Belarus busts American for providing VoIP, being an entrepreneur without permission

Cory Doctorow 1:11 pm Tue Oct 19, 2004

Authorities in Belarus — the land of my forefathers — have arrested a man for using and providing voice-over-IP services. Check out the way they characterized his activity, "damage to the country's communications providers," whew!

US citizen Ilya Mafter has been detained in Belarus because he was believed to have caused about 100,000 US dollars in damage to the country's communications providers, the Interfax news agency cited sources in the State Security Committee as reporting on Tuesday.

"A preliminary report suggests that damage of about 100,000 US dollars was caused to Belarussian communications providers, including the Beltelecom company, as a result of illegal communications services using IP telephony that were organized by Mafter," the source said.

The US citizen, who was detained on Oct. 16, is also suspected of "working as an entrepreneur without registration or permission," said the source.

Link

(Thanks, David!)

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