Many industry executives and bureaucrats – though not all – will be watching the outcome of the current attempt by the music industry to force ISPs to cough up subscriber info (see article here and CNM, Feb. 20/04) for any potential implications in the larger lawful access process (CNM, Sept. 6/02). Lawful access is the broad label applied to Ottawa’s inquiry into how telecommunications and Internet service providers should be made to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in terms of providing the modern equivalent of wiretaps, and dates back to the late summer of 2002. Several issues including mandated data retention, data preservation and how much reasonable cause a litigant should be made to provide before getting access to private records are clearly touched on by the current Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) court motions, says David Elder, assistant general counsel regulatory for Bell Canada, which owns the Sympatico service.

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