Discussion

BAG16392

l l 4TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION

Draft

S.L.C.

s.

To require the provision of data in an intelligible format to a government
pursuant to a court order, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
introdnced the following bill; which was read twice
and referred to the Committee on -------~

A BILL
To reqmre the provision of data in an intelligible format
to a government pursuant to a court order, and for
other purposes.
1

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-

2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION
4

1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the "Compliance with Court

5 Orders Act of 2016".

6
7
8

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

It is the sense of Congress that-

( 1) no person or entity is above the law;

 Discussion

Draft

S.L.C.

2

l

(2) economic growth

2

bility, and liberty require

3

law;

4

(3) the Constitution

prosperity
adherence

security, stato the rule of

and laws of the United

5

States provide for the safety, security, and civil lib-

6

erties of all l: United States persons and the protec-

7

tions and obligations of these laws apply to all per-

8

sons within UUnitedStates jurisdiction;

9

(4) all providers of communications

services and

10

products (including software) should protect the pri-

11

vacy of United States persons through implementa-

12

tion of appropriate data security and still respect the

13

rule of law and comply with all legal requirements

14

and court orders;

15

((5) to uphold both the rule of law and protect

16

the interests and security of the United States, all

17

persons receiving an authorized judicial order for in-

18

de, in a timely manner.
formation or data mnst provide,

19

responsive, intelligible information or data, or appro-

20

priate technical assistance

21

tion or clata; ancl

22

to obtain such informa-

( (6) covered entities must provide responsive, in-

23

telligible information

or data, or appropriate

24

nical assistance to a government pursuant

25

order.

techa court

 Discussion

BAG16392

Draft

S.L.C.

3
1 SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT FOR PROVIDING DATA IN AN INTEL2

LIGIBLE

3

COURT ORDER.

4

FORMAT

UPON

RECEIPT

OF

A

(a) REQUIREMENT.„

5

(1) IN GENERAL.„ Notwithstanding any other

6

provision of law and except as provided in paragraph

7

(2), a covered entity that receives a court order from

8

a government for information or data shall-

9

10

(A) provide such information or data to
such government in an intelligible format; or

11

(B) provide such technical assistance as is

12

necessary to obtain such information or data in

13

an intelligible format or to achieve the purpose

14

of the court order.

15

(2) SCOPE OF REQUIREMENT.„ Acovered enti-

16

ty that receives a court order referred to in para-

17

graph (l)(A) shall be responsible only for providing

18

data in an intelligible format if such data has been

19

made unintelligible by a feature, product, or service

20

owned, controlled, created, or provided, by the cov-

21

ered entity or by a third party on behalf of the cov-

22

ered entity.

23

(3) COMPENSATIONFOR TECHNICALASSIST-

24

ANCE.„ A covered entity that receives a court order

25

from a government as described in paragraph

26

and furnishes technical assistance under subpara-

( 1)

 Discussion

Draft

S.L.C.

4
1

graph (B) of such paragraph

pursuant

to such order

2

shall be compensated for such costs as are reason-

3

ably necessary

4

iu providing such technical assistance

5

in an intelligible format.

6

(b) DESIGN LIMITATIONS.„ Nothing in this Act may

and which have been directly incurred
or such data

7 be construed to anthorize any government officer to re8 quire or prohibit any specific design or operating system
9 to be adopted by any covered entity.

10

(c) LICENSE

provider of remote

DISTRIBUTORS.„

11 computing service or electronic communication service to
12 the public that distributes licenses for products, services,
13 applications,

or software of or by a covered entity shall

14 ensure that any such products, services, applications,

15 software distributed

or

by such person be capable of com-

16 plying with subsection (a).
17 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
18
19

In this Act:
(1)

COMMUNICATION

IDENTIFYING

20

TION.„ The term "communication

21

mation"

22

naling, switching, processing, transmitting,

23

information that-

24

25

means

dialing,

routing,

(A) does uot constitute

communication:

INFORMA-

identifyingt'"1 inforaddressing,
or

sigother

the contents of a

 BAG16392

Discussion

Draft

S.L.C.

5

1

(B) identifies or assists m the identifica-

2

tion of the origin, direction, destination, elate,

3

time, duration, termination,

or status of each

4

communication

received, or con-

5

trolled by a user; and

6
7

8
9

generated,

(C) includes the following information or
the equivalent function thereof:
(i) Public and local source and destination addressing, including(I) the local network and public

10

11

Internet

12

similar or successor protocol; and

Protocol addresses

or any

13

(II) addressing information that

14

may be dynamically or privately as-

15

signed, including port numbers or any

16

successor addressing method.

17

(ii) Addresses

or other information

18

that uniquely identifies the equipment, fa-

19

cility, or service used to access a provider

20

or network by each party to the commu-

21

nication.

22

(iii) Service addresses and identifiers

23

generated or received by each party to the

24

communication.

 BAG16392

Discussion

Draft

S.L.C.

6
1

(iv) Information

identifying

quantity

2

or quality of the communication,

3

packet size, quality of service information,

4

or other information from which the size or

5

priority

6

ascertained.

of the

communication

7

(v) Specification

8

an offset from Coordinated

9

(UTC).

10

tions"

12

communication",

13

tronic communication"

14

United States Code.

15

can

UniversalTime

term "communica-

has the same meaning as the terms
"oral communication",

any order or warrant

means

17

competent jurisdiction.

18

(4) COVERED

"wire

and "elec-

in section 2510 of title 18,

(3) COURT ORDER.„ The

16

be

of the time zone as

(2) COMMUNICATIONS.„ The

11

including

term "court

order"

issued by a court of

ENTITY.„ The

term

"covered en-

19

tity" means a device manufacturer,

20

ufacturer,

21

mote computing service, a provider of wire or elec-

22

tronic communication

23

computing

24

product or method to facilitate

25

the processing or storage of data.

a software man-

an electronic communication

service,

service, a re-

service, a provider of a remote
or any person who provides a

a communication

or

 Discussion

Draft

S.L.C.

7

1

(5) DATA.„ The term "data" includes-

2

(A) communications

and any information

3

concerning the identity of the parties to such

4

communications

5

purport, or meaning of such communications;

6

or the existence, substance,

(B) information

stored remotely or on a

7

device provided, designed, licensed, or manufac-

8

tured by a covered entity;

9

(C) communication identifying information;

10

and

11

(D) information identifying a specific de-

12

vice.

13

( 6) ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION
SERVICE.SERVICE.„

14

The term "electronic communication service" has

15

the meaning given such term in section 2510 of title

16

18, United States Code.

17

(7) FEATt;RE.-The

term "feature"

means a

18

property or function of a device or software applica-

19

tion.

20

(8) GOVERNMENT.„ The term

"government"

21

means the Government of the United States and the

22

government of the District of Columbia, or any com-

23

monwealth, territory,

24

States, of an Indian tribe, or of any State or polit-

25

ical subdivision thereof.

or possession of the United

 Discussion

BAG16392

Draft

S.L.C.

8
1

(9) INDIAN TRIBE.„ The term "Indian tribe"

2

has the meaning given such term in section 4 of the

3

Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance

4

Act (25 U.S.C. 450b).

5
6

(10) INTELLIGIBLE.„ The term "intelligible",
with respect to information or data, mcans-

7

(A) the information or data has never been

8

encrypted, enciphered, encoded, modulated, or

9

obfuscated; or

10

(B)

the information

or data

has been

11

encrypted, enciphered, encoded, modulated, or

12

obfuscated and then decrypted, deciphered, de-

13

coded, demodulated,

14

original form.

15

(11) REMOTE COMPUTINGSERVICE.„ The term

16

"remote computing service" has the meaning given

17

such term in section 2711 of title 18, United States

18

Code.

19

(12)

or deobfuscated

to its

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.„ The

term

20

"technical assistance", with respect to a covered en-

21

tity that receives a court order pursuant to a provi-

22

sion of law for information or data described in sec-

23

tion 3(a)(l), includes-

24

(A) isolating such information or data;

 Discussion

BAG16392

Draft

S.L.C.

9

1

(B) rendering such information or data in

2

an intelligible format if the information or data

3

has been made unintelligible by a feature, prod-

4

uct, or service owned, controlled, created, or

5

provided by the covered entity or by a third

6

party on behalf of the covered entity; and

7

(C) delivering such information or data-

(i) concurrently ,vith its transmission;

8
9

10
11

or
(ii) expeditiously, if stored by a covered entity or on a device.