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Federal Appeals Court Sides With VoIP Providers
gollum123 writes "AP reports that the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by a lower court that A Minnesota agency may not regulate calls through VoIP as it does calls through traditional phone lines. 'The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission had argued that VoIP companies were providing phone-like service and therefore should be regulated as phone companies are. But those businesses said they provide an information service rather than a telecommunications service. This follows the FCC saying that VOIP cannot be regulated using the same rules as traditional phone.'"
This is really just bullshit isnt it? VoIP _is_ like a phone, the only reason that it shouldnt be classed as a phone system is to get around stupid ancient phone laws that should be updated instead of worked around, its like saying that by-passing CD 'copy protection' isnt a violation of the DMCA because its for back-up purposes, - it quite clearly is a violation, the real point is that the DMCA is crap.
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From selling it as a telephone substitute. I'd be more than happy to let them out of this, if they were willing to point it out to each customer prioring to signing them up, that courts have ruled that it's not phone service, and that they have no recourse through the utility commission should it have problems.
Regulating VoIP can only make criminals out of those who desire privacy.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
By claiming Ebay isn't an auctionsite, but an online marketplace, they circumvent the thousands of laws across the world regarding how auctions take place.
Same goes for paypal, they get to dodge all the laws that regulate banks because they don't claim to be a bank, but an online transaction site or something.
I'm just thankful the government hasn't been able to tax the internet yet.
God spoke to me.
The phone company is mandated to pay the USF.
The FCC does not require companies to recover their contributions directly from their customers. Each company makes a business decision about whether and how to assess customers to recover Universal Service costs.
The company is mandated to pay the USF. What you quoted says they don't have to list it as a line item on your bill, essentially, not that they aren't required to pay the USF. So they have an option between giving you a lower bill, and putting a line item on for the item the government is requiring them to pay, so that you understand it is the government collecting the money and not them and so their portion of the bill looks smaller, or they can incorporate it into their pricing structure, and give you a higher bill.
In either event, you are, of course, paying the USF -- it's a matter of if the phone company chooses to make it obvious or not solely.
If your code is acting bloated, and is running rather slow, it's likely and predicted that some loops you will unroll.
VoIP is just data packets being sent back and forth on the internet. There is no real difference between a VoIP packet and one of your favorite website. Allowing the government to apply regulations to a specific kind of traffic is the start of a VERY VERY nasty slope. The government should not be able to apply taxes to VoIP because it is just data being sent over the internet.
taxes are all mostly bull shit anyway.
Is that a fact? Got any examples? Your entire post talks about taxes, when what you are describing are levies.
The tax that everyone paid into, which was supposed to go to support schools and community access to the Internet, has never been paid out.
Sorry, what?
Taxes *DON'T* get "paid out" - if what you are describing is truly a tax, then it goes to the government, period. It doesn't get "paid out", it becomes part of general revenue.
More importantly, it's not a required tax at all
No, more importantly, it's not a *TAX* at all.
And from your description it's not even a levy.
Perhaps you should at *least* get your terminology straight before you start whining about something. All you're doing is showing everybody how stupid you are.
So I'm in LA and I have an internet connection with a tunnel to an ISP in Nebraska. As far as my IP address, I'm in Nebraska. How are you going to verify that?
Maditory address insertion is absurd at best. Some insane scheme of madatory GPS would be more realistic but probably just as easy to spoof/bypass.
How do cell phones do 911? I guess they can at least tell what tower the device is connected with.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
It's time we change the way we think about these utilities and start removing some of these outdated regulations.
Currently (here in Canada at least) I can get telephone, cellphone and high speed internet from my cable television supplier, or I can get cellphone, television and high speed internet from my telephone company, or I can even get most of the above through a number of independent smaller companies, usually through a wireless antenna or satellite dish.
With all of these options on equivalent services, these regulations and their outdated definitions no longer make sense.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
"Why does every government agency seek to enlarge it's power by regulating new things?"
Because of that inevitable quality known as "progress". The airplane was "new" at one time. The car was "new" at one time. Nuclear plants were "new" at one time. Why do you expect progress to be inevitable, while the legislative and legal system to be stagnent?
"It's simple. The more things they regulate, the more power they have, the more people they need and the bigger their budgets get."
The cynics answer, but when applied to reality, it comes lacking. By the cynics answer there would be no safety regulations for anything, from cars to airplanes.
There would be no regulations of food and medical equipment. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry could get a license. You may feel that regulations are burdensome, and represent a power grab. But ask yourself just what kind of world you're really asking for.