IP Democracy: DOJ Subpoenas Extended to at Least 34 Companies

Kudos of the highest order go to Information Week’s Thomas Claburn who has this investigation into the DOJ’s subpoenas related to the government’s efforts to reinstate the Child Online Protection Act. The Justice Department’s demands that ISPs turn over search data grabbed attention when Google fought off the government’s request as both a violation of privacy and a threat to its trade secrets.

Information Week filed a Freedom of Information Act request related to this effort and discovered that the subpoenas sent to Google, AOL, MSN and Yahoo were only the tip of the iceberg — the government sent subpoenas to at least 34 ISPs, search providers and security technology vendors. All of the top cable and phone company high-speed service providers, including Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Cablevision, SBC, Verizon and Qwest, were included in the data gathering expedition.

The full list of companies subpoenaed by the Department of Justice includes: 711Net (Mayberry USA), American Family Online, AOL, ATT, Authentium, Bell South, Cable Vision, Charter Communications, Comcast Cable Company, Computer Associates, ContentWatch, Cox Communications, EarthLink, Google, Internet4Families, LookSmart, McAfee, MSN, Qwest, RuleSpace, S4F (Advance Internet Management), SafeBrowse, SBC Communications, Secure Computing Corp., Security Software Systems, SoftForYou, Solid Oak Software, Surf Control, Symantec, Time Warner, Tucows (Mayberry USA), United Online, Verizon, and Yahoo.

Of these, at least two — Verizon and Cablevision Systems — raised some objections to the scope of the government’s demands, according to the article. Claburn points out, however, that ISPs are routinely subject to government subpoenas, although at least one attorney cited in the piece characterized the scope of this particular request as surprisingly broad.

Stephen Ryan, a partner at Manatt Phelps & Phillips in Washington D.C., considers the scope of the government’s discovery efforts unusual. “I’m not surprised that the Google piece looks like the tip of an iceberg,” he says. “But it is sort of surprising that they’re using their authority this broadly.” Ryan acknowledges that government subpoenas place undue burdens on companies every day, noting that there are probably scores of attorneys at large ISPs who do nothing but process subpoenas. He suggests that as information technology produces more information, that the government will want greater access to that data.

(Hat tip to Techdirt!)

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on March 30, 2006 7:19 AM to IP Democracy