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.<p>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.