Telecos Could be liable for Tens of Billions (thinkprog)

[katty]

more: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/11/telcos-liable/

Telcos Could Be Liable For Tens of Billions of Dollars For Illegally Turning Over Phone Records

This morning, USA Today reported that three telecommunications companies – AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth – provided “phone call records of tens of millions of Americans” to the National Security Agency. Such conduct appears to be illegal and could make the telco firms liable for tens of billions of dollars. Here’s why:

1. It violates the Stored Communications Act. The Stored Communications Act, Section 2703(c), provides exactly five exceptions that would permit a phone company to disclose to the government the list of calls to or from a subscriber: (i) a warrant; (ii) a court order; (iii) the customer’s consent; (iv) for telemarketing enforcement; or (v) by “administrative subpoena.” The first four clearly don’t apply. As for administrative subpoenas, where a government agency asks for records without court approval, there is a simple answer – the NSA has no administrative subpoena authority, and it is the NSA that reportedly got the phone records.

2. The penalty for violating the Stored Communications Act is $1000 per individual violation. Section 2707 of the Stored Communications Act gives a private right of action to any telephone customer “aggrieved by any violation.” If the phone company acted with a “knowing or intentional state of mind,” then the customer wins actual harm, attorney’s fees, and “in no case shall a person entitled to recover receive less than the sum of $1,000.”

(The phone companies might say they didn’t “know” they were violating the law. But USA Today reports that Qwest’s lawyers knew about the legal risks, which are bright and clear in the statute book.)

3. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act doesn’t get the telcos off the hook. According to USA Today, the NSA did not go to the FISA court to get a court order. And Qwest is quoted as saying that the Attorney General would not certify that the request was lawful under FISA. So FISA provides no defense for the phone companies, either.

[On the Road]

1. Yes, Yes, Yes....

This is the way to do it. Pefectly clear in black and white.

I can't wait for my $1,000 check.

[katty]

2. bingo!

[xray s]

6. NOT SO FAST!!!!

It's a MINIMUM of $1000! Don't sell us short!

I'm thinking $100,000 might get me through the next two and a half years of the BushCo junta.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Woohoo!

Now, who's gonna start that class-action lawsuit?

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. They don't care because they know they will never have to pay!

Even if they are found liable for billions of dollars in damages, they know that they will never have to pay. They will play it the same way Exxon did with the massive oil spill in Alaska and the way Big Tobacco played their settlements. They will simply spend a few million and buy politicians to change the laws.

[doc03]

8. Billions have been payed out on asbestos claims.

[katty]

12. it would be a front/center political case, exposure, PR damage, etc

[doc03]

5. That would be huge it would put the domestic

spying issue at the forefront for months or years and finally it my wake people up to what a facist administration Bushco is.

[kurth]

7. Fuck them and their Republican corporate counsels

who couldn't wait to turn over our records to the Bush government.

[grytpype]

9. This is wrong, sorry.

2701(c) Exceptions.— Subsection (a) of this section does not apply with respect to conduct authorized—
(1) by the person or entity providing a wire or electronic communications service;

That is, if the phone company authorized the access, it's not an offense.

[steely]

10. Sure - try to collect

[Demeter]

11. Oh, I DO Hope So!

An example must be made of corporations who forget themselves and decide to participate in the overthrow of the Constitution. They must be executed--stripped of assets, disbanded, and their leaders imprisoned. Anything less is letting them get away with worse than murder.