Spock, Kirk, E911 for VoIP and All that Jazz

November 14, 2007
TMCNet is reporting that the House passed legislation requiring Internet telephone companies to provide customers with emergency 911 calling services. According to the article, the 911 Modernization and Public Safety Act, aims to bring Internet telephony companies in compliance with new Federal Communications Commission rules, will now allow VoIP providers, such as Skype, the ability to obtain direct access to the backbone of the E911 system.

Hmmm, E911 on Skype? That'll be interesting to see how that works. Most Skype users move from location to location since they have the ability to sign-in from any PC or they bring their laptop on the road. I forget who, but some VoIP provider, I think AT&T was forcing users to specify their address location any time the IP address changed. I think they tried to patent it too. Could be wrong about it being AT&T. Anyone?

So Skype getting access to E911 is good news, but hope that doesn't mean I'm forced to provide my address location anytime I sign-in to Skype. I hereby state here and now that I will not sue Skype or any other PC-based VoIP provider if I am in an emergency situation and cannot have my location automatically transferred to the appropriate emergency personnel. This is getting ridiculous. If I am in some sort of emergency and am about to die and all I have is Skype to reach emergency services and I am unable to give out my location, please just let me die. Seriously. I'm sick and tired of the government passing regulation after regulation intruding on my freedom. In many instances I'd truly rather die than have my personal liberty stripped away.

Yeah, yeah, I know they say it's for the "common good" and all, but Karl Mark, communists, and socialists have used that same excuse which has resulted in the millions of deaths around the world.  Since when in America does the "common good" or the "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.. or the one." Yes, Trekkies, you'll recognize this as the quote from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. In the case of Spock it did help save the Enterprise from destruction, but in most cases individual liberty and freedom should be the first consideration and not the last.



But lest you forget, in Star Trek 3 : The Search for Spock, the entire premise lies with Kirk's value for the "one", namely Spock. Kirk and his crew risk their careers and go against the Federation hijacking a star ship in order to rescue his friend. At the end, when Spock asks why Kirk went to such lengths Kirk smiles and reverses Spock's earlier statement:

"The good of the one outweighed the good of the many."

Spock, the "king of logic" nods in agreement after seeing the logic in Kirk's seemingly illogical statement.

Ok, if you read this far, I'm kidding about the whole me being against the E911 mandate. Was just an excuse to get the famous Spock and Kirk quote & video on my blog.

Still not sure if I agree with the possibility of mandating softphones like Skype forcing you to enter address information. This isn't part of the current legislation, but I wouldn't put it past this 19% approval rating Congress to pull something like that. If that does happen, you can bet your britches I will bitch & whine about it.


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