Going to Ethiopia? If you use Skype, you could be there 15 years

[tawadi]

Going to Ethiopia? If you use Skype, you could be there 15 years

By Salvador Rodriguez

June 16, 2012, 9:00 a.m.

If you're heading to Ethiopia sometime soon, I'd like to offer you one small but crucial bit of advice: Don't get on Skype.

The Ethiopian government last month passed a law making it a crime for people to utilize audio or video communication using Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) services, which include Google Voice, Skype and essentially any other video chat service available.

So what's the punishment? Well, the maximum penalty for breaking the law is 15 years in prison. That's right -- a decade and a half.

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-skype-ethiopia-15-years-jail-20120615,0,6747631.story

[lookingfortruth]

1. Why? That makes no sense?

[tawadi]

3. The article says

It shows 'the distrust that the Ethiopian state has always had towards technological advancement.'

[lookingfortruth]

5. I know what it says it just amazes me this way of thinking.

[trumad]

2. Can you imagine an Ethiopian prison?

[tawadi]

4. No

Nor do I want to.