Verso Trials Skype Blocking in China

An anonymous reader writes to tell us MacWorld is reporting that Verso, a US company based in Atlanta, GA, has just begun a paid trial for 'NetSpective'. Verso hopes to use NetSpective, and M-Class filter to block VoIP calls made using Skype in China. From the article: "While Verso said in its release that the use of Skype is illegal in China, the situation is more nuanced. Chinese government officials have been generally tolerant of VoIP software, such as Skype, that is used to make calls from one PC to another. But the ability of Skype users to make calls to a phone via the SkypeOut service is more sensitive, because this directly affects the revenue that operators such as China Telecom earn from international phone calls." This seems to be just another in the continuing campaign of China vs VoIP.

Comments

Remember kids...

[BluRBD!E]

every time you use skype to subvert the rule of your oppresive government, god kills a kitten.

Re:Remember kids...

[EiZei]

It's not really about free speech here. It's just the chinese goverment protecting it's profits.

Well.. guess that's why the corporations seem to get so well along with these guys.

*sigh* well tell me SBC wouldn't love it?

[saikou]

If these filters really work, wouldn't US carriers love to have them? Especially if there will be no enforcement of carrier neutrality? You get to use your network AND block activities that reduce your revenue in other wings of the business...

Re:*sigh* well tell me SBC wouldn't love it?

[MoralHazard]

True, it is possible to evade most filtering systems. The basic proof-of-concept is an encrypted tunneling protocol, like OpenVPN, that can pass arbitrary IP traffic via UDP or TCP. You have to set up a remote server, outside of the filtered jurisdiction, to act as your gateway out, but it's not really that hard. It's similar to the idea of open proxies to get around the Great Firewall for web content, but it lets any layer 3 traffic pass (not just HTTP). In fact, OpenVPN even has a nifty method for encapsulating layer 2 (ethernet) inside of an encrypted UDP or TCP tunnel, so you can use non-routable protocols.

But most of these methods aren't commonly known to ordinary users, and they require some technical sophistication to set up. Then, you have the logistical difficulties of maintaining the remote servers and shuffling them around to avoid IP bans. A lone, tech savvy user can use these method for personal communications, or perhaps even support a small group of people, but stealing fire for the whole human race would require an active organization to keep things humming. At that point, you start to become a nice, fat target for the government to crack down on.

That's the problem with subversive activities: organizational capacity scales with org size, but so do the risks of operating.

Re:*sigh* well tell me SBC wouldn't love it?

[KiloByte]

Say that again: encryption. China.

Of course, using encrypted protocols is not only filtered (if it can be spotted), but also severely punished. I'm not talking about just a fine here -- you would be facing a prison term, or, if you try to start a group that spreads this knowledge, even a death penalty.

In Poland, in the 50s, my grandfather's bro was taken to a police station and this was the last time we heard of him -- all because he unknowingly walked near a place where an illegal printer was. China is about on this level now.
Believe me or not, but totalitarian states worse than the US still do exist.

Information free?

[Neo-Rio-101]

So let me get this straight...

It's perfectly OK for everyone in China to blatantly pirate information, but all hell breaks loose when you try and make a VoIP phone call overseas from there.

You'd think they'd want information to be free or something, but I guess that everything just cuts one way with these guys.

This never works

[ZachPruckowski]

Blocking VoIP is hopeless. If they try to block computer to international phones, then Skype can set up servers in the US that take the computer to computer call and re-route it here, making a computer to computer call from China to the US indistingushable from a computer to US phone call. If they try to block all Skype calls, then Skype can just change its software enough to make it unrecognizable to the filter. If everyone just goes online and downloads the new version every week...

Basically, the Internet by definition is a lot harder to regulate than any other communication medium.

It seems a common theme..

[ztransform]

.. of a lot of slashdot posts is the way laws are used for profit and self-gain as opposed to development and sustainability of the people in general. Which is sad.

A lot of us became techies or engineers or what-not in the interests of making the world a better place for all. And we are constantly thwarted and bombarded by people with "business" or "political" sense.. (ie people with almost purely selfish and short-sighted motivations).

Will the power balance ever change.. is it possible for someone with a motivation to assist society in general to make it into a powerful position?

The State's version of the ??AA

[thecampbeln]

("State" as in government, not the US of A "states")

There is a Central American country that also has made VoIP illegal because of their interest in the state run/owned TelCo. I'm not certain if they have implemented anything other then laws around its use in country, but China is not the first to do this.

I wanna say the country is Panama, but I'm really not sure. Based on http://www.google.com.au/search?q=panama+voip+ille gal&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls =org.mozilla:en-US:official">Google it seems it's Costa Rica, but my point is there are probably a handful of countries doing this already. This by no means makes it ok, of course!

cat and mouse

[Douglas Simmons]

There's got to be a simple change to the Skype protocol that will make it hard to detect and block. Randomizing ports, for example. If The Man can sniff out what Skype traffic looks like, encrypt it or create some mechanism that would generate random number "noise" to throw off the detection. That's about all I can come up with. Other than politics and laws, what methods could Skype do to make it difficult to be controlled?

Supporting opression for a buck

[guanxi]

What's the difference between companies like Verso, Yahoo, Cisco and Google which help the Chinese Communists oppress people, and the oil companies, industrial giants, and weapons manufacturers that have supported tyrants in exhange for access to their markets?

How many innocent people are in jail, or worse, because of their help? How much more free would the Chinese people be, and how much weaker would the Communist grip on power be, if it wasn't for the assistance of these tech companies? "Don't be evil"? -- How impressive and bold that they support free software, but not freedom (as in speech) for human beings.

It's easy for me to say; I don't have to take the risk. These companies certainly have a difficult dilemma and have other responsibilities to shareholders and employees. In their position, everyone wants to say, 'I just want to keep my head down and mind my own business'. Taking sides is a risky, costly, sometimes wasted (if Cisco doesn't provide firewalls, someone else will) and often unappreciated sacrifice.

But I think that with their power comes responsibility, and their freedom is due to the sacrifices of those who came before them. I would think Jerry Yang (Yahoo founder, born in Taiwan) and Sergey Brin (Google founder, born under Communist rule in the then USSR) would be especially sensitive to this issue.

(In fairness, I only have heard second hand what Google, Yahoo and Cicso do in China. Verso seems to proudly advertise their support for the Chinese Communists. And this publicity is probably helping their share price.)

Thank God

[Kawahee]

Thank God for Freedom of Spe-
*beating noises*

Re:Spreading Democracy

[Greyfox]

Because China has an army roughly the size of the population of the USA, nuclear weapons and trade deficit IOUs for approximately the GDP of the USA for the next 3000 years. Also they don't have much oil since all the dinosaurs in the country were eaten by giant flesh eating pandas.

This all adds up to the fact that China can do whatever it wants to do and the US Government won't say a thing. And US companies will do whatever makes them money unless the US Government legislates, which they won't do. See point 1.