This is interesting to me as someone who frequents said region, but not the UAE. The problem with laws in said region is that now thorough translations from the Arabic into English do not often exist (I know of no collection digital or on paper). Secondly, at least in the case of Qatar (also ruled by an emir, not an emirate by name, and not a state in the United Arab Emirates) is ruled largely by decree. So, laws change frequently based on decrees and the controlling language is spoken by the minority of the population (the local population is a minority percentage). So often, people are held accountable to a body of laws they do not understand, linguistically or culturally. So, I am interested to see how this plays out.
AFAIK, Skype is not yet banned here. However, VOIP was also difficult for years because of similar regulations. I am not sure if they were relaxed or the government decided against enforcing it, but it was definitely at the advantage of the recently privatized telco (Qtel, now Oredoo). I am not sure they were worried about dissidents, because their control of said telco, not very different from the US, they can easily get the information they are looking for if dissidents and government opposition is a concern.
I work for a telecom regulatory authority of a nearby country. We have the basically the same laws. Let me clarify some misconceptions:
- This law applies to companies that provides VOIP services. They're usually not enforced if the VOIP services you provide are not side stepping the main telecom company's systems. i.e No, connected straight to broadvoice. You may use VOIP for an internet PBX system.
- This is because the majority of the telecom company's profits are from international calls. In a country where >50% of the population is not nationals, that is a gigantic source of revenue. The single biggest source of profit for the telecom companies. The telecom authority wants to protect the major company because the market is not yet stable. Half of these telecom companies would shut down if they weren't backed by the government.
- The Lawful Interception law is nonsense (legally). It may very well be the case but I have no idea about it and neither does anyone else in the regulatory authority (we do hear a lot of rumors about it, though). Maybe the higher ups know what the deal is but for us, this is a non-issue.
UAE wealth and influence comes from oil, there is no fudging around that fact. And they do live in the 12th century in some respects, they're just doing it within the comfort of their 21st century homes, with their 21st century cars, weapons, and infrastructure. The UAE is a dictatorship with strong extremist religious convictions and a medieval social values system that can only be described as appalling.
These things don't go away simply because they're our "allies" or because criticizing extremist religious practices is frowned upon in the West.
You are probably mixing up UAE and Dubai. The UAE consists of 7 emirates, including the capital Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The GDP of Dubai is dependent on services, trade and a bit of industry, and they have little oil. Abu Dhabi is oil-rich. A big chunk of its GDP, and the net GDP of the UAE in general, is oil.
a) this comment is annoyingly simple minded and pretty plainly racist. ("Those people"? Really?)
b) with all the talk of un-warranted wiretaps, and the state of surveillance building up in the US/Europe, it's probably a bad time to throw stones
c) it's worth spending some time to investigate how "those" countries have had democracy deliberately crippled for decades by western powers needing puppet dictators to guarantee their flow of oil (try a YouTube search for "secrets of the seven sisters")
AFAIK, Skype is not yet banned here. However, VOIP was also difficult for years because of similar regulations. I am not sure if they were relaxed or the government decided against enforcing it, but it was definitely at the advantage of the recently privatized telco (Qtel, now Oredoo). I am not sure they were worried about dissidents, because their control of said telco, not very different from the US, they can easily get the information they are looking for if dissidents and government opposition is a concern.