From Evan Stanbury
You state that the human rights group Liberty is concerned about commercial
organisations making it possible to eavesdrop on satellite telephone calls
(11 March, p 15).
In fact, all countries have laws allowing phone-tapping in case of serious crime.
No police force would want to permit a communications system to operate that
prevented it from solving crimes, as such a system would attract criminals.
Motorola, the originator of the patent mentioned in the article, was not
offering to set up a commercial spy service, but merely showing that a satellite
telephone service can support national laws.
This just leaves the difficult task of determining which nations have
jurisdiction over a particular satellite call, given that in Europe the
satellite may pass over two or three nations in the course of a single call, and
that the call may be routed via satellites over entirely different nations.
Roselands, New South Wales
