FAQ for the
OASIS Lawful Intercept XML (LI-XML) Technical Committee

Q1. What prompted the formation of this TC?

A. The TC was formed to meet critical needs emerging
   from several converging developments.  The principal
   need was to provide a universal global framework
   capable of supporting Law Enforcement Agencies'
   rapid discovery and sharing of criminal and terrorist
   evidence through network database queries and Lawful
   Interception.

   Other significant developments prompting formation of
   LI-XML included:
   
     1) multiple government legal mandates and initiatives
     in the U.S and Europe,
     
     2) the maturity of other OASIS XML standards 
     activities in the Justice, Court Filing, and 
     authentication sectors;
     
     3) customer requirements for authoritative XML
     translations of stable Lawful Intercept standards
     developed in ASN.1 in other forums and 
     interoperability among those standards; and
     
     4) the emergence of national service bureaus 
     and a Lawful Intercept industry as a means of 
     cost effectively facilitating network provider 
     and LEA requirements.


Q2. What are these new government legislative
    developments?

A. The most prominent new development is the Homeland
   Security Information Sharing Act of 2002, passed on 
   19 Nov by the U.S. Congress and signed into law 
   on 25 Nov.  The Information Sharing Act is a part 
   of the Homeland Security Act which also has provisions
   relating to Information Analysis and Infrastructure
   Protection.  These apply to the LI-XML work.
   
   LI-XML is directly relevant are the U.S. E-Government
   Act of 2002, passed by the U.S. Congress on 15 Nov
   2002 - intended to facilitate the filing and
   authentication of court documents, as well as
   information sharing within the government, and
   developing the technologies among federal and state
   government and the private sector.  Comparable 
   new legislation exists in many other countries.


Q3. What other technical and legal developments
    underpin the LI-XML work?

A. The availability by criminals and terrorists of new
   "always on" instant network access technologies and
   convergent voice-messaging-multimedia services across
   multiple national and local jurisdictions create an
   enormous challenge for Law Enforcement Agencies.  
   The ability to detect, comply with legal process, and
   implement evidence discovery tools has become extremely
   difficult.  A variety of multilateral and bilateral
   agreements and conventions provide for Mutual
   Assistance in Criminal Matters are being updated to
   deal with these new challenges.  The LI-XML global
   framework is being designed to also support these
   intergovernmental requirements.


Q4. How will the LI-XML work benefit private-sector
    companies?

A. Lawful Intercept requirements apply to all providers
   of electronic communication services worldwide.  Even
   in the U.S. where ISPs somewhat uniquely are presently
   exempted from a LI capability requirement, compliance
   with an intercept discovery order is mandatory.  The
   tens of thousands of these providers, as well as the
   vendors of Lawful Intercept systems, benefit by having
   uniform XML schema that facilitate fully electronic
   receipt, authentication, and implementation of lawful
   process.  This process also includes the sizable and
   rapidly growing requests for account information and
   subpoenas for user detail records.
   
   At present, this activity is primarily paper-based.  It
   is costly to implement and difficult to authenticate. 
   What standards exist are either proprietary, or one-off
   arrangements between every different LEA and
   communication service provider, or non-compatible
   national monitoring facility "handover" interfaces and
   protocols.  A common global framework for XML schemas
   that meet the requirements of every jurisdiction and
   provides a bridge translation to existing protocols
   will significantly drive down the costs of both
   individual communication service providers as well as
   national service bureaus that act as their agent, such
   as VeriSign.


Q5. How will the LI-XML work benefit the law
    enforcement and justice systems?

A. The same paper-based, as well as non-existent,
   inadequate, or incompatible specifications for engaging
   in the LI discovery process described above, results in
   significant delays, frustrations, and costs for law
   enforcement authorities.  Equally important, it
   precludes the effective sharing of information that led
   to recent passage of the Homeland Security Information
   Sharing Act.
   
   Because the LI-XML framework is part of the LegalXML
   programme and primarily oriented to support an
   end-to-end legal process where law enforcement,
   justice, and security agencies are the principal
   customers, they will be significant beneficiaries.  The
   Technical Committee is also leveraging existing mature
   LegalXML work like the Electronic Court Filing Standard
   so that LI schema will be broadly compatible with
   emerging E-Government standards.

Q6. How will LI-XML work benefit the public?

A. The general public will benefit indirectly through
   lower costs for performing necessary law enforcement
   and national security at less cost.  The public will
   also benefit from the enhanced effectiveness by which
   these communities can perform their jobs.   The
   significant additional precision, authentication, and
   audit features built into the framework will provide
   the public with greater trust in a traditionally
   sensitive area involving legal discovery.