Philippine Telco Board Wants Sites to Register!

No, that’s not a joke headline from The Onion. This is, without a doubt, the stupidest thing I’ve heard all year.

The National Telecommunication Commission plans to classify Web sites and other data posted on the Internet as a value added service that needs to registered with the government.

In the preliminary hearing of a draft memorandum circular on value added services, Edgardo Cabarrios, NTC director for common carrier and authorization department, said contents of Web sites such as Yahoo could be classified as a value added service in so far as its delivery is concerned.

“Telecom is delivery of content. When content is delivered it becomes a telecom service,” Cabarrios said.

See, this is why PayPal doesn’t send money to the Philippines. We’re governed by idiots who spend all day trying to figure out how to extort more kickbacks.

(From The Manila Times via Jim Ayson.)