The Skype Protocol Was Reverse-Engineered

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The Skype Protocol Was Reverse-Engineered

While many Linux users are upset that Microsoft's buying out Skype and that the Free Software Foundation's GNU Free Call hasn't matured much in being a reliable replacement to Skype (not all of the FSF projects move along), there is some interesting news this morning: an independent researcher has reverse-engineered the Skype protocol...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=OTUxOA

[stikonas]

Glad to hear those news!

[GreatEmerald]

Awesome, hopefully this will mean that Skype for Pidgin can be used without Skype itself.

[curaga]

Eh, no mention of the guy's name?

[Setlec]

this news rocks!!!!!

[dgrafenhofer]

Eh, no mention of the guy's (remark: or gal's) name?

As far as I know the DCMA allows for reverse engineering for the purpose of establishing interoperability. But maybe I am wrong, an there are legal reasons for hiding her or his name.

[bug77]

And there I was, thinking M$ buying Skype is the perfect opportunity to start pushing SIP. Which is pretty open, afaik.

[curaga]

As far as I know the DCMA allows for reverse engineering for the purpose of establishing interoperability. But maybe I am wrong, an there are legal reasons for hiding her or his name.

Since it's mentioned in the source, would be common journalism to mention it:

Hello, I'am Efim Bushmanov a freelance researcher and here is my project files on skype research.

[Scullder]

We can't rely on reverse engineering, Skype can break current protocols at anytime...

[AnonymousCoward]

We can't rely on reverse engineering, Skype can break current protocols at anytime...

This is exactly what I was thinking. We have SIP and XMPP+Jingle for sending audio and video across the Internet in an open, decentralized, standardized way. Promoting vendor lock-in and proprietary protocols just inhibits the growth of open communications.