RIM to India: Fine, You Can Read BlackBerry Email

With India threatening to kick the BlackBerry out of the country if it couldn't spy on users' messages, Research In Motion has proposed, well, allowing India to spy on users' messages, CNET reports. India's ban is on hold for 60 days while it reviews RIM's proposals for giving it access—chief among the company's ideas is placing a BlackBerry server in India, an idea RM has also pitched to Saudi Arabia.

RIM's problem is that the BlackBerry is too good at its job—its proprietary encryption is beyond the cryptopgraphic abilities of many governments. This gives concern both to open governments nervous that terrorists could use the devices to communicate securely and those with less noble reasons for eavesdropping on their citizens. RIM, for its part, has promised to meet "the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies, while preserving the legitimate information security needs of corporations and other organizations in India."
(More Research In Motion stories.)