Legal and regulatory issues surrounding VoIP had to muddy the water at some point. The prospect of getting something for free that many people still pay for was bound to raise a few eyebrows. When it comes to the law and VoIP, it’s no surprise that many governments around the world are looking into ways to regulate how VoIP is handled.

Taking VoIP legal action

The Voice on the Net or VON Coalition (http://www.von.org) advocates that the IP telephony industry should remain as free of governmental regulations as possible. They support education of its members on regulatory and policy issues, as well as educating the media and those who are regulators and legislators about VoIP technologies, products, and benefits.

Just a few of the VON Coalitions’ well-known members include:

• AT&T
• Earthlink
• Intel
• MCI
• Microsoft
• Skype
• T-Mobile USA
• Texas Instruments

The collision of the law and VoIP doesn't stop at just the financial aspects that regulation would bring into play -- there are also some serious criminal ones.

Homeland security: VOIP, SIP, and the law

Wiretapping has made headlines recently, but with VoIP there’s more to deal with than the issue of whether or not a warrant was obtained. The best way to explain the issue is to discuss what happens in a VOIP SIP call.

The call is initiated using the invite method. The calling SIP UA (sender) sends an "invite" code to the SIP proxy server. Normally the server would come back with a response redirecting the calling UA to the IP address of the "destua" UA (receiver). For law officials to intercept the call, the calling UA is redirected not to "destua" but to a "man-in-the-middle" system, which, in turn, establishes the call to the original "destua" and impersonates the calling UA so the two never know about the tap.

Now this scenario assumes that the call is not encrypted. If the call is encrypted, it may be possible to impersonate the caller. In other words, the VoIP legal issues come into play because lawmen might not get the "right man."

How 911 could spell trouble

Conventional landline phones and cellular phones are required to have 911 capabilities. VoIP programs are not, a fact which concerns many lawmakers, and perhaps rightfully so. If someone with broadband phone service has an emergency, it would be imperative that the service they have offered 911 calling. Some programs, however, do not. The lack of 911 capabilities in some VoIP programs represents both a legal and health and safety issue.

Legalities and VoIP

As with any cutting-edge technology in today’s world, legislators and regulators often race to catch up. When they do, we can expect lengthy court battles and software revisions (à la Napster). It really is only a matter of time before government gets its hands in the VoIP business, for better or for worse. At least there are organizations like VON Coalition that are trying to help legislators make educated decisions.

See also:

• VoIP Adoption
• Advantages of VoIP
• Disadvantages of VoIP
• Standards

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