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Costa Rica May Criminalize VoIP
chia_monkey writes "Here's an interesting little tidbit about the 'free' Internet. Seems Costa Rica may make it a crime to make Internet-based phone calls. It would be a shame if this sets a precedent of setting legistlation that would seriously stunt the growth of these emerging technologies that should be making communication cheaper and easier, not harder and illegal."
Didn't this already happen in another South American country? I thought I read something about a year ago on a similar subject, where VOIP was going to be illegal to protect the state-owned telecommunications company.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
Let them try, in the end, any such effort to cripple the net will only end in failure. My big question is why do we elect such dumbasses?
Words to men, as air to birds.
with trying to enforce that policy. Would iChat on Mac OS X (or any other voice/video chat program) be illegal as well?
VOIP was criminilized in South Africa since 1996. It was illegal to make any voip calls whatsoever, that means no MSN Chat, Skype etc.
VOIP became legal on Feb 1005 only after the Telkom (national telco) regulator started to break up Telkom's monopoly.
Right, and it's *only* the telephone company proposing this. No one in the Costa Rican government is (as yet) onside.
Can you say "Nothing to see here. Move Along"?
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
I've not RTFA but from discussion I had with someone 'in the know' it may well come back to the country loosing a significant amount of income from the price they charge for inbound telephony. When you call CR part of the price you pay for the call goes to the CR government. This is vital foreign exchange a country such as theirs cann ill afford to lose.
For a country that needs this income to build its hospitals, social infrastructure (yes and Army, corruption etc) it is a big blow.
If this is the reason I can actually support this. Despite what seem like the majority of the Slashdot crowd think, there is more to life that getting 'free' services from the Internet.
It's not a crime to bring over however much alcohol you like. You just have to pay the taxes. How do you think the CH_3CH_2OH made it into your state in the first place?
I'm assuming here that your local law (US?) is not totally insane
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
- What about if I record myself, and post it to the net, then someone downloads it, thats (literally)my VOICE over IP. Will they make that Illegal?
- How about if I write some text and put a Text to Speech engine on my site with my voice loaded into the engine? Will they make that Illegal?
- What about if Costa Rica telcos want to relay their voice calls internally over IP (at any point in the pathway) Will they make that Illegal?
Maybe next they'll make all paketized transfer of voice data illegal? - BYE BYE GPRS. This is what happens when people make laws without consulting unbiased (or unbiased on average) techinal people.Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
but a look at the future. If you are a member
of the WTO and have small/fledgling national
industries to protect from unplanned for (and
unregulated) competition, you make it illegal.
You might say that Costa Rica has adopted the
very same measures that the USA's "**AA" have
implimented in the face of new media distribution
modes, and similar tactics that the big regional
USA phone companies have adopted (with big
government help) to protect them from government/
community WiFi competition.
That being said, it seems a shame that a democracy
with a constiuentcy that has a 98% literacy rate
should find the need to penalize its citizens for
the sake of a corporate (nationalized?) entity.
These are the kinds of tactics that a government
with a much lower literacy rate (65%), and can
influence its citizens with massive propaganda
campaigns would be expected to use - like the USA.
Is it possible? Obviously you'd have to avoid trying to get a Costa Rica local number, but for someone with relatives in a foreign country, would this be a plausible solution?
The owner/publisher of Linux Journal moved to Costa Rica some years back and hasn't been subtle for his reasons, namely the DMCA. Now in an ironic twist, the paradise he moved to is considering making VOIP illegal, a technology I'd bet he uses. I'd look for Phil to lead the charge against this one.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting a different result."
... , yes, it beats Mexico and Brazil as well
Sorry, but I don't buy that. Now, really, could you post some data to support such claims?
Mexico and Brazil may have lots of social problems - and maybe in this aspect it could be possible that Costa Rica had some better indexes. But as far as I have heard, it does not get even close when talking about GDP, market size, level of industrialization, native technology, universities, scientific work, just to name a few...
Are you talking about the same "Costa Rica" ? The one where I live?
I wouldn't say CR is the most stable and economically successful latin american country...
That's just hilarious. Maybe central american country; and still, that's not something we should feel proud of.
Don't confuse the general situation of the country with the way people like to live. Sadly, we have adopted the american way of buy now, pay forever... But that doesn't mean everyone is wealthy...
And to say something about the topic, what else can you expect from a government controlled company that owns the monopoly on telecommunications and technology? It is true that a lot of people have cellphones, but that's a status symbol, you should be here to see the AWFUL service we get, both on TDMA and GSM.
Let alone talking about Costa Rica being pro-technology, that's just NOT true; only 6 months ago DLS started to be accessible and still the service is just below average.
I read this news on local newspaper a few days ago and I just laughed. Ignorance is a bliss.
- live from Costa Rica !
Okay, I agree with most of what you said, but do most Americans really go there for prostitution? What about the beaches and cloud forests, the laid back atmosphere, friendly locals, low cost of living? If Americans think that the only thing worthwhile in Costa Rica is prostitutes, there are some travel agents that need to be fired.
Costa Rica has always had an army. However, it is very small an unobtrusive compared that of other countries in the area. They don't even call it an army, but it is one anyway. Costa Rica was colonized differently, compared to the other countries in the area: more by settlers looking to build a home rather than plantationers. This made it somewhat more civil than the other places. As for imperialism, during the Soviet proxy wars against Central America during the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviets even created a rebel army to attack Costa Rica. It gained little ground, however.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
runs an American-style government
This is the only place I disagree with you. Costa Rica is hardly like the States, nor even supports it. When Bush went on about the Coalition of the Willing, Costa Rica asked that their name be removed. Costa Rica has no army. They concentrate on making their own country better without meddling in the affairs of other countries.
The article states that the ICE is a monopoly, but that's how they keep things in check. In English, the ICE is the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity. They handle the electricity and telecommunications for the entire country.
There is also only one, yes one, insurance company for every kind of insurance. Surely they have more examples too. Each are government regulated and do not rip people off.
It is true though that most business owners are European or American. This is because no foreigners are allowed to work unless they open their own business. This is because, as was mentioned, there are still not enough jobs for the existing population, and they don't need warmth seeking westerners taking their jobs.
I suspect this law will not be passed. Costa Ricans are smarter than that.
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the government was about to hand the phone system over to the president's brother-in-law
We're talking about the phone system in this very article. Do you see any connection...? Hmm...
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Well, that's changing. As a result of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) negotiations, Costa Rica finally, after being asked to leave the room because they weren't playing ball and "this room is only for serious negotiations" (funny thing, a friend of mine was involved in the negotiations and had some choice things to say regarding that), finally came to and agreed to privatize, over time, two of its big national industries: insurance and telecom. [http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Repor ts_Publications/2004/2004_National_Trade_Estimate/ 2004_NTE_Report/asset_upload_file462_4745.pdf]
To get internet access in Costa Rica, unless you were a scientific institution, you still have to go through the ICE, the state entity. They charge higher-than-US dialup prices for nowhere close to US-quality service (monthly access fees PLUS minutes of usage on your phone line). To get a cell phone you often must wait months and can only get it through them. Costa Rica's basic argument is that telecommunications is a right of people, that both the airwaves and the land through which phone lines travel are Costa Rican property and that they should be driven by social need rather than profit. Great in theory: in practice, apalling.
Interestingly, this new proposed regulation can't really be very long-lived UNLESS they say that because they agreed to open up their network, internet and wireless lines (nothing said of Plain-ole-telephone service), they may be saying that this will compete with a public national service and undermine the goal of the state.
I don't buy it.
***Foucault is watching you..***
I'm not ignorant, but I'm not costa rican either, so maybe I seem ignorant to you, who is a costa rican...
When I had DSL in CR, I got it from Racsa in San Jose, the capital city. It's not fast DSL, but DSL it is. I had a friend of mine get DSL in her home so she could better communicate with other international parts of our company, and it seemed that Racsa is more inclined to get things done if you mention it's for business. The price was high by costa rican standards, but not unaffordable by individuals. Now, she usually gets her internet access from cafe's, not at home. Internet access is easily available to anyone in San Jose, if not at home, then at a cafe.
Maybe my definition of efficient public transportation is different from most people's. It's convenient, cheap, and gets you where you want to go fast. In the USA, it's expensive (comparatively speaking), only serves some areas, and it's SLOW, with wait times at some bus stops measured in hours.
When I say the economy is efficient, I compare my American lifestyle and it's cost, with a costa rican lifestyle and it's cost. The lifestyles aren't that different in the cities, but the Costa Ricans can do it on $12 per day, in a 40 hour work week. And their government only costs them 13% (oversimplification, but that's the gist of it).
If you disagree with the business ownership bit, and the prostitution bit, well fine. I'm only repeating my experiences (yes, actually in Costa Rica), I'm sure yours are different. One thing I did notice, that I didn't mention, is that Costa Ricans deeply resent the social problems foreigners have brought to Costa Rica. Very few Costa Ricans are at the top of CR's business boom, like so many foreigners are. They typically end up pushing around a mop instead. I'd be resentful too. Not saying you are, but it sounds like it.
no that's wrong. The expression "Third world" is a translation of the french "tiers monde", which is a reference to the "tiers état", litteraly "third state", which used to designate unprivileged people in the kingdom of France, until the 18th century (by contrast with the nobles and the members of the Church).
:/ 1/1/tiers-monde.shtml
The expression "tiers monde" dates back to 1952, and has been forged by demographer Alfred Sauvy, to designate poor countries, implying that the "tiers monde" is being despised and exploited just as the "tiers état" used to be.
See
http://www.linternaute.com/histoire/motcle/2923/a
War doesn't prove who's right, just who's left.
As you can read here, Mexico's telecoms regulator Cofetel bans VoIP services unless they are offered by the monopolic Mexico's biggest telecom company Telmex.
It is already illegal in Mexico. You can't get easyly a concession since there are Telmex execs in Cofetel Board.
Telefonica (the Spanish group who also owns Terra, some banks and more) is probably yhe largest Brazilian phone company nowadays. They also own the most popular broadband service, Speedy. Until last year their service contract stated you couldn't use VoIP because "it consumed too much band".
This is like saying that "Bob is healthy because he never took anti-AIDS drugs", while omitting the fact that Bob doesn't have HIV. Channeling Thabo Mbeki here? :-)
Privatization in the countries that you talk about is a response to poor governence, the economy tanking, the government realizing that it cannot pay for everything and needing external help, amputating itself to get the loans they need. In other words, the shit hit the fan. The difference is that in Costa Rica, they have had good governence for the bulk of the 20th century and therefore never found themselves to be in the position that Argentina and Bolivia found themselves in. The reason that the IMF is so strict with austerity is because their number one priority is to make sure that any loan they give out comes back with interest. You cannot do that if their government runs a deficit.
Now it could be said that the IMF should be restructured so that it is less a bank and more a charity and hence offer debt relief more often, but that is a separate question.