OASIS LegalXML Lawful Intercept TC

The original Call For Participation for this TC may be found at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200211/msg00007.html

The charter for this TC is as follows.

Name

Lawful Intercept XML (LI-XML) Technical Committee (TC) within the LegalXML Member Section of OASIS.

The Technical Committee may constitute subcommittees or other groupings as necessary and appropriate to carrying out the Technical Committee's purpose.

Statement of Purpose

Mission

The LI-XML Technical Committee exists to produce a structured, end-to-end LegalXML Lawful Interception Process framework consisting of XML standards and authentication mechanisms, including the development and harmonization of identifiable related XML standards and XML translations of ASN.1 modules, including proprietary ones made available in accordance with IPR policies.

Language and Applicable Legal Domain

The scope of the LI-XML TC will be focused upon lawful interception processes and documents worldwide. This will include both national andlocal levels, although this is dependent on the level of participation by country practitioners. In the USA, the dual levels include federal and state legal domains. Global LI requirements, specifications and standards developed and maintained by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) will be considered through a liaison process with the ETSI Lawful Intercept Technical Committee (TC LI). It is expected that the LI-XML TC will assume English and eventually other languages.

Scope

The core scope of this activity is the creation of standard schema(s)/DTDs that can be used by parties in all stages of the lawful interception process. See - Lawful Intercept Process Model, http://www.gliif.org/images/LI-XML_process.htm.

The Lawful Interception process herein described consists of a set of interrelated actions taken by law enforcement or national security agencies (LEAs), judicial authorities, and telecommunication and information system providers or their agents that result in the discovery and production of investigative or evidentiary records associated with network-based communications capabilities and uses to a Law Enforcement Monitoring Facility (LEMF). The process is effected in nearly every country pursuant to national, local or intergovernmental law.

This investigative process typically has as many as four iterations to obtain: a) customer and service provider reference information; b) customer historical communications records; c) real-time Intercept Related Information (also called communications or call-identifying information); and d) real-time communications content.

Each of these iterations consists of actions and objects in as many as five stages - depending on the law of the jurisdiction(s) involved. Usually the judicial administrative and review process becomes more extensive as privacy considerations come into play. Subpoenas are generally required for customer historical records; and judicial warrants or orders are the norm for real-time information.

The four stages consist of 1) an initiating Law Enforcement Agency making application to a judicial or administrative body, which in turn 2) issues an authorizing instrument for 3) execution by the party or parties or their agents to 4) obtain the required information through some kind of a technical or administrative mechanism, and 5) handover to a recipient Law Enforcement Monitoring Facility.

At the entry and exit point of each stage, there is additional set of actions that consists of the authentication of the parties, secure transfer of the information object with time stamps and receipts, verification of the content, implementation processing, and the generation of an associated a secure audit log.

If emergency or exigent conditions exist, the second stage of the process (judicial issuance of an authorizing instrument) can usually be altered by the LEA using another instrument coupled with a posteriori judicial or administrative action.

The LI-XML TC shall also consider tagged database resources that provide for the effective authentication of all parties in the lawful intercept process that include LEAs, judicial or administrative authorities, communication systems providers and their agents.

Other OASIS LegalXML activities are relevant, especially SAML, WS Security, Electronic Court Filing, eNotarization, and Integrated Justice TCs. Compatibility and use of existing schema will be attempted where feasible.

To support this scope, the LI-XML TC shall seek to identify and capture other XML schemas/DTDs in-use or under development, as well as frameworks and LI-related ASN.1 modules developed by standards bodies and national authorities. See Lawful Intercept - Existing Global Models, http://www.gliif.org/images/LIglobal_models.htm. Toward this end, introduction of this activity was favourably discussed with theLawful Intercept Technical Committee of the ETSI at its recent Plenary Meeting, Dublin, 15-17 Oct 2002, and national LEA representatives present.

Requirements Definition

The LI-XML TC will conduct a comprehensive verification of the following initial requirements:

  • XML compliant syntax used for representing the LI process and associated documents.
  • W3C and OASIS specifications, as well as, ISO or other appropriate standards shall be used except in those cases made impossible by the legal and binding adoption of non-standard, but legal requirements including and especially relating to laws that protect parties to the LI process and the public.
  • A set of LI-XML Components that can be used universally by all LI Schema(s). These component specifications may include elements and attributes (e.g. unique identifiers, creation dates, etc.), as appropriate. The solution will allow efficient management of the Life Cycle of LI documents, from creation of an LI application instrument to the archival of target records.

List of Deliverables

  1. Global LI-XML process framework XML Schema that can represent all discoverable LI processes. 20 Jan 2003
  2. Identify and provide a means of discovering on a continuing basis, all LI related XML schemas ASN.1 modules. This will be done in collaboration with ETSI TC LI and relevant national standards bodies and authorities. 20 Jan 2003
  3. XML Schema(s) for LI processes specified in this Charter and deriving from the framework. This may be done, in part, with the LegalXML Court Filing and Integrated Justice TCs. Technologies from other existing OASIS TCs such as SAML and WS Security will be used. 1 Aug 2003
  4. Provide for a common global means of authenticating parties, schemas, and transport security associated with the LI process. This may be done in cooperation with the LegalXML eNotarization TC. 1 Aug 2003
  5. Create "data dictionaries" which provides the intended meaning of each element, attribute or other component of the final specification with the a means of simple translation to languages other than English. 1 Sep 2003
  6. Create standard XML Encoding Rules (XER) for significant ASN.1 LI modules in coordination with the relevant sponsoring body or company (if proprietary). 1 Sep 2003
  7. Provide users various template style sheets to provide them with a starting point to modify and create their own. 1 Nov 2003
  8. Receive and publish information about interoperability test results. 31 Oct 2003

Standing Rules

The Technical Committee will follow the operating rules of OASIS and any operating rules adopted by the LegalXML Member Section Steering Committee with the approval of OASIS management and the OASIS Board of Directors. In addition, the Technical Committee will abide by the following practices:

  1. All decisions will be made by consensus.
  2. All decisions made in face-to-face meetings will be subject to ratification or rejection by the full membership of the Technical Committee on the list serve.
  3. All email discussions concerning the technical work of the Technical Committee and its subcommittees will take place on OASIS supported list serves.
  4. One member of the Technical Committee and of each subcommittee will serve as ombudsman to monitor the public list for that entity and provide input from the public list to the committee and subcommittee discussions.
  5. Intellectual Property. In no event shall this Technical Committee finalize or approve any technical specification if it believes that the use, distribution, or implementation of such specification would necessarily require the unauthorized infringement of any third party rights known to the technical committee, and such third party has not agreed to provide necessary license rights on perpetual, royalty-free, non-discriminatory terms.

 

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