Ethiopia Criminalizes VoIP Services

An anonymous reader writes "The Ethiopian government has passed legislation criminalizing the use of VoIP services like Skype and Google Talk. Anyone using these services within the country now faces up to 15 years in prison. 'Ethiopian authorities argue that they imposed these bans because of "national security concerns" and to protect the state's telecommunications monopoly. The country only has one ISP, the state-owned Ethio Telecom, and has been filtering its citizen's Internet access for quite some time now to suppress opposition blogs and other news outlets. ... Reporters Without Borders also reports that Ethio Telecom installed a system to block access to the Tor network, which allows users to surf the Web anonymously. The organization notes that the ISP must be using relatively sophisticated Deep Packet Inspection to filter out this traffic.'"

Comments

Devolution

[Bananatree3]

You're looking at it. Great Britain, USA, Ethiopia, China, Saudi Arabia... are there *any* countries where an internet connection can be had with complete freedom of access and no censorship?

Re:Devolution

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no such thing devolution, only evolution in a direction you don't like.

Re:Devolution

[Gotung]

There was never a time or a place where what you describe existed.

Re:Devolution

[JustOK]

Are we not men?

Re:Devolution

[JustOK]

Thank you for the proper English correction.

FTFY

Re:Devolution

[LordLimecat]

Youre lumping vastly different situations into one bucket, throwing up your hands, and despairing.

US, UK, etc have their own censorship and "entering the 21st century" issues, but lumping them together with Ethopia and China is a pretty big stretch.

The fact that we have outlets like the Onion, Jon Stewart, and all the talking heads (Beck, OReilley, whoever else) which build their reputation on skewering powerful political figures shows you just how different we are.

If youre asking if there are any countries where the internet is completely unrestrained and there is no enforcement of any laws whatsoever, no, there arent, and thats not a bad thing (ask any of the GPL folks). Likewise, if youre asking if there are any countries whose laws are perfect and are never abused, sorry, we dont have a utopia yet.

It seems to me that the least helpful thing that can be done (other than pretending everything is peachy) is to act like everything is as bad as it could be and that things are hopeless. More helpful perhaps would be to discuss WHERE the US, UK, etc fail, but comparing them to Ethopia is ridiculous.

Re:Devolution

[Catbeller]

Bull. You are revising living memory. Of course it existed. It existed fifteen years ago, everywhere. The tech to listen in on all calls did not exist, nor was it legal. It was absolutely, constitutionally ILLEGAL to spy on citizens in the USA. We talked on the phone and messaged each other in the happy knowledge that it took a court order or Scientology operatives to obtain phone conversations or internet activity. Such things are possible today because our citizens are technologically and politcally illiterate and have absolutely no cultural memory past ALF reruns. The US is stupiding itself to death. OF COURSE WE HAD PRIVACY!! You gave it up!

Re:Devolution

[Krneki]

Slovenia

Albeit we had 2 censorship incident done via DNS blocking.

They didn't last very long, were unconstitutional and easily circumvented by replacing the DNS server address and no one was ever persecuted by circumventing the protection.

To this date, not a single charge or court order has been issued for private usage of the internet for whatever reason. The only incidents were regarding "hate speech" and rightfully so.

Re:Devolution

[flyingsquid]

I felt that your post on internet censorship makes a refreshingly reasonable, coherent, and well-informed argument, without resorting to ridiculous exaggerations or references to 1984 and the Nazis. It suggests a nuanced worldview that goes beyond simple black-and-white thinking about complicated issues.

Please hand in your Slashdot ID.

Re:Devolution

[circletimessquare]

go read the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and reference the section on Criteria for Paranoid Schizophrenia

Re:Devolution

[Tharsman]

Bull. You are revising living memory. Of course it existed. It existed fifteen years ago, everywhere. The tech to listen in on all calls did not exist, nor was it legal. It was absolutely, constitutionally ILLEGAL to spy on citizens in the USA. We talked on the phone and messaged each other in the happy knowledge that it took a court order or Scientology operatives to obtain phone conversations or internet activity. Such things are possible today because our citizens are technologically and politcally illiterate and have absolutely no cultural memory past ALF reruns. The US is stupiding itself to death. OF COURSE WE HAD PRIVACY!! You gave it up!

There has been technology to wiretap calls for as long as there have been telephones. All you needed was access to the telephone company. Heck in the extreme early days, before phones were able to dial, a cop may simply sit by the operator and listen in.

There was a middle ground where it took a bit more legwork to get the wiretapping done, but there was no point where it became impossible if desired.

Yes, you “need” the court order, but that order can be granted in secret and is granted if no other ways to prove you are guilty of the investigated "serious" crime is available. If you are innocent, that usually means they will wiretap you because they wont find anything else to tie you up to the crime.

Over the decades warrants have been given to investigate even people just vaguely related to the real target of an investigation, as they may shed light on the target himself.

This is nothing new, and these computer monitoring is being implemented by many countries that simply don’t want to lose their ability to keep monitoring everything at will.

Re:Devolution

[Anonymous Coward]

It's in my dictionary:

The process of declining from a higher level to a lower level of effective power or vitality or essential quality. Syn. degeneration.

See this is why I come on here and post "nigger" and other racial jokes, troll about politics or operating systems, ask anybody who mentions an intelligent woman if that woman is fat, and just generally fuck around. It's the only way to have fun around here anymore.

Do you know why? Do you know why that is?

Because you motherfuckers will get into crazy-ass passionate fights over stupid shit like whether "devolution" is a word.

For. Fuck's. Sake. You. Motherfuckers. You know exactly what the guy meant. He might not have said it just the way you like. Hell for that matter he might be wearing a tie that clashes with his shirt. SO FUCKING WHAT?!

I know programming takesa this kind of precision and attention to detail. Now then, take a big big bite of your Ass Burger. Tastes good? Alright! Now I'm going to explain what your poor negligent daddy should have told you long ago, you anal-retentive Asspie fucks: you need to figure out that not EVERYTHING in life is exactly the same as programming. Specifically, when you form entire threads about the use of ONE WORD in a casual, informal discussion, you're Doing It Wrong(tm).

I won't throw in the bullshit about Mama and her basement because it's old as hell and I'm not so smug as to think you can't get an apartment somewhere. As a gentleman, I will ask when the last time was that you had a beautiful woman in your arms who wanted to stay there a while. Perspective, man.

Re:Devolution

[bhcompy]

I take it you never watched the Super Mario Bros movie

Re:Devolution

[circletimessquare]

Don't worry man, I'm just an advance Internet Forum Consent Engineer (tm), my assignment is Slashdot Task Force 45D, subsection truth bearer neutralization.

We are aware of the few geniuses such as yourself who have independently stumbled upon the real truth the Bilderberg Agenda (tm) has so desperately worked to keep secret, and we will not let you ruin our plans.

So I must continuously mock you so as to keep the others properly propagandized and placated.

Re:Devolution

[Dishevel]

D.E.V.O.

Re:Devolution

[Dishevel]

lol.
Best post yet.
Yelling at people on a forum that you choose to visit about how they are all fucked for posting the way everyone in this forum does.
Getting all bent out of shape on purpose all the while yelling that we should all have better shit to do.
You are priceless.

Re:Devolution

[Catbeller]

That wasn't what I addressed. Of course they could tap phones, and they did - with court orders and with records of their taps. One at a time. At least they had to show an interest.

But now they are listening to ALL OUR CALLS. ALL OF THEM. And when the NSA gets that data center in Utah online next year, they will record. every. single. call. All the web pages visits. No exceptions. No warrants. They will be able to run a timeline backwards on anyone or any group of associates to go a-huntin' crimes or anti-government activity. Forever.

Address that, not the straw man. We lived in a world without 24/7 spying on every damned thing we do, and now we do, because 1) no cultural memory of a time when it wasn't so 2) kids raised with no civil liberty at school don't get why no liberties as an adult is bad and 3) the tech has changed and 4) the national security state has really metastasized and is spreading across the world as fast as we can sell the equipment.

Re:Devolution

[codewarren]

I just noticed that where I live that apostrophes are now being censored.

Re:Devolution

[kat_skan]

Or perhaps like all rational people he's just repressing his memory of it.

Re:Devolution

[S.O.B.]

Actually, it's English everywhere.

Re:Devolution

[hairyfeet]

I don't think you need a term like de-evolution which a much more classical term applies MUCH better, and that is good old fashioned fascism. As we know fascism can take two main forms, where the corporate controls the state and where the state controls the corporate, but in the end its two sides of the same coin. In the end we get what we are seeing all over the planet, where a few men in the halls of power use their ever growing power of force to ensure their power never decreases by keeping those nasty peasants in a state of fear and closely monitored for "subversive behavior".

I would say its the Arab Springs that caused it but I think its been going on longer than that, its just the Arab Springs made them drop all pretense of being subtle. Now that they have seen that the "rabble" can actually cause men who have wielded power for decades to be brought before the courts or even killed I think we will be seeing the "kid gloves" come off more and more as those power mongers fight to keep what they consider divinely given, their absolute right to rule. Frankly I have a feeling things will be especially nasty here in the USA as the corps and govt have been in bed for quite awhile and the MSM gives the corp/gov hybrid a propaganda machine that would make old Joe Stalin green with envy. Just look at how quickly they were able to turn the conversation into "Assange is a rapist arrogant dirtball" from "Hey WTF HAS our government been doing?". I have a feeling if Watgergate happened today Woodward and Bernstein would join Deep Throat in Gitmo while the press talked about how wonderful Nixon was.

Re:Devolution

[gmanterry]

Actually, it's English everywhere.

Wrong! I was in the Peace Corps in the Ivory Coast West Africa where I taught at the University of Abidjan. My English friend Donard, taught English. I taught American. They considered them to be two separate and distinct languages.

National Security

[Hatta]

National Security is a threat to National Security. Anyone who uses National Security as an excuse should be locked up to protect National Security.

Re:National Security

[dkleinsc]

Of course, by your own argument, you should be locked up immediately!

Re:National Security

[ZeroSumHappiness]

Hey, if it makes it so that people can't willy-nilly invoke National Security as a defense I think that's a price worth paying.

Re:National Security

[PPalmgren]

Yo Dawg, I heard you like National Security, so we put National Security in your National Security so you can get arrested while you arrest.

Deep Packet Inspection? Wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The organization notes that the ISP must be using relatively sophisticated Deep Packet Inspection to filter out this traffic."

There is zero reason people *need* to use DPI to block Tor Traffic. You simply run compatible Tor connectivity software (i.e. The Tor Client) and create a list of those users who can accept communications with you--compare the nodes on that list with nodes that are within your networks; done.

Now who will complain about evil carriers in US?

[mapkinase]

Now who will complain about evil carriers in US after you will get a perspective of what they do in Ethiopia? :-)

Jokes aside, Islam (Ethiopia has 3 times more Muslims than in 100% Muslim Somalia) prohibits prying and spying on civilians, so any snooping, any PATRIOT act, any FISA laws would be impossible under Islamic government.

They might prohibit certain services altogether to prevent spread of lewdness, but they won't spy on you.

A man peeped through a hole in the door of Allah's Apostle's house , and at that time, Allah's Apostle had a Midri (an iron comb or bar) with which he was rubbing his head. So when Allah's Apostle saw him, he said (to him), "If I had been sure that you were looking at me (through the door), I would have poked your eye with this (sharp iron bar)." Allah's Apostle added, "The asking for permission to enter has been enjoined so that one may not look unlawfully (at what there is in the house without the permission of its people)."

WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're looking at it. Great Britain, USA, Ethiopia, China, Saudi Arabia... are there *any* countries where an internet connection can be had with complete freedom of access and no censorship?

What the F are you yammering on about, you nob? It is completely common to have a completely free(from a libertarian perspective) and uncensored internet connection from a plethora of ISP in the United States and the United Kingdom. Genuine issues abound in many countries, including Ethiopia and the risk of the erosion of freedoms in many other places does exist. But, you hyperbolic patent falsifications erode people's willingness to take these matters seriously. In the long run, you are doing far more harm than good.

Please feel free to STFU!

Re:WTF?

[flyingsquid]

What the F are you yammering on about, you nob? It is completely common to have a completely free(from a libertarian perspective) and uncensored internet connection from a plethora of ISP in the United States and the United Kingdom. Genuine issues abound in many countries, including Ethiopia and the risk of the erosion of freedoms in many other places does exist. But, you hyperbolic patent falsifications erode people's willingness to take these matters seriously. In the long run, you are doing far more harm than good.

Please feel free to STFU!

Seconded. There are real issues, but saying "OMG teh USA is just like China!" is really not helpful. The situation is a lot more complex than that. The United States has actually done a pretty amazing job promoting free speech on some fronts- the U.S. government invented the internet after all, and private U.S. companies such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook have provided the means for people to engage in free speech. The article mentions Ethiopia trying to block Tor... well, the Tor anonymity network was actually developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

At the same time, you have to ask where all of the technology to censor the internet is coming from in the first place. China doesn't really need any help, but for countries like Syria, Iran, and Ethiopia to monitor the internet, they need outside help. The answer is that this help comes from the west- there are companies in Silicon Valley and in Europe that are willing to sell the equipment and software needed to hack into, store, and analyze the communications of their citizens. They make a profit, and they don't ask too many questions about whether this technology might lead to the arrest and torture of dissidents.

The article mentions that Ethiopia is using Deep Packet Inspection to filter out the internet and block Tor. The question becomes, who's providing them with this technology? If we want to make a difference that's how we could do it- figure out where this technology is coming from and then apply pressure to the company selling this technology. If the companies selling this technology are held up to public scrutiny and faced with the prospect of boycotts and negative press, a lot of them will back off.

Re:WTF?

[fa2k]

[fa2k@blackhole tmp]$ wget http://thepiratebay.org/
--2012-06-15 18:37:01-- http://thepiratebay.org/
Resolving thepiratebay.org... 194.71.107.50
Connecting to thepiratebay.org|194.71.107.50|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 403 Forbidden
2012-06-15 18:37:01 ERROR 403: Forbidden.

[fa2k@blackhole tmp]$ traceroute thepiratebay.org
traceroute to thepiratebay.org (194.71.107.50), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
  1 192.168.1.250 (192.168.1.250) 0.312 ms 0.403 ms 0.465 ms
  2 O2WirelessBox.lan (192.168.1.254) 106.684 ms 106.668 ms 106.560 ms
  3 * * *
  4 * * *
  5 * * *
  6 * * *
  7 10.1.1.98 (10.1.1.98) 27.569 ms 23.957 ms 24.665 ms
  8 10.1.1.101 (10.1.1.101) 26.545 ms 25.573 ms 27.624 ms
  9 10.1.1.141 (10.1.1.141) 26.972 ms 24.243 ms 26.153 ms
10 10.1.2.114 (10.1.2.114) 26.168 ms 25.883 ms 24.447 ms
11 259.ge-1-2-2.mpr1.lhr3.uk.above.net (213.152.232.65) 25.520 ms 25.485 ms 25.535 ms
12 xe-4-0-0.mpr2.lhr3.uk.above.net (64.125.27.154) 26.041 ms 25.472 ms 25.535 ms
13 above-gblx.lhr3.uk.above.net (64.125.12.154) 25.629 ms 24.365 ms 26.040 ms
14 power-och-tandom-t-lane.tengigabitethernet1-3.ar1.arn3.gblx.net (208.48.1.246) 61.445 ms 64.784 ms 64.557 ms
15 gi-1-6-nano-demarc.sto1.se.portlane.net (80.67.1.42) 60.103 ms 64.794 ms 61.531 ms
16 194.68.0.202 (194.68.0.202) 67.593 ms 61.923 ms 62.026 ms
17 sthix-ge-0-2.moria-cr-1.piratpartiet.net (192.121.80.181) 59.776 ms 59.833 ms 62.935 ms
18 thepiratebay.piratpartiet.se (194.14.56.2) 63.485 ms 63.542 ms 60.908 ms
19 * * *
20 *^C

Re:Now who will complain about evil carriers in US

[Pieroxy]

They might prohibit certain services altogether to prevent spread of lewdness, but they won't spy on you.

Wanna bet? If it suits their interest, they will. There is no doubt about it.

Re:is this the first case....

[JustOK]

no

What are they afraid of?

[Skapare]

What are they afraid of? They are the government. Oh wait ...

Waste of money

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Imagine the number of starving people they could feed, or development projects they could fund, with the money they channel into running computers to control the citizenry...

What happens to truly disruptive tech

[Catbeller]

Who is providing the software and hardware for the deep filtering? Who are the scum? It's like peddling POS tablets for pedophile brothels. Who the hell is providing police state software to imprison the population?

And this is what happens when you really make a tool to end-run police states, such as the US or the UK. They make it illegal and imprison you. Ask Assange.

Re:What happens to truly disruptive tech

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Well, Sandvine is the big name in DPI tech, though there are others. Googling 'Lawful Intercept capability' brings up a fair list of vendors, pretty much everybody who sells networking gear, along with a few specialists.

Empirically speaking, there would appear to be a lot of competent techies who are either actively authoritarian or very good at the yuppie Nuremberg defense; because this stuff doesn't build itself, and it doesn't get built by throwing jackbooted morons at the problem...

Re:Now who will complain about evil carriers in US

[ZeroSumHappiness]

Exactly, just like a Christian government will provide for those who cannot provide for themselves a Muslim government would never spy on anyone.

A preventive measure

[Hentes]

so the prince can't contact people to get his money out.

Re:is this the first case....

[YodasEvilTwin]

Mod parent up. His useful explanation is overshadowed only by the in-depth article he linked to.

Re:Now who will complain about evil carriers in US

[dcollins]

Wikipedia > Internet censorship by country > Pervasive censorship (the highest level) in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and of course, Iran.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_by_country

UN

[fluffythedestroyer]

Since Ethiopia is part of the UN, don't they have something to say about this ?

In other news out of Ethiopia:

[kheldan]

..famine issues within the country, overall standard and quality of living issues, along with all forms of violent crime and corruption have, apparently, been solved by the Ethiopian government because they now have time to worry about what the fuck is going on with Facebook.</sarcasm>


*facepalm*

Re:In other news out of Ethiopia:

[BSAtHome]

They indeed solved the problem. They have other countries take care of the humanitarian help and provide the "starving children" images so that we all give money.

It is called outsourcing.

[sarcasm tag blew up; could not be contained in a tag]

"DPI" is standard on networking gear.

[Aero77]

Most organizations use DPI to block specific protocols from entering or leaving their network. This technology is not the black market malware you think it is. Like any tool, it can be used for good or evil.

i really hate to break it to you

[circletimessquare]

but if you have a thought, and you put it on a wire that leads to a public network, you have just given up your right to privacy

not legally, but logically

even if the government was passionate about not snooping on the network in its borders, what of corporations? what of rogue government operatives? what of technically proficient and strangely motivated individuals?

it's a NETWORK, not a closed box in your garage

if you want something private, don't put it on a public network. once it gets out there, it is beyond your control. and you are the person who put it out there. so don't put it out there if it is important for you to keep private

this has nothing to do with legality. it has to do with a common sense understanding of the nature of the subject matter you are dealing with: a wide open public network. there is no such thing as privacy on that

Re:i really hate to break it to you

[Githaron]

but if you have a thought, and you put it on a wire that leads to a public network, you have just given up your right to privacy

not legally, but logically

Do you not expect your (snail) mail to be private? Can your privacy be potentially compromised? Yes, but most still expect it to be private. If it is compromised, the trespasser, when found, is be held accountable. Any communication channel can be potentially compromised. The problem is that most nations don't hold their government accountable.

Re:i really hate to break it to you

[circletimessquare]

I do not expect my snail mail to be perfectly secure from prying eyes, no.

Legally, it is. In point of actual reality, it is not.

Legally, the House of Commons can pass a resolution saying that the her majesty the Queen is capable of levitation.

Just because something is legal or not does not necessarily have any bearing on the reality of the situation.

Now proceed with the same understanding when you volunteer private information on a public network.

Re:i really hate to break it to you

[circletimessquare]

poor analogy

proper analogy is that i leave my house wearing purple shorts, and for some reason i believe it is no one else's right to notice what shorts i am wearing. even if there is a giant billboard saying "it is the law of land that it is not legal to see what kind of pants people are wearing"

if it goes in public, it is public. it's not a complicated concept

I guess proper punishment is out the window

[cvtan]

So stealing 1 song worth $1 is worth $155000 in damages and making a phone call over Skype is worth 15 years in prison. Maybe I'll sell drugs or kill people instead; this other stuff is just too dangerous!

No, and...

[betterunixthanunix]

Not only is this not the first case, but it is a problem that the Tor developers have been addressing for some time. There are two techniques that are known to be used to block Tor:

1. Blocking all entry nodes; China, for example, does this. Bridge nodes mitigate this problem, but a determined government like the Chinese government can compile a list of all bridge nodes, and block those too.
2. Distinguishing Tor from an HTTPS connection; this is a more technically advanced method that is favored by governments that lack the resources to compile lists of bridges. Since Tor has a unique pattern of TLS connections, it can be identified and blocked by a national firewall; fixing this problem is an ongoing effort (the goal is to make Tor look like Firefox).

National Security

[alexo]

Ethiopia, Schmethiopia...
What do you do when *your* government treads all over *your* rights in the name of "national security"?

Where I live...

[mallydobb]

VOIP and SIP calls are technically illegal. They do block SIP calls, but don't or are unable to block Skype and Google Talk over Gmail. Reasons listed are essentially the same, national security and maintaining the telco status quo (we only have two mobile companies and one national POTS). There has never been any enforcement of this ban, the law seems to have been written but never intended to be fully realized.

Re:Now who will complain about evil carriers in US

[oldmac31310]

hey Mr. Taliban, tally me banana!

better idea

[ThatsNotPudding]

fixing this problem is an ongoing effort (the goal is to make Tor look like Firefox).

Make it look like IE6: anyone seeing that would roll their eyes and think the data belongs to a clueless grandmother.

Ethiopia's been like this for decades

[billstewart]

A friend of mine was doing development work in Ethiopia and Somaliland back in the 90s. He's Dutch, and his wife's Somali, and he often worked from Addis Ababa, the capital. At one point he was having a phone call, and the phone operator came on and told him to stop speaking Dutch - speak English, Italian, Arabic, Amharic, or one of the other local languages the police could understand. We talked about whether he should use PGP, but he decided it would just give the police more of an excuse to "confiscate" his PCs, which they'd been wanting to steal anyway.