The Blog known as Skype-watch.com, Skype-gadgets.com.: Chinese skype clone or Clown ? The real proof in the form of an executable has yet to float to the public surface.

16 July 2006

Chinese skype clone or Clown ? The real proof in the form of an executable has yet to float to the public surface.

What a media hyped up circus… Even on saturday and sunday people are still rumbling and mubling about the Skype Protocol Reverse Engineered By Chinese Firm. Kind of normal. I find that this sounds like hey they cracked a company it’s secrets and I was just going to buy a phone from them. Is still the rigth thing to do ? Whatever Free International Calls with Skype Days you announce, well having your system cracked won’t help you a bit marketingwise. On the other hand, well maybe all this new around something big being reverse engineered is just good to create marketing-hype around the launch of a new product? Or should be we say a new type of product/software.

With all this in the background or foreground (depends entirely from your perspective I guess) MSN and Yahoo are joining forces. Don’t forget that Microsoft’s Windows Live messenger has more than 240 million active registered users, while Yahoo Messenger has about 110 million accounts. With those two teaming up, where will that leave Skype ?

The «funny thing» is that so far « Skype dismissed the claim, insisting this development would have no effect on Skype's cryptographic security or integrity. However, the engineers who claim to have cracked the code say that they can also block Skype voice traffic. This would be a welcome feature in China, which has already ruled Skype software illegal» (source). «Skype Ltd. is dismissing a claim by a small team of Chinese engineers who say they have reverse engineered the protocol used for Skype Internet phone calls» source.

More on blocking Skype in China. I guess they are talking about www.coobol.com (yet another public secret) being the «the 10-person Chinese company, which has received venture capital funding, is planning to release in two weeks three software components based on the Skype protocol that would allow developers to create compatible applications… By cracking the Skype protocol, the company claims it can also block Skype voice traffic… company could transfer the technology to the Chinese government, which has continually sought ways to tighten its filtering and control over the Internet » source. It’s kind of obvious. They were already capable to map the p2p skype cloud and there is a whole group of smart people around them. Suddenly today they are under re-construction. A coincidence or just carefully planned, or maybe their site had to be taken offline? Who knows. This is a story that will certainly have many long tails. What do you expect when you skins off Skype and use its bones for new VoIP client…

Beside that of course it is interesting to have the ownership of a major p2p/voip (replacement0 skype-client in the Chinese online market, which could be bigger than the US market by 2010. Instant messenging and VoIP are definitely on the move, so expect to see more attempts to hack/crack into the p2p cloud.

For example : imagine that you could link a PBX / PABX system with a propietary replacement client to the Skype p2p cloud without ever having anything to do with the Skype/Ebay construction itself. Now I call that matter Dynamite. Or shall we call it Skypamite. I did some simple test on that matter and it seems to work. I was of course still use the official Skype client. .

I think that in the end it all boils down the question wether Skype can Cash In On Free?.

Business-wise I still remember the statement of Niklas Zennstrom "We will be making a special offering towards business users sometime next year in order to better serve their specific needs". Okay there has been immense progress. Remember, about 2 years ago, Skype did not even exist, in a figure of speach. A huge amount of improvement have been achieved in mean time, but the pressure keeps building up. The bigger you get the more pressure, so the question is wether Skype has enough boyancy to stay floating. I find that certain features of the current Skype have no appeal for businesses. I am sorry to say so. By itself, it is virtually unmanageable, it has very few administrative feature and therefore there is no accountability. Skype poses a big problem in any environment where management values standard operating procedures, proper implementation of rules and regulations, policies and so on. I am waiting for a Skype for Business release that will address all of the above and many more features.

At this moment Yahoo, Microsoft have become IM chat buddies, but the friendly company Skype that was first in showing the the world that it could talk for free, but it does not interface with the other IM - platforms. Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger Now Compatible, so Skype better follows, which would take away the need for x,y,z to try to hack or crack it. Maybe join the IM federation…

16 July 2006 in Crime / Software Piracy, Networking / Security, VoIP / Skype | Permalink

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I think that in the end it all boils down the question wether Skype can Cash In On Free?.

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This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my previous or current employer(s) and/or businesspartner(s). This blog is NOT affiliated with Skype. Skype is a trademark of Skype Limited. Any trademarks belong to the respective owners. This blog is slightly satirical and contains a heavy dose or irony if not sarcasm. Get used to it. For cleaned up marketing and PR stories please visit the original websites. I am quite sure you will notice the difference.

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