Information Snooperhighway

New FCC regulations would extend CALEA, the wiretapping law that requires phone companies to provide easy access to law enforcement, to Voice Over Internet Protocol providers. Critics question whether this is actually within the scope of the FCC's authority, and worry that the burdens of regulation will push innovation overseas.

UPDATE: Declan McCullagh reports—probably from the beach now that he's abandoned the swamps of D.C. for sunny California—that the National Science Foundation has shelled out some $300k to researchers at (the otherwise famously libertarian) George Mason University to develop software for just this purpose.