31-12-2010, 06:56 AM
Don't live in China - Everything's illegal!
Using Skype is illegal in China. On Thursday, China announced that they have made it illegal the use Skype, which is a popular internet telephony service. This is part of their campaign in which all internet phone calls are to be banned apart from those made from the two state-owned networks, China Unicom and China Telecom.
You're already screwed if you live in China.
Google closed down their Chinese servers last year after heavy government pressure.
China is now the world's largest market for internet phone calls, which are far cheaper than landline calls and are cutting into the market of China's state telecommunications giants. Skype has offered Chinese users a joint service with Hong Kong-based Tom since September 2007. The service has been widely criticised for monitoring messages on the network.
Experts said the rules would be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce, since Chinese internet users could simply download versions of Skype or other internet phone call programs from websites outside China.
Professor Kan Kaili at Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications.
Using Skype is illegal in China. On Thursday, China announced that they have made it illegal the use Skype, which is a popular internet telephony service. This is part of their campaign in which all internet phone calls are to be banned apart from those made from the two state-owned networks, China Unicom and China Telecom.
You're already screwed if you live in China.
- No Facebook
- No Twitter
- No YouTube
- No Google
- No Skype
Google closed down their Chinese servers last year after heavy government pressure.
China is now the world's largest market for internet phone calls, which are far cheaper than landline calls and are cutting into the market of China's state telecommunications giants. Skype has offered Chinese users a joint service with Hong Kong-based Tom since September 2007. The service has been widely criticised for monitoring messages on the network.
Experts said the rules would be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce, since Chinese internet users could simply download versions of Skype or other internet phone call programs from websites outside China.
Professor Kan Kaili at Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications.
Quote:"It is very unlikely that they will manage to shut Skype down"