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Skype Protocol Reportedly Cracked

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

July 14, 2006, 2:30 PM

A Chinese software company has reportedly reverse engineered the protocol and encryption used by Skype to make calls over the Internet, although details are still sparse. If legitimate, the news could mean that third party Skype clients are on the way.

The news came from VoIP blogger Charlie Paglee, who posted on his first-hand experience of receiving a call from a friend in China. That individual then sent Paglee a screenshot of the non-Skype client he used to place the call, which he said was currently in development. A demo of the software is expected to be made available in late August.

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By bRx

edited Jul 17, 2006 - 5:06 AM

And now we can expect a firewalls blocking more effectively skype protocol...

Score: 0

By Portal3

posted Jul 16, 2006 - 8:20 PM

Looks like the Skype Protocol is going to have to keep changing to make third party clients inoperable. ;-P

Score: 0

By treworld

posted Jul 16, 2006 - 12:05 AM

Them Chinese people have done it again. Soon, it'll be OSX.

Score: 0

By alphatrigon

posted Jul 17, 2006 - 9:01 AM

that would be a total waste of time...only simpletons use macs. hertz donut

Score: 0

By Theoldwino

posted Jul 15, 2006 - 5:33 PM

Well...........The cat is out of the bag for sure.
I am looking forward to see where it all will go from here.

Score: 0

By utomo

posted Jul 15, 2006 - 12:54 AM

I wish we will see the opensource of the skype clone.
and lets improve, or also integrate it to GAIM.

Score: 0

By Grinning Evil D

posted Jul 14, 2006 - 10:15 PM

As for legality, if it is reverse engineered and not stolen, then it is legal. Compaq (remember that company kiddies?) locked a bunch of engineers in a room and reverse engineered IBM's PC back in the day to make the first PC clone.

Question I want to ask is if this hadn't been done, wouldn't it have just been a matter of time before the EU fines Skype millions of dollars?

Score: 0

By yokozuna

edited Jul 15, 2006 - 3:10 AM

I am not sure the answer but I do not think so. Skype has not monopolysed the VoIP market (yet???), so there is no reason for any legal action at the moment. The share of Skype does not exceed 30% of all VoIP connections in Europe, except of Poland where it is almost 70% (partly due to Onet Skype, which uses it as their IM. Onet is the biggest Polish portal). There are some other competitors in Europe (Skype is an interesting because it is truly multinational: registered in Luxembourg, all SkypeOut connections are made using Swedish Telia, the development office is in Estonia, the main office of the company is in London). My favourite is German Jajah: http://www.jajah.com because I do not need anything. An ordinary phone (not connected to the computer) is enough, because Jajah calls you back.

Score: 0

By Neoprimal

posted Jul 14, 2006 - 7:09 PM

So explain to me why you'd want to use a pirated version of a program that's free?
Cuz' I guess I'm not seeing the big picture.....

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Jul 14, 2006 - 9:24 PM

Because skype contains spyware. Not the nasty stuff granted, but its there and its earning its masters and income.

I dont use it on my main PC for this reason, third party apps could include there own, or could be clean.

Score: 0

By wincement

edited Jul 14, 2006 - 7:22 PM

I don't know about anyone else, but the one *big* plus that comes to my mind is the ability to add interoperability to multi-protocol clients (Gaim, Trillian, Miranda, etc.).

Score: 0

By ZenWarrior

posted Jul 14, 2006 - 6:36 PM

Hooray!

Score: 0

By Black-Wolf

posted Jul 14, 2006 - 4:08 PM

It's China.... so the pirated stuff there aren't chasable... just like russia

Score: 0

By wincement

edited Jul 14, 2006 - 2:39 PM

Umm... wouldn't that violate some sort of legal something on Skype's side?

Copyrights, patents possibly, EULAs?

I'm assuming since Skype didn't make the protocol open-source, they want to protect it. I could be completely wrong, though. In that case, someone please correct me.

Ok, that out of the way: SWEEEEEET!

If it turns out legit, I can't wait to see GAIM add support for Skype. THAT would rock.

Score: 0

By JacenSolo

posted Jul 16, 2006 - 5:07 AM

According to Gaim's website, many protocols (Y! included) were reversed engineed, but I haven't seen them sued yet.

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Jul 14, 2006 - 9:25 PM

Of course its not legal, they reversed engineered there code. Doh

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Jul 14, 2006 - 2:51 PM

According to the Original article on /., the protocol was never patented so its prone to stuff like this.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

edited Jul 14, 2006 - 3:24 PM

The Internet doesn't care about laws, copyright, treaties, or trade secrets.

Score: 0

By morriscox

edited Jul 16, 2006 - 1:02 PM

Governments don't seem to grasp this. The US government tries to pass laws for the Internet that don't really apply in other countries.

Score: 0

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