I think he's being cute. For me this quote sums up what PRISM is really about:

"Nobody wants a box in their network...[Companies often] find ways to give tools to minimize disclosures, to protect users, to keep the government off the premises, and to come to some reasonable compromise on the capabilities."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57593538-38/how-the-u.s-fo...

Basically: in order to prevent the feds from installing boxes on their networks companies offer to do their own interception, which in my opinion is the far better alternative. "Direct access" isn't accurate.