This, plus an extension called Jingle, is what powers Google Talk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_%28protocol%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Messaging_and_Presence_Protocol

Switch to Voipbuster before it is too late!

As it is now becoming more and more clear that Skype’s services will not be available much longer because their software license will expire (license is owned by Joltid, http://www.joltid.com), it is now the time to switch to VoipBuster;

“Skype is worthless without the license” (source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/153113-skype-s-hold-up-problem )

“Skype might have to shut down” (source: http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10013367o-2000498448b,00.htm)

“Skype has breached the licence agreement” (source: http://chiefofficers.net/888333888/cms/index.php/news/comms/comms_is_skype_doomed)

To make sure everyone can still use Voice Over IP at even cheaper rates than Skype, Voipbuster has lowered loads of destinations, and no risks at all
So, inform your friends and family to check out Voipbuster and keep calling at perfect quality and cheap rates worldwide and remember Voipbuster users can call each other for FREE!

http://www.voipbuster.com

Kind regards,

The Voipbuster Team

cheers

lot closed source software eats itself

I don’t know Zennström and can’t comment on his personal traits – but business is business. If ebay agreed to license the tech, then of course they were setting themselves up for a license squeeze in the future. It’s not like they’re inexperienced teenagers. I do agree that anyone with some street smarts could see this transaction structure was “designed to fail” – I’ve negotiated such deals myself, in the past, from both sides of the table. They scream “trouble,” by design.

Yes, Skype’s dead in the water anyway. Open tools do the same thing better, and they evolve faster than a proprietary hack like Skype. At least Zennström was smart enough to see this, and take the money when it was biggest. I still give full credit for a well-executed, honest, smart startup – despite it using crappy closed code.

Here’s the next one to fall: where Skype goes today, Facebook goes tomorrow. Within 12 months, “everyone” is going to suddenly realize that Facebook is nothing but internet-with-training-wheels – and tons of ads plastered on top. At first only the cool kids will jump, to networks that use OPEN tools to forge long-term social connections – but once the cool ones go, everyone else follows like sheep. And you’ll have the smug, self-styled “geniuses” at Facebook frantically trying to convince the world they still matter. Facebook is the AOL of this decade – done.

Fausty | http://www.cryptocloud.net

If eBay indeed wants to take Skype public, why the seemingly negative talk on its unwanted stepchild? For all the resources they put into it, it is strange they do not show more confidence in being able to dispense with the Joltid technology and develop their own before an IPO or going to court in 2010. Perhaps eBay just wants Skype out of the house.

In the meantime new VOIP services are lining up to replace Skype. I have recently found one which extends beyond Skype to allow free global calling from your mobile and frees you from being tied to your headset and PC. It is called Zenring and it provides free international calls for Mobile-2-Mobile, Mobile-2-PC, PC-2-Mobile, and PC-2-PC without the need to buy credits like Skype or Google Talk minutes. Please take a look.

Just where did that money go? And why was no one held responsible for the later $1BILLION write down on Skype’s value a year later?

Seems to me someone rigged a game and walked off with $1B inprofits at EBay shareholder expense.

The current predicament woudl never have happened had there been adequate due diligence on the part of Ebay’s management, acquisition advisors and legal counsel. So why was the due diligence not done?

IMHO that usually happens when the parties have reason other than those stated to do a deal. This story is much bigger than a legal dispute.

This should serve as a cautionary tale to any company who relies on licensing proprietary technology in spite of emergent open standards.