Microsoft buys Skype and patents a way to tap VOIP calls.

Greetings all, it’s the Angry Systems Administrator. I’ve been remiss in my coverage of Microsoft buying Skype last May, but I’ve been rather busy. However, Microsoft filed a patent in 2009 that will allow it to listen in on VOIP calls.

This, needless to say, has many people up in arms. You can count me in that list as well. Everyone at Anger Central lives on Skype. Mrs. Webmaster uses it to call her family in China constantly. If you watch Twit Live you will see the World Famous Skypeasaurus ((Photo of Skypeasurus)) which guests and co-hosts call in on when they aren’t able to go to the Twit Cottage.

I will admit I was a bit concerned with Microsoft buying Skype, but it was more along the lines of how they were going to screw it up. I didn’t think they would be stupid enough to, for all intents and purposes, announce they would be building in back doors so they could spy on people’s calls.

Another group that likes this are the entire alphabet soup of Federal Law Enforcement agencies in the United States as well as assorted spy agencies and secret police services in other countries.

I’m hoping that someone will look at this patent application and figure out a way to make it a moot point. I’m certainly no expert, but I wonder if someone could write a plugin of some sort for Skype that will encrypt the call so that Microsoft and others can’t hook into it. Of course there is the problem that Skype has always been closed source. I really don’t think the slime at Micro$loth will allow anyone to bypass there systems.

There are other open source alternatives, but I don’t know of any that also make it easy to tie into the POT system. ((Plain Old Telephone)) There is Google Voice and we all use that as well. (I’ve had it since it was Grand Central) Of course there is the issue of it belonging to Google. I am aware of other systems out there but haven’t really had a chance to dig into them.

Oh well…

Another great tool used by millions is about to bite the dust as it were.

We’ll all continue using it since there really isn’t anything readily available. We’ll just have to assume that all our calls are being monitored by Steve Ballmer and the FBI from now on.

Thanks for letting me vent a bit and if you have any suggestions on a Skype replacement that works, list them in the comments section.

~The Angry Systems Administrator~