case 1: my neighbour opens the house distribution panel and diverts my POTS
line to his phone, consequently receives phone calls destined for me (those
originated on the PSTN).
case 2: my newly allocated phone number was in fact used before and had an
ENUM domain associated with it. The old number holder on purpose "forgot"
to deregister the ENUM domain (although the terms & conditions on the
domain contract clearly stated he has to) and consequently receives phone
calls destined for me (those originating on the Internet). For the sake of
argument, let's assume there are no safeguards at the telco, registrar or
registry level or they happened to have broken down in my case.
Taking the "technology neutral" view, I'd say both are cases of an unlawful
wiretap. For that legislation exists making the person responsible doing
that, not the telco.
Now where's the difference? I wonder if we need any regulation against ENUM
domain hijack at all.
Nevermind that case 2 is one of the more stupid forms of intentional
wiretapping as it is in most cases hard to predict who's going to be tapped
in the first place because that depends on the lucky draw of number
reassignment, leave alone the unattractive timespan between intent and
"success". But the case of "inadvertent wiretap by negligence" remains.