Skype As We Know It May Not Exist Much Longer

[george]

Skype As We Know It May Not Exist Much Longer, eBay Says

EBay is working on software to replace the guts of Skype but is worried that it may not succeed, may lose a court battle with Skype's founders over rights to the core technology and may need to do something drastic in the next few years. The company said in a regulatory filing yesterday that if it fails in both the legal and technical avenues it's pursuing then "continued operation of Skype's business as currently conducted would likely not be possible."

Joltid, a company owned by Skype's founders, merely licensed some of the system's core technology to eBay when it sold Skype to the auction giant in 2005. Joltid now says that the license has been revoked and eBay is infringing on its rights by continuing to use the technology. The case is scheduled to go to court in June of 2010 but eBay is trying to replace the technology in the meantime. It may not succeed.

Joseph Galante at Bloomberg News cites Jayanth Angl, an analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, who argues that replacing the technology will not be easy. "It would be quite difficult to replace what they already have as the underlying component to their service," Angl told Bloomberg. "There are a number of barriers to that, not the least of which are legal barriers." The creation of another global P2P VOIP and video network that doesn't infringe on existing patents is no small task.

Skype is one of the shiniest stars in eBay's portfolio of companies and is aimed to spin out as an independent company that can sell its own stock in an IPO sometime soon. That's unlikely to happen until this most important of several lawsuits the company faces is somehow resolved.

This Spring we reported that Skype's founders were also interested in raising enough capital to buy Skype back from eBay. It's been three months since that news was first disclosed and there have been no updates on the effort that we're aware of.

Skype continues to grow very quickly. Now with 480 million users around the world, it is twice the size of Facebook and adding users almost as fast. Skype being gutted would cause substantial disruption to the communication of millions of families around the world.

Source: rewritetheweb.com

[thaimite]

If Skype died it may not be a bad thing.

There are lots of alternatives which use the SIP protocol (e.g. Gizmo) but are not so common due to the Skype marketing hype. If Skype was to go away all the other systems then might merge to be compatable and as good if not better than Skype is now.

Personally I use Skype for PC to PC simply because it is so common, but I use the other systems for VOIP to phone because of superior quality and lower rates.

[Phil Conners]

^ 100% agree. Skype has sucked for several months, useless call quality and high rates compared to other VOIP systems, but handy as a text chat client.

[johnnymoretti]

I, for one, use Skype religiously to vid chat with my family in the US and my brother living in Bolivia. I also have vid chatted with others in UK, Australia, Italy and Canada. Not sure why people think its not worth it. Its FREE for gods sake, for comp-to-comp. And if you told me 20 years ago I could video chat with my brother living in the depths of Bolivia with near live streaming, I'd think you packed your pipe too hard.

Hope Skype stays. Its simple and easy and if your computer/internet is set up right, its just fine the way it is.

My two baht worth.

[niller74]

I for one hope Skype will die. Their lack of support to other communities but Windows is a joke. As someone mentioned their quality has dropped noticeably over the past months.

The biggest problem as I see it, is that there is no way to identify Skype calls and prioritize them on a network. This lead most traffic shaping applications to put the connections in with the other P2P traffic.

Now if only the next big VoIP will be based on SIP or similar protocol, I will be happy.

[Crushdepth]

I like Skype. I hope the lawyers screwing up useful software die instead

[borovik]

^ 100% agree. Skype has sucked for several months, useless call quality and high rates compared to other VOIP systems, but handy as a text chat client.

The biggest problem with Skype is the fact,that it is too good!It snicks through all sorts of firewalls,they can not block it,even when they want very much;they try to disrupt it,and they can do it only to some extend.

Finests from many countries(loudests complains from BundesPolitzei) - cry:"we can not listen!".

They can not listen! - this is the problem!

Of course - another problem is loss of profits to free calls.

I like it,because of video connetion;works like a dream,and it makes big difference in keeping family ties alive.

I wish all Skype adversaries to rot in hel_l!

[JimShortz]

^ 100% agree. Skype has sucked for several months, useless call quality and high rates compared to other VOIP systems, but handy as a text chat client.

The biggest problem with Skype is the fact,that it is too good!It snicks through all sorts of firewalls,they can not block it,even when they want very much;they try to disrupt it,and they can do it only to some extend.

Finests from many countries(loudests complains from BundesPolitzei) - cry:"we can not listen!".

They can not listen! - this is the problem!

Of course - another problem is loss of profits to free calls.

I like it,because of video connetion;works like a dream,and it makes big difference in keeping family ties alive.

I wish all Skype adversaries to rot in hel_l!

Agreed - works great. Where's the problem?

[thaimite]

I, for one, use Skype religiously to vid chat with my family in the US and my brother living in Bolivia. I also have vid chatted with others in UK, Australia, Italy and Canada. Not sure why people think its not worth it. Its FREE for gods sake, for comp-to-comp. And if you told me 20 years ago I could video chat with my brother living in the depths of Bolivia with near live streaming, I'd think you packed your pipe too hard.

Hope Skype stays. Its simple and easy and if your computer/internet is set up right, its just fine the way it is.

My two baht worth.

The point is not that Skype is bad, but as a closed protocol it stifles competition and development. SIP is an open protocol which means you can use the program you like to communicate with others just as in email you can use Outlook, Thunderbird or numerous other programs to send email and not be restricted as to who you communicate with.

As for sneaking through firewalls. When I recently lived in Dubai the SIP program VOIPcheap worked for both PC to PC calls and PC to phone calls long after their (only) internet provider had succeeded in blocking Skype, and of course proxy servers avoided all problems.

[Hermanus]

I like Skype very much. Many years of good connections with my family on the other side of earth. Everything keeps alive by the video call possibility. Sometimes the connection is good and sometimes bad but thats not the problem from Skype but the problem of my very bad internet connection :-). Before I had many other VOIP programs but Skype is still the best. I dont need support because it is always working without any problem. Do you know what the real problem is? That gangsters (Maffia) who try to sell free Skype for money or Google earth etc. Thats the real problem. The latest email i get was the one from the newest PDF reader

[madmitch]

If Skype died it may not be a bad thing.

There are lots of alternatives which use the SIP protocol (e.g. Gizmo) but are not so common due to the Skype marketing hype. If Skype was to go away all the other systems then might merge to be compatable and as good if not better than Skype is now.

Personally I use Skype for PC to PC simply because it is so common, but I use the other systems for VOIP to phone because of superior quality and lower rates.

I use Skype now and will continue for PC to PC but would be interested in any suggestions for a good PC to phone alternative.

[thaimite]

I use Skype now and will continue for PC to PC but would be interested in any suggestions for a good PC to phone alternative.

It depends on where you are calling To and from. I like VOIPCheap.com and SmartVOIP.com.

Check out their sites to see the cost to the destinations you are interested in. For example Calls to phones in the UK, US, HK and many other places are free with these people.

I also use their phone to phone service where you use the Internet to connect your phone to the other parties phone. This is especially good if you have a poor Internet connectionand it only costs a small call initiation charge.

[Crushdepth]

One thing I definitely do like about Skype is the encryption. That should be standard in all VOIP products.