EU telecoms reform to address competition from WhatsApp, Skype - by Julia Fioretti

The European Commission will take into account increased competition from cable operators and alternative services such as WhatsApp (FB.O) when it overhauls Europe's telecoms rules next year, a move that will be cheered by the telecoms industry.

A draft seen by Reuters of the Commission's strategy for creating a digital single market says telecom operators compete with "over-the-top" services "without being subject to the same regulatory regime".
"It is necessary to design a fair and future-proof regulatory environment for all services," the document says.

The bloc's telecom firms such as Orange (ORAN.PA) and Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) have long called for lighter-touch regulation, after years of declining revenues and competition from new entrants, to enable them to invest in network upgrades.

Telecom companies point to increased competition from services such as Skype (owned by Microsoft (MSFT.O)) and online messaging as a reason for easing the regulatory burden.

Considering Skype, or any other "voice-over-IP" application, as a substitute for traditional phone services could lead to those companies being subject to the same obligations as traditional operators, such as offering emergency calls.

The new European executive, which took office in November, has made investment in superfast broadband a priority. But incumbent telecom operators say the current set of rules does not provide incentives to invest in their networks. The Commission will unveil its proposals for an overhaul of the telecoms framework in 2016, the document states. Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip is expected to unveil his digital single market strategy on May 6.


Read more: EU telecoms reform to address competition from WhatsApp, Skype | Reuters

EU wants to snoop on Skype to combat terrorist threat

The EU agency for judicial cooperation says the bloc needs to develop a common approach to lawfully intercept services like Skype and Viber, to help keep track of European militants arriving back home from the Middle East.

The measures were outlined in a Eurojust report, which was discussed by a committee of the European Parliament on Thursday, said Reuters after they saw the report.
 
Following deadly terror attacks in Paris last month, EU nations are worried about the danger of radicalized and trained Islamists returning from the Middle East. Militants have often used social networks to spread ideas, jihadist propaganda and recruit new members.

"The use of the internet for terrorist purposes creates an additional burden for investigations and prosecutions of foreign fighters," the Eurojust report said.

The report touched on the fact that "the interception of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications (e.g. Skype, Viber, etc.) is problematic and seriously hinders relevant investigations." It believes that "a harmonized approach at EU level may be necessary to address technical difficulties and legal challenges in the gathering and admissibility of e-evidence.”
 
Eurojust highlights the problem in securing convictions in suspected terrorist cases by pointing out that evidence tracked online may not be accepted in some courts due to national laws. The report urges cooperation between judicial authorities within the bloc.

Read more: EU wants to snoop on Skype to combat terrorist threat – report — RT News

Internet: Skype still calling the shots – but competitors are gaining

On August 29, 2003, a small Estonian start-up called Skype was born. Ten years later, the internet phone service has become one of the most downloaded software programs ever released.

Fans laud it as the only truly successful European tech start-up of the last decade.

The company, founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, has thrived because it brings the world closer together in an age when globalisation and intercontinental travel is pulling more families apart than at perhaps any other time in history.

In a blog post released last week to commemorate its 10th birthday, Skype said that a cumulative 1.4 trillion minutes of voice and video calls had been made using its service.

The company also highlighted some of the most incredible moments captured by people using Skype, including the story of a soldier witnessing the birth of his child from Iraq and a call from the top of Mount Everest. Famous Skype users include Britain's royal family, Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga.

Owner Microsoft claims that one-third of all international telephone calls now go through Skype. And in the surest sign of success, its brand name has become a verb – a rare distinction shared by the likes of Xerox and Google.

But though the service is incredibly popular, there are plenty of others snapping at its heels. Skype's most prominent competitor is Apple's FaceTime, available on iPhone and iPads.

Viber, an app popular with smartphone users, is also a direct competitor, as is messaging service WhatsApp. But Skype is still by far the market leader when it comes to calls rather than messaging. Its speed, simplicity and flexibility on multiple platforms have managed to keep users coming back.

It was sold to eBay in 2005 for about $2.5bn, and then to a group of venture capital firms in 2009.

In 2011, Microsoft bought the company for an impressive $8.5bn. Since then it has been busy integrating the service into several of its products, including Outlook.com.

So what's next? Technology companies live and die by their ability to innovate, and Skype is no different.

The company is currently developing a way to make and receive 3D video calls.

In an interview with the BBC, Skype's corporate vice-president Mark Gillett said the process was possible but difficult to replicate outside of a lab.

Read more: Skype still calling the shots – but competitors are gaining - Independent.ie

Germany: Merkel Urges Europe to Tighten Safeguards and Rules on US Internet Companies - by James Kanter

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is calling for the European Union to adopt legislation requiring Internet companies to disclose what information about users they store and to whom they provide it.

Ms. Merkel’s remarks, in a television interview on Sunday night, reflected the anger throughout much of Europe, including Germany, over recent accounts of government surveillance by the United States National Security Agency. Those accounts, in government documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, a former N.S.A. contractor, included the agency’s compilation of logs of virtually all telephone calls in the United States and its collection of e-mails of foreigners from the major American Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and Skype.

Those companies have already begun aggressive lobbying campaigns to stop or dilute tighter privacy rules, which they say would interfere with their business models and decrease profits and growth. The companies’ efforts are, in turn, supported by countries like England and Ireland that fear that such restrictions would hamper economic recovery. 

Unlike many citizens in the United States, whose desire to prevent the kind of widespread terrorist attacks like those of Sept. 11, 2001, often trumps their concerns about privacy rights and government surveillance, Germans have experienced the corruption of those rights under the Nazis and later the Communist government of East Germany, making them far more sensitive to the issue. Until now, though, Germany has been slow to back an aggressive privacy initiative across Europe partly because the country’s laws are among the tightest in the bloc. 

Ms. Merkel said she now believed that only a broader pact could be effective. “That has to be part of such a data privacy agreement because we have great regulation for Germany, but if Facebook is registered in Ireland, then it falls under Irish jurisdiction,” she said. “Consequently we need a common European agreement.” 

Note EU-Digest: the EU Parliament and the EU Commission hopefully will act immediately on these suggestions by Mrs. Merkel. The situation in relation to privacy rights of EU Citizens and the flagrant abuses by  foreign internet companies of these rights is completely getting out of hand.  

Read more: Merkel Urges Europe to Tighten Internet Safeguards - NYTimes.com

"Microshaft": Snowden docs detail collaboration between NSA and Microsoft - by Alex Halperin

Microsoft collaborated more closely with U.S. intelligence than had previously been known, The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald and team reported today based information provided to them by Edward Snowden. According to the piece, the software giant allowed “users’ communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company’s own encryption.”
The revelations include that:

• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;
• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;
• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;
• Microsoft also worked with the FBI’s Data Intercept Unit to “understand” potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;
• Skype, which was bought by Microsoft in October 2011, worked with intelligence agencies last year to allow Prism to collect video of conversations as well as audio;

Microsoft responded with a statement: “When we upgrade or update products we aren’t absolved from the need to comply with existing or future lawful demands.”

Read more: Snowden docs detail collaboration between NSA and Microsoft - Salon.com

Privacy Laws: Britain too spying through U.S. ‘Prism’

Like the U.S., Britain too has reportedly been secretly gathering personal data of millions of its citizens even as the government has been forced to drop a bill that would have allowed it to access people’s mobile phone records and Internet communications, ostensibly to fight terror.

The Guardian on Friday claimed that Britain’s electronic eavesdropping and security agency, GCHQ, was using a “covertly run operation” set up by the U.S. National Security Administration to collect details of personal communications from some of the biggest Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Skype. 

It said it had documents showing GCHQ had access to the NSA’s covert PRISM programme since at least June 2010, and generated 197 intelligence reports from it last year. The programme was established in 2007 to provide “in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information about foreigners overseas” following changes to the U.S. surveillance law introduced by the Bush administration and renewed by President Barack Obama.

Read more: Britain too spying through U.S. ‘Prism’ | The Hindu

Computerworld: Skype European founders file US suit against eBay

For the complete report from Computerworld click on this link

Skype European founders file US suit against eBay

With a similar legal battle playing out in the U.K., a company owned by Skype's founders has filed suit against Skype in the U.S. Joltid, the company owned by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, filed a copyright infringement suit in California against Skype, eBay, Silver Lake Partners and others. The dispute concerns an agreement that eBay made when it bought Skype in 2005. The acquisition did not include Skype's peer-to-peer networking technology, which is owned by Joltid and was licensed to Skype. Earlier this year Joltid terminated the license agreement. Joltid and Skype have since argued over the validity of the termination in courts in England. Further arguments are scheduled there in the middle of next year.

EUobserver: Eurojust supports wire-tapping of Skype conversations - by Valentina Pop

For the complete report from EUobserver click on this link

Eurojust supports wire-tapping of Skype conversations - by Valentina Pop

EU's judicial cooperation agency Eurojust will take the lead in finding ways to help police and prosecutors across Europe to wiretap computer-to-computer phone conversations enabled by programs such as Skype. "We will sit together with all member states to see how this can be done technically and legally," Joannes Thuy, Eurojust spokesman told this website. Mr Thuy stressed that the wiretapping would not affect "normal users", but would have to be carried out only as part of a criminal investigation. Eurojust's talks with prosecutors and police officials from member states, as well as legal experts would be led by Italian prosecutor Carmen Manfreda. "There are 30 different legal systems all across the EU, so we expect the talks to take several months before first results are presented," Mr Thuy added. Skype, an Danish-Swedish business developed by Estonian programmers that was sold to E-Bay in 2005 and has over 350 million customers worldwide, is said to be un-spyable by intelligence services.

In its press release, Eurojust says that "Skype has so far refused to share its encryption system with national authorities." However, Skype claims that it has "extensively debriefed Eurojust on our law enforcement program and capabilities."

"Skype says it cooperates with law enforcement where legally and technically possible. Note EU-Digest: Based on EU privacy laws this seems very controversial and should not be approved.

GIZMONDO: IPhone Apps: Skype For iPhone Now Available in the US, Has VoIP over 3G With 3.0 Firmware - by Jason Chen

Skype-Iphone

For the complete report from Gizmondo click on this link

IPhone Apps: Skype For iPhone Now Available in the US, Has VoIP over 3G With 3.0 Firmware - by Jason Chen

Apple's just about finished rolling out Skype for iPhone, and now US residents can go download the VoIP app for themselves. Our quick test showed that voice quality is quite good—definitely on par or better than actual 3G calling over AT&T's network—and connects rather quickly. It's unfortunate that 2.2.1 doesn't have background notifications, so there's no way somebody could Skype you unless you had the app open all the time.In an iPhone to iPhone Wi-Fi call test, Phone A heard Phone B perfectly clear, but the person on Phone A sounded like a robot with enunciation problems from Phone B's side. iPhone to Laptop worked perfectly fine, however.