Information Week reported March 29 that the other companies included AT&T, BellSouth, Comcast Cable, EarthLink, McAfee, Symantec, and Verizon Online. An attorney for Verizon had objected on the grounds that documents might be forwarded to people in organizations that are suing the company, including the Justice Department itself and the American Civil Liberties Union. DOJ spokesperson Charles Miller declined to comment on which other companies objected to or sought to limit the subpoenas.
In the case of Google and other search-engine companies, the DOJ had requested information on user search terms and web addresses held in company databases. Subpoenas directed at filtering software companies and ISPs asked for 29 categories of information, including the types of content filtering products or services offered, the number of customers using them, how users configure their filters, and the methodology used to generate blacklisted sites.
“I’m not surprised that the Google piece looks like the tip of an iceberg,” said Stephen Ryan, a law partner at Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips in Washington, D.C. “But it is sort of surprising that they’re using their authority this broadly.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has twice ruled that COPA, which would criminalize internet material deemed harmful to children as defined by “contemporary community standards,” is likely to violate First Amendment protections. Dan Jude, whose filtering company Software Security Systems was also issued a subpoena, told Information Week the government’s data gathering was a “waste of time,” since half the web servers with explicitly sexual content are located in other countries.
Posted March 31, 2006.