victorinchina wrote:

KopyKatKiller wrote:^^Actually foreign companies typically just use the normal phone lines as voip is not all that secure... and they have the cash to pay for it of course. VOIP is for people to poor to pay a phone bill... Manly, Chinese people and cheap skate expats...

Again you're speaking out your arse KY... (wait... you're arse)

I guess we know now you're a cheap skate expat working for a two bit company... I for one, am not surprised...

binky wrote:Well, consider what will happen the next time there is a so-called "mass action or disturbance", and someone in the crowd just happens to have a smartphone with Skype installed. He Skypes his friend, who just happens to have an application for recording Skype video chats (yes, they exist.)

OK, now the government's got a massive problem. No more plausible denyability: the whole world can potentially see exactly what really happened.

I agree with Mr T... You may be right, although I think that less nefarious motivations are behind the move... One doesn't need a smart phone to record and send video after all, any phone with a camera can record and send video with its texting service... Probably it is just a law developed to allow some companies connected to the government to profit, like 99% of the other information control methods employed in the PRC...

KopyKatKiller wrote:

victorinchina wrote:

KopyKatKiller wrote:^^Actually foreign companies typically just use the normal phone lines as voip is not all that secure... and they have the cash to pay for it of course. VOIP is for people to poor to pay a phone bill... Manly, Chinese people and cheap skate expats...

Again you're speaking out your arse KY... (wait... you're arse)

I guess we know now you're a cheap skate expat working for a two bit company... I for one, am not surprised...

Yeah, I wish I was an English teacher / Project Manager / in process of opening my own school guy like you...

Did you get preggers yet?

Mr Totomolo wrote:HUmmm

Binky, you may have a point.
However, if someone is truly willing to record "disturbances" and has enough dough to buy a smartphone with skype enabled transmission, he could as well buy this kind of stuff which is freely available in China (I got this unsolicited offer in the mail few days agao )

And for all who lament skype possible blockade, you still can use:
Gizmo5
oovoo
VoIP buster
ComBots
Sightspeed
YM messenger
MSN Messenger
etc...

Well, time will tell, but I would not be surprised if all such services not owned or controlable by the government eventually get blocked or otherwise neutered. The first time a video gets out which upsets people, the hammer will come down.

As we know, cellphone instant messaging often gets blocked or filtered by the government when required for "social harmony".

tihZ_hO wrote:China does not give a flying fcuk about foreign company's VPN because it didn't stop them from declaring any NON Chinese VoIP illegal such as Skype. Don't you think foreign companies also use VoIP??

Well China certainly did bow to pressure back in 2000

http://www.zdnetasia.com/report-china-reverses-ban-on-foreign-encryption-software-13026506.htm

It is possible that they feel that they can steamroll it this time around.

tengis wrote:

tihZ_hO wrote:China does not give a flying fcuk about foreign company's VPN because it didn't stop them from declaring any NON Chinese VoIP illegal such as Skype. Don't you think foreign companies also use VoIP??

Well China certainly did bow to pressure back in 2000

http://www.zdnetasia.com/report-china-reverses-ban-on-foreign-encryption-software-13026506.htm

It is possible that they feel that they can steamroll it this time around.

Its my understanding that China requires companies using a VPN to provide their encryption keys to the government.

Can anyone confirm if this is true or not?

KopyKatKiller wrote:^^Actually foreign companies typically just use the normal phone lines as voip is not all that secure... and they have the cash to pay for it of course. VOIP is for people to poor to pay a phone bill... Manly, Chinese people and cheap skate expats...

Nonsense. Most large companies use voip in one way or another. Cisco kit is probably the most common - dial all offices by extension number (VOIP) or dialling an international number by VOIP then breakout onto normal phone line in remote office. I'm interested to see the details of the new law.

binky wrote:Its my understanding that China requires companies using a VPN to provide their encryption keys to the government.

Can anyone confirm if this is true or not?

Not true, well, at least not yet

jzzzzzzz wrote:Nonsense. Most large companies use voip in one way or another. Cisco kit is probably the most common - dial all offices by extension number (VOIP) or dialling an international number by VOIP then breakout onto normal phone line in remote office. I'm interested to see the details of the new law.

I think we need to distinguish between private VOIP vs. VOIP as a PSTN. AFAICS it's the latter that is the issue here. In fact, VOIP as a PSTN has never been legal in China. It's just that they haven't bothered cracking down on it to date.

Fortunately I don't use Skype, I always found China's stone age internet connection too slow to provide me with any reasonable quality on Skype. But I still use the IM function on it every so often to keep in touch with friends.

Now what I do use is Rebtel and that is one really awesome service. I remember they had an issue a while ago where the local provider just terminated their service all of a sudden for about a month or two or something like that, but fortunately it came back again. However, if the government ever decided to ban that then I would be very angry. Just to get my revenge I'd probably go back to English teaching, but in Universities this time, then I'd just sleaze on all the female students, sleep with loads of them, write a blog about it then move to Japan and write a book about how much China sucks.

This couldn't have come too soon. I've got a few Indian clients that insist on calling me on skype and skype out. They are retarded. Even though they pay the bills I only hope incoming calls on voip are blocked too. With any luck the govt will ban linux as well. And open office. Anyone who uses these programs is a retard.

crivens200 wrote:This couldn't have come too soon. I've got a few Indian clients that insist on calling me on skype and skype out. They are retarded. Even though they pay the bills I only hope incoming calls on voip are blocked too. With any luck the govt will ban linux as well. And open office. Anyone who uses these programs is a retard.

Not a chance, since they just spent millions of dollars on a brand new supercomputer running Linux:

http://www.top500.org/system/10587

Not a chance, since they just spent millions of dollars on a brand new supercomputer running Linux:

Ha TIC, the Gov't does whatever it wants, screw the people.
Don't do as I do, do what I tell you.