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| France Refers Skype to Prosecutors | France Refers Skype to Prosecutors |
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| PARIS – French regulators said on Tuesday that they had asked prosecutors to investigate Microsoft’s Skype unit over its failure to register as a telecommunications operator in accordance with local law, raising the question of what constitutes a phone company in the age of Internet-based communications. | PARIS – French regulators said on Tuesday that they had asked prosecutors to investigate Microsoft’s Skype unit over its failure to register as a telecommunications operator in accordance with local law, raising the question of what constitutes a phone company in the age of Internet-based communications. |
| The French regulator, known as Arcep, said in a statement that it had “on several occasions" asked Skype Communications, based in Luxembourg, “to declare itself an electronic communications operator,” and that the company had not acted. | The French regulator, known as Arcep, said in a statement that it had “on several occasions" asked Skype Communications, based in Luxembourg, “to declare itself an electronic communications operator,” and that the company had not acted. |
| A company acting as a telecommunications operator incurs certain obligations, the agency said, notably that “of routing emergency calls and putting in place a means for allowing legal wiretapping.” | A company acting as a telecommunications operator incurs certain obligations, the agency said, notably that “of routing emergency calls and putting in place a means for allowing legal wiretapping.” |
| Skype and other Internet phone services use a system called voice-over-Internet protocol to enable conversations and video meetings over the Net. The service, which Microsoft acquired from eBay in 2011 for $8.5 billion, claims hundreds of millions of users worldwide. | Skype and other Internet phone services use a system called voice-over-Internet protocol to enable conversations and video meetings over the Net. The service, which Microsoft acquired from eBay in 2011 for $8.5 billion, claims hundreds of millions of users worldwide. |
| The French action comes at a tricky time for Microsoft, which has come under pressure recently from digital rights groups over how data about users collected from Skype is shared with advertisers and law enforcement agencies. | The French action comes at a tricky time for Microsoft, which has come under pressure recently from digital rights groups over how data about users collected from Skype is shared with advertisers and law enforcement agencies. |
| Arcep noted that users could make Skype calls from a computer or smartphone. “In effect," the regulator said, “this service constitutes furnishing a telephone service to the public.” | |
| French law does not require that a telecommunications operator obtain administrative authorization, Arcep said, but “only a prior declaration.” Failure to follow the law is a criminal offense, however, and Arcep said it was turning the matter over to Paris prosecutors. | French law does not require that a telecommunications operator obtain administrative authorization, Arcep said, but “only a prior declaration.” Failure to follow the law is a criminal offense, however, and Arcep said it was turning the matter over to Paris prosecutors. |
| A Microsoft spokesman in Brussels did not immediately have a comment. | |
| The regulator’s announcement appeared to be the latest effort by French authorities to rein in the companies that have revolutionized global communications. On Jan. 20, a study commissioned by President François Hollande’s government proposed instituting an Internet tax on the collection of personal data. And a French court that month ordered Twitter to identify people behind racist tweets. | |
| But current European Union law does not consider Skype and similar “over the top” Internet-based services to be telecommunications companies. | |
| The office of Neelie Kroes, the the European Union’s commissioner for the digital agenda, did not immediately respond for a request for comment. | |
| Stéphane Richard, the chief executive of France Télécom, the former state monopoly, has been critical of what he describes as an unfair advantage enjoyed by Skype and similar companies over the established companies that are required to transport rivals’ data without sharing in the revenue. |