This seems to be the week for legal blog posts. After trying a slightly revised version of COICA with new branding (now: PROTECT IP), Senator Leahy has come out with a very sensible piece of legislation, the ECPA Amendments Act of 2011.
As the name says, this is is an amendment to the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 for which Senator Leahy was also the lead author. The proposed amendment brings the act into the 21st century by adding email, cell phone, private messages on social networks to the types of communication that require a search warrant based on probable cause. I suspect that most Americans today assume that this is already so (as the analogy to phone calls and snail mail seems obvious) but that’s not the state of the law today.
The EFF is rightfully supportive of this bill. They do point out some problem areas, such as the expanded use of National Security letters to circumvent the warrant process, but I suspect that this is the kind of compromise that has to be made to give a bill like this a shot to be passed at all.
So I find myself thoroughly disagreeing with Senator Leahy on one bill (PROTECT IP) and being supportive on another (ECPA Amendments) all in the space of a couple of days. That raises some interesting questions about how to best make representative democracy work in the Internet age. I would love it if Senator Leahy’s web site allowed for comments (ditto for all elected officials). A requirement to be a registered voter and to disclose your real identity for commenting would seem sensible to prevent a bunch of random rants. Maybe our portfolio company disqus can offer something to help with this. Probably a good topic for another blog post altogether.
