Agreement with ICQ

[Kevin Stange]

On 05/21/2011 09:05 AM, Ivan Komarov wrote:
> I admit it sounds weird, but, as far as I understand, the worst that
> can happen after we sign it is that ICQ orders us to remove the ICQ
> support from libpurple (which they can do in any case). IANAL, though,
> and I think we really should talk to our lawyers (if we have any, that
> is :)) before we do anything.

If we sign the contract we suddenly have terms for what we can and
cannot do.  Currently we are subject to no agreement, which means we can
do whatever we want that's legal.  Maintaining a 3rd party client by
observing protocol behavior is not illegal (in the US anyway).

All that they can do is *ask* us not to support ICQ if we don't sign
this contract.  They cannot order us to remove ICQ support.  We've
supported protocols without authorization in the past, and AOL battled
3rd party clients for a long time.  If ICQ wants to repeat the history
of AOL and try to block third party clients that haven't agreed to their
terms, that might be a fun game to play.

Kevin

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 262 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://pidgin.im/pipermail/devel/attachments/20110522/9a736b86/attachment.sig>