[USA] Digital Surveillance: The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act / Federation of American Scientists, 8 June 2007
PDF - http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL30677.pdf
Patricia Moloney Figliola
"The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) is intended to preserve the ability of law enforcement officials to conduct electronic surveillance effectively and efficiently despite the deployment of new digital technologies and wireless services that have altered the character of electronic surveillance. CALEA requires telecommunications carriers to modify their equipment, facilities, and services, wherever reasonably achievable, to ensure that they are able to comply with authorized electronic surveillance actions.
Since 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been considering a number of questions as to how to apply CALEA to new technologies, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In June 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the FCC’s decision concluding that VoIP and facilities-based broadband Internet access providers have CALEA obligations similar to those of telephone companies."