On Wed, 25 Aug 2004, at 8:08pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > From a big brother perspective I'd be unhappy about the enhanced privacy > ...
The VoIP providers have already been told by The Powers That Be that they must make their services "available for monitoring" for legal reasons. Ironic that the cipherpunk dream of "ubiquitous private communications" appears more likely to arrive not via high-tech computer interfaces, but as an enhancement to the old-fashioned telephone. > In either case, I'd do my level best to prevent or at least cripple the > widespread availability of PBX- and VoIP-enabled gear to the Great > Unwashed... There's not really much The Powers That Be can do about it. While they might legislate that anything connected to the PSTN is this-or-that, enforcement is practically impossible, and they have no control over pure-Internet services. More interesting will be how this effects the private sector and end-subscribers. What happens when Big Companies get involved in this? For example, who do you want to control your voice comm links: Microsoft, AOL, or Yahoo? Will their different offerings interoperate, and if so, how well? How will this effect network operators who like to claim "common carrier" status but don't provide common access to the government? -- Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do | | not represent the views or policy of any other person or organization. | | All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
