Belarusian Law Penalizes Use of Skype :: Charter'97 :: News

A new investigation of illegal use of an Internet-service Skype has started in Belarus. The matter concerns damage of 100,000 USD to the state communications company Beltelekom. This is the sum the Belarusian law-enforcing agencies measure the losses cause by establishing a gate unit between the IP-network and telephone network, webplanet.ru reports. A worker of the Open Society Institute is presented accusation, but his name is not disclosed. The official arrest’s reason is “organizing an illegal communications channel”.

It is not the first case when personal and business application of IP-telephony by citizens is punished. At the moment all calls via the network of fixed line provider in the country should be carried out via a state operator. Use of other international networks is a violation of the Criminal Code, Article “Infliction of damage without theft” or “Business activities without state registration or without special permission,” webplanet.ru informs.