GNU SIP Witch 0.6.0 released

[David Sugar]

GNU SIP Witch is a telephony server that focuses on enabling secure peer to
peer media connections.  GNU SIP Witch avoids centralized decryption and
minimizes overhead by eliminating the need for media processing.  This also
enables Video capable endpoints to communicate without requiring server
support and eliminates the need for using patent restricted media codecs.
Releases of GNU SIP Witch can be found at http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sipwitch/.

Version 0.6.0 - January 2010

This release focuses on development of GNU SIP Witch as both a new kind of
desktop VoIP integration service and as part of our goal to replace Skype,
both at the client and as an Internet service, with entirely free software.
This release includes integration of standard user accounts as sip users to
enable one to more easily setup and deploy sipwitch in desktop roles by
requiring minimal configuration effort.  Account integration also benefits
more traditional sipwitch server deployment use cases as well.

When speaking of replacing Skype, we do so by offering integration with
standard clients using existing published and standardized protocols.  We also
do so by replacing the need for a backend centralized service provider by
creating a bottom-up participatory network of user deployed sipwitch servers
tied together by DNS alone.  It is in interconnecting this network that
sipwitch is used, as well as empowering users to find new ways to experiment
with VoIP much like gstreamer does for desktop media.

We are also looking for help with further testing of secure distributed key
VoIP solutions built around sipwitch, the GNU ZRTP stack, and secure free
software user agents such as Twinkle and SIP Communicator.  If you wish to
contribute to the further development of this GNU package, feel free to
introduce yourself on the developers mailing list, address@hidden