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AOL Opens ICQ? Well, Kinda.
daveuserland writes "Dan Gillmor got an email from Yossi Vardi of AOL pointing to a site where they document the API for ICQ. This is quite interesting. They have a long license agreement, so it's not exactly an open spec. I posted the agreement here so it's easy to read (on their page it appears in a tiny scrolling text box). I'm curious to know if their API is XML-based and if it is implemented in SOAP and/or XML-RPC." Wow - I just finished reading the restrictions - my favorite is the "10,000 copies" limit, as well as the continued prohibition against people under 13 years old. With "open" like this, who needs closed?
why yes, i do agree that Steve Case will do all my laundry for the next decade!
After much hunting (with the same export aims in mind) I finally tripped over this:
:)
http://upsong.hypermart.net/format/icq.txt
ICQ2XML is just the kind of thing I'd love too, but I don't fancy coding it on my own.
ICQ was developed and initially marketed by an Israeli company and subsequently bought by AOL. That accounts for the initial protocol differences. Why they remain non-interoperable, I have no idea.
IAAL,BIANLY
You have to understand that this wasn't AOL's idea.
Some idiot lawmakers in the US passed a law making it illegal to store information about anybody under 13. Including, ironically, the fact that they're under 13.
The only way online services can protect themselves is to forbid anybody under 13 from using the service.
The only thing Americans can do to fix this is vote for better lawmakers.
-
What'd be really useful to me is to have the format of the contact list and history open. I've asked several times and they'd send a nice little letter saying that in the next version the format would be open. Thus far I haven't noticed it having been documented anywhere. I have frickin 2000+ contacts and years of history I can't import into GnomeICU and it annoys the hell out of me. I could write a program to force it out of ICQ but that'd be a pain in the ass so I end up waiting for someone else to offer a handy lil ICQ->XML conversion tool I can use. :)
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Hailstorm and the panic mode that hit them when they realized MSN Messenger now has more users than AIM. They want to get ahead of the game and make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to ICQ.
Cheers,
This gets announced the day before Microsoft's Hailstorm announcment, where Microsoft starts letting out some details to show why AOL better get their act together. Combine that with the fact that MSN Messenger now has more users than AIM, and it sounds like AOL's begging for free help from the open source community to save them from Microsoft and Hailstorm.
Cheers,
Are you talking about http://www.icq.com/api/ ? Unless Mirabilis has changed something in the downloadable zip-file since my last visit, it doesn't look like something new has happened.
The ICQ API has been for download for quite a long time, really. I remember trying it out a 3-4 months, but the documentation was nearly non-existant. This link just points to their API, not any documentation, unless it's hidden in the icqapi.zip.
As for their license... yeah, I actually read it back then (I clearly remember the part about 10,000 copies), at that one hasn't changed either.
With "open" like this, who needs closed?
Who said it was open? :)
Actually there is allready a RFC Draft pending in the RFC Queue.
:)
So I guess we just have to sit down and wait, unless you want to make an EEE on an old protocol, like Unix Talk?
-H
I noticed that if you "agree" to the license, you agree to be bound by the relevant VA law. UCITA anyone?
Of course, AOL is based in VA, so I guess it makes some sort of sense...
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Huh? What?!? The ICQ API has been available for quite a while on Windows, I am sure of this because a friend of mine who writes encryption based ICQ plugins told me about using it almost a year ago.
As for the protocol being XML based. It isn't if not we'd already know about it because all the ICQ clones would be using an XML based protocol instead of the ICQ protocol (yes, it's available on the web).
According to the agreement, you can't use the API to write any program that has "...chat ability, presence indication, 'buddy-system-like' functionaliity or instant messaging capabilities," which ICQ considers a "competing product." Just out of idle curiosity, what does this leave?
So I can't use the API for a chat protocol to write a chat program. So what good is it?
You copied their license agreement to a different web page? What are you, nuts? Are you trying to get sued or something?
-- dR.fuZZo
I think AOL is trying to just appease the FTC with its monthy releaseses of just so little more of the messaging specks and open-ness
In other words I think they are trying to release it so slow that it will not matter when they fully release it... but all the while releaseing just enough to keep the FTC happy.
I think the whole community has been sick of AOL picking up companies such as ICQ and just prick-teasing us with idle promises of opening it up. I'm kind of doubtful as to how much AOL will actually put out, especially having looked at the age and size limits in their "agreement." Nonetheless, at least AOL is making some effort to allow ICQ to be examined and probed vigorously by programmers and source code readers, and I think this will benefit both users and the company's reputation in the long run. As another thought, perhaps AOL is tossing the community a small bone in attempt to cover up/improve its image after all the raping of consumers and software technologies it has done.
"The most fortunate of persons is he who has the most means to satisfy his vagaries."
"The most fortunate of persons is he who has the most means to satisfy his vagaries."
- Marquis De Sade
Did anybody else watch this show on msnbc? It had several computer industry biggies, one of them being AOL. AOL was asked if they would open up AIM and they successfully skirted giving a real answer saying that they allowed anyone to access it (with their software only).
..The only thing I like about ICQ is the mail.wav "swoosh" sound
So, why now are they now "openning" up ICQ? I'm sure they have some truly dark, deliciously evil plan...
Is there really any use in having these specs. Since there are already opensource icq clone programs what is the point in using the mirabilis API to write icq-like software when an open project will have a MUCH less restrictive license... maybe im missing something but is there any real use in having this info. One more note... the ICQ API Reference guide included with the files is dated 1998... not exactly very new is it?
Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind...
This has to be one of the funniest and stupidest statements I've seen. For those who use ICQ/LICQ/MICQ/etc/etc when was the last time anything you did via the client was validated by the server. It sounds all good to parents and law makers who don't know any better, but my info states I'm about 12 years old, I live in Lithuania, etc., so much bogus information it'd make a wanted felon cry with envy. This is like (in my opinion) the case with some of these online cigarette companies, who were selling tobacco to kids under the age solely because they ordered with a credit card. Well sure if they have a credit card they must be legal, just don't verify they might have gotten the credit card number from their parents... Sure.... no need to verify, step right up for your Marlboros
I wonder how those who oppose Israel's (sometimes harsh) laws will feel about this. I think I'll go do some patent research and sue someone, anyone, for the sake of popularity.
vroom vroom
360 degrees of Karma
It's the same document I downloaded in 1998 when I was playing around with an SMS->ICQ gateway. Read the ICQAPI.doc file, it's dated 20/2/98.
Why don't people actually check it out before debating what this all means in light of the FTC?!
This is no more open than the Microsoft Win32 API you can find on MSDN.
As for the submitter's questions about whether it uses SOAP and XML-RPC - why didn't you look at the API, with a 10-second look you can tell that it's just a Win32 DLL interface!
Not only has ICQ's API been open but AIM has begun to make itself compatible with ICQ.
Try this:
Open AIM.
Type in your ICQ number in the login name box.
Type in your ICQ password in the password box.
Hit connect.
The weird thing is you can't add people to your buddy list and you can't see AIM users. You *CAN* message ICQ users though...from AIM!
A bit strange eh?
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.