Prof. Susan Crawford blasts the FCC's E911 for VoIP ruling (AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, and E911).

No user of an IM client expects to be able to reach 911. There, I've said it. I don't, you don't -- we just don't. Even if we're calling familiar phone numbers. These online offerings are just not substitutes for phone service. They're much better. And they shouldn't be saddled with impossible, fantastical emergency response requirements in the absence of a clear Congressional statement. We should be very worried about a Congress that would be willing to make such a statement.

Frankly, I was somewhat relieved that the FCC is not imposing technologically impossible E911 obligations on peer-to-peer communications applications that no one could reasonable consider POTS-replacement services. I, however am concerned over the FCC's tentative conclusion in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking attached to the VoIP E911 Order that might serve to extend traditional E911 obligations to applications that are primarily peer-to-peer, but might offer some limited access to and from the public switched telephone network. Devices and applications that a consumer should not expect to behave like a traditional phone service should not be stifled simply because they behave differently than traditional phone service.