the office and noticed a fourth unsolicited junk fax in a week, I was annoyed.  The fax number is on the Do-Not-Call list, and every time I receive a junk fax, I file a complaint.  Like KoKo, the Lord High Executioner in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Mikado, “I’ve Got a Little List” and it’s getting longer by the day. My feeling is that if I don’t want to receive these unwarranted solicitations, I have to do my part. And I do.  I’ve filed four complaints this week.

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Spectrum Swapping Draws Regulatory Attention and Heat

Late in August, both the FCC and the Department of Justice gave their approval to a swap of spectrum involving Verizon Wireless and a number of other companies including Time Warner, Comcast, Bright House Networks, and Leap. Don’t glaze over [yet]. The spectrum purchase is valued at (…wait for it…) $3.9 billion, so perhaps that’s why it attracted some extra scrutiny and concessions from the Department of Justice and arguably the FCC.

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Telecom and Legal Considerations in 911 Planning: The Importance of a Team-Based Approach

Planning for emergencies in an enterprise environment is very tricky business, plain and simple. It is particularly challenging when employees, guests, contractors and others are working behind a multiline telephone system (MLTS). In a widely quoted (but unsubstantiated) Department of Labor report, it has been estimated that no fewer than 60 million people work in multi-building campuses or high-rise buildings behind multiline telephone systems, including PBXs. Your company’s employees likely are included in that count.

The full text of this White Paper commissioned by CCMI can be downloaded here:

Listen to Mark Fletcher and Martha Buyer discussing who should be involved in E911 planning activities in this podcast.