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DOJ Subpoenaed Dozens of Companies in Addition to GoogleThe Department of Justice has gone beyond Google in its quest for evidence to develop a case in preparation for an October trial in Philadelphia over the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Information Week, the DOJ disclosed that it had demanded information from at least 34 internet service providers, search companies, and filtering software firms between June and September 2005. The subpoenas were similar to the one served on Google, which defied the order and won a partial victory in federal court March 17.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. |
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