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more on Senate Tangles Over VOIP Rules
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 08:09:25 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Brad Templeton <btm () templetons com> Date: June 18, 2004 1:47:45 AM EDT To: David Farber <dave () farber net> Cc: dewayne () warpspeed com Subject: Re: [IP] Senate Tangles Over VOIP Rules I was surprised to see Skype noted in this story, and then see all the quotes that seem unaware of what it is and what it does. Skype works largely Peer to Peer, and it encrypts the voice traffic end to end. It does not all the time, not just when you ask for it. As it should be, most users are not even aware of the encryption. (I have long maintained that zero user interface is the right user interface for encryption.) What this means, however, is that they are trying to close the barn door after the genie has gotten out of the bag. Anybody actively afraid of snooping will quickly learn to use Skype or a tool like it. There is no party on which a warrant or other tap order can be served. (Skype's directory lookup protocol is not publicly revealed, they claim it also has P2P functions. However, it is possible that a tap order might be able to get the who-called-who records though not the audio portion of the call without tapping the end user's PC.) On a Skype to PSTN call (which Skype says they will shortly offer), the PSTN portion can be tapped, however if this is done as I expect it will be done, that will only provide a tap if there is one on the PSTN recipient of the call, not the Skype user. Skype, not a U.S. company, could possibly modify their system to allow taps of outgoing calls, but I doubt it. So all the fancy wiretapping they are ordering will only catch the stupid cooks, the ones who don't get the word to use Skype or similar. There may be a few of those, but there will be fewer. The race is lost. We should not cripple our phone technologies attempting to catch those last few stupid crooks. Accept that this avenue is closing, and start hunting elsewhere. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- more on Senate Tangles Over VOIP Rules David Farber (Jun 18)