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VOIP Progress To Be Hobbled By Wiretap Costs?
vaporland writes "This article @ nytimes.com talks about the reasons that development of commercial VOIP may be stifled by the costs required to allow the federal government to listen in on conversations. It is the intention of the FBI, et al, to provide a truly unfunded mandate to force VOIP service providers to develop and provide this wiretap access to them at no cost to the U.S. government, which is to say, the consumer of VOIP will foot the bill for allowing the government to listen in on our phone calls. Perhaps they should just hire some script kiddies to show them how to do it on the cheap?"
The PGP Phone Project is dead now but it would be great of GPGP would revive it. The script kiddes would have a much tougher time cracking this and this is why the goverment is wanting a little help.
In that case, it won't be long at all before the use of encryption becomes illegal. Simply using encryption will be a enough to put you behind bars, regardless of what you are encrypting.
That's how a police state works.
While none of us would like to incur more fees, the simple fact that my Vonage bill is currently about $60.00 less per month then my Bell South bill, a small additional fee to cover this wouldn't be so bad. You can debate the pros and cons of whether or not VoIP wiretapping should even be done, but if it does, a small added fee to an already inexpensive service shouldn't be a problem.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
I am not trying to troll or throw out some flamebait, but everyone has a tendency to want to complain about having your phone tapped or your email read. However, these means are the primary ways of detecting terrorist chatter. If an attack were to happen on US soil for which the planning occurred over VOIP lines, or email, or normal phone lines, and the CIA couldn't prevent it because they couldn't tap lines, then we would all be up in arms. I for one, say let's trust the people that we have put in positions of power (for the most part), and let them decide when to use this power. And as with the airport taxes, a couple bucks to make me safer is money I will gladly spend.
Is it just me or does this entire concept scare the bejesus out of you?
The fbi etal want, as a default option, the ability to listen in to ANY call made by VOIP. This means that, as standard, any/all calls can be monitored, any/everyone (even non-American people[1]) whenever they want or indefinatly.
Now people can say "yes but they wont", but as soon as the Intelligent Agencies[2] have this nice new toy how long before they start a) using it, b) exploiting it, and c) turn it off.
The more I see of the current democratic setup (not just american, but worldwide) and the security "advancements" (post 9/11), the more features of the old Russian Communists start appearing. It's as if the current terrorist threat is being used as justification for the crack-down on personal liberties. I'd protest, but I think that may be banned.
Jaj
[1] Yes we do exist
[2] One of the best oxymorons around
If the end-users do not pay the VOIP provider for the cost of the wiretap, then the money will ultimately come from taxes. Which method do you think would be more cost-effective and better managed?
1. Where there is money to be made, noone cares about how long you will be in business. Business these days isn't about survivability it is about how much money I can make now. 2. Non-Telco VOIP companies will probably not survive long-term...well at least not in the US. Telco VoIP companies will probably be running the ISP backbones in the next few decades. They will probably also decide what can and can't be sent across the link and right to cancel service if they believe you are using a non standard protocol or communication method. Would hate to see the day...but have the feeling it is coming. So peer-to-peer will be come harder and harder. Telco's aren't about allowing you to have free service. The only hope is that we can make it more profitable for them to allow it vs. not allow it. 3. We currently pay for wiretapping capabilities so I am a little confused about why people seem so up in arms about providing it for VoIP. If you don't like paying for it why aren't you complaining about how the phone system works now. It is currently mandatory for all US Telco's and most non-US Telco's to provide wiretapping service. The only reason it is showing up in the bill now as a seperate cost is because it wasn't originally put into the cost structure. 4. If you think encryption makes you safe, that is just silly. It just makes it harder. No encryption algorithm is safe. All can be broken relatively fast or soon will be able to be, remember the people breaking these alg. have unlimited budgets and resources. Unfortunately except for the very security conscious or paranoid person who constantly keeps up to date with the most secure encryption alg. most phones will not be secure even if they implemented a encryption mechanism. Business models currently don't support upgrading user device to be the most current on a consistant basis. Not to mention user incompatibility issues. 4. End all, either change the laws by voting and letting your voice be heard or stop complaining. Although even if the laws change don't be foolish enough to believe that your lines will still not b e tapped or that you won't somehow pay for it.
Encryption is no more limited in France. More funny, GnuPG is one of the officially allowed softwares anyone can use!
May I add for t_allardyce that someone on Kuro5hin.org has been interrogated by some US agency (I don't remember which one) just by posting a message saying "it would be a good thing to kill the (US) president."
No, being incapable of providing the key is a valid defence. Skype makes it easy to prove that you don't have the key, so no one can be imprisoned for using it.
like DC++ or Kazaa.
Provide services around the VOIP like a voicemailbox or a phonebook. charge for those services, not for the VOIP.
Since you're not into VOIP, let the FBI go elsewhere with their demands.
for free VOIP: http://www.speakfreely.org/
Privacy is terrorism.
...quit trying to force the use of technological solutions. I'd rather require them to physically place a bug in my cell phone (or PC mic) than require all of this accursed intrusion and cost.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
There's a simple solution. The government could issue licenses for encryption to those who have given them the keys (or whatever alternate conditions they decide to impose).
It's simple enough to build a still, so anybody can do it. Lots of huge businesses depend on distillation to produce their product. Government couldn't possibly outlaw stills and prevent me from making my own booze, right? Well, no: at least where I am, and from what I remember my high school chemistry teacher telling us oh-so-many years ago, there are lots of licenced stills, but building one of my own without a licence will land me before a judge.
That was my friend, and FBI didn't just interrogate him at work (that is how they traced the post), hey came to his house, searched it and iterrogated his children and wife. Then they lectured them about the "free speech" ammendment for an hour (oh, the irony). I wish they would have acted that quickly and went and interrogated B1n-Lad1n before the 9/11.
Are you trying to say the government should never be allowed to eavesdrop on criminal communications even with a warrant?! I can't distinguish between that and anarchy. Can somebody please help me?