M$ to block 3rd party MSN clients

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Users have to upgrade to the latest versions of MSN or Windows Messenger by Oct. 15 or they will no longer be able to log on, Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall said. The upgrade is required because of "security issues" with the older versions of the Messenger clients, he said, declining to specify those issues.

Besides those older Messenger clients, the move also affects IM software such as Trillian, Imici and Odigo that allow users to consolidate multiple IM accounts in one client, Sundwall said.

"It is our expectation that those who use our service with unlicensed or unauthorized third-party clients will likely not be able to log on after Oct. 15," Sundwall said. "We would encourage those third parties to contact us to work out agreements by which they can continue to have their customers access our network."

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Full Story Here : http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/...ockdown_1.html

Gaim Developers Speak Here : http://gaim.sourceforge.net/msn.php

Personally... I think its BS. If they want to block 3rd party apps... I'd be more than happy to stop using the service. I like trillian and gaim better because I can have one client for all of my messengers. I don't want to have to run 5 clients that do the same thing.

When this happens... I'd be interested to see how much their participation level drops... Count me out.

It already states in the article that the business people/developers involved in the third party clients have a couple of months to talk to microsoft to work out a deal to continue service. They aren't just blocking them out.

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It already states in the article that the business people/developers involved in the third party clients have a couple of months to talk to microsoft to work out a deal to continue service. They aren't just blocking them out.

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Yes they are giving them a chance, but some how I don't think Microsoft will let them have it all for free, especially when they use the term ..."unlicensed and unauthorized..."

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Originally posted here by Juridian
It already states in the article that the business people/developers involved in the third party clients have a couple of months to talk to microsoft to work out a deal to continue service. They aren't just blocking them out.

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Sounds like "talk to us and work out some financial retribution for leeching off our servers and you can still 'connect'". Standard MS crap to make sure they squeeze every penny they can for everything to "offer". Makes me glad I don't use Messenger or even have an account at all, to be honest.

Anyone remember when AOL was actively trying to block Trillian users? AOL probably had 20 "programmers" on their IM staff and these 20 were getting destroyed by the TWO guys who made Trillian. I'd rather donate to a cause like Trillian (donated 150 bucks to date) to keep a great product going without any ad-ware, spyware, advertisements in the program, etc, rather than be forced to use a buggy ad-ridden useless program like AIM.

Just about the only IM client outside of Trillian I'd use would probably be Yahoo IM. They've proven to be decent but hey, I've already got the account connected in Trillian, hehe.

This isn't a slam on anyone who uses these clients, but I know my opinions and what I would rather support and it's definitely not a program forced upon users.

Hahaha...soo much bs. It simply sounds to me like there is a very big difference in the architecture of their new chat service they are rolling out making the old one and any third party clients that used it obsolete. It's the natural progression of things and can be seen in all types of software and services....

Even if they did try to enforce a licensing scheme...
1) They have to put out a fool proof scheme to stop the third party clients....good luck there.
2) It's their service pushing packets for you goobs to your buddies. If they want to generate revenue for it.....so be it. The money to pay the developers, admins, management, hosting provider, software licensing, and the money for the hardware can't just be pulled out of the air.

Deals made may not even be to squeeze the lil guys for money. It could be anything really....You can't squeeze blood from a turnip (or a pennyless opensource software project). Killing the little guys with the big user bases will just piss off their end users which isn't exactly good for business. Now working with the little guys to put maybe some kind of ad space into their client that can be pulled down from a .net web service....hey, now the client is still alive and microsoft makes money. Which is what they are all about.

Not that I promote any of this, my point is.....no one knows what is really happening but those directly involved. No point in getting your panties in a twist until you have some actual information.

just like vorlin said M$ are only doing this for the money, the only way trillian and the likes are going to survive is if they make them cost money, and then M$ takes a bounty for them selves,

I doubt it will be long before someone reverse engineers the protocol/ software to enable 3rd partys again,

the thing that im struggling to understand at the moment is does the new protocol there using ask for some sort of identification to no whether it is a genuine microsoft client?

I could understand if each client had a UID (unique identification) and this acts like the public key and they have the private keys for each client stored on a big server somewhere so that they could implement some form of public key encryption to varify authentisity,

I mean whats stopping someone basically chopping up client (sounds grusome) and then just creating there own front end??

be interesting to see what happens

i2c

this is just a reason why M$ is BAD...they always get one or the other way to get some $$$ in billys pocket...welll i really cant understand WTF M$ really wants...why it just cant be nice ...
just wondering...