Microsoft Introduces IM Licensing

prostoalex writes "The MSN Messenger ban of outside clients and cited security issues might be explained by yet another Microsoft move. The company's Internet unit, MSN, contacted third-party providers like Trillian and Odigo with a suggestion to buy access licenses. From the ZDNet article: 'Running an (IM) network is expensive,' said Lisa Gurry, group product manager for MSN at Microsoft. 'We can't sustain multiple other people's businesses, particularly if they charge for certain versions of their software. We're introducing licensing processes for third parties like Trillian.'"

Comments

re: i'm sorry

[dollargonzo]

*i'm* sorry, but your last point doesn't make sense. should the people who make roads get money from the people who make cars? that is the logic you seem to be following. they created a service. you are correct that they are losing revenue from banner advertisements, but that should be a matter of the client you use. apart from banners, there is absolutely no difference. as someone else mentioned, it's about control. as soon as you open up the roads, you can't say (100 years later) that only fords can drive on them.

Here's why this is bad...

[GabrielStrange]

Here's why I think this is bad... Because, once the dust settles, once everyone agrees that there isn't any legal ground to stop MSN from doing this, MSN will try to spin this as if it AIN'T THEIR FAULT.

So when your old buddy or your sister or whomever gets a brand spankin' new Windows PC, and naturally installs MSN on it just because he knows MSN is Microsoft and he uses Microsoft so that must be the one that's most compatible, and finds out that despite the fact that you claim to use some fancy program called GAIM that'll talk to "practically every other IM program there IS!" in fact you aren't able to talk to him, he'll probably laugh at you and tell you that obviously all that supposed computer knowledge you have is completely bunk and that you should dump that silly Linux or BSD system of yours and switch to good ol' dependable Windows.

And I say this based on actual experience. A year or two ago, when Trillian first started to get popular, suddenly all my friends were telling me that every time I IM'ed them (from LICQ) they were getting a warning message telling them that I used an old and buggy version of the ICQ client and that they should ask me to upgrade to the latest. And of course I was using the latest LICQ. So I went through LICQ's help forums, trying to find out why this was going on... Turns out it was because Trillian's authors had been lazy and only implemented the most recent ICQ protocol -- whereas LICQ's authors had implemented every ICQ protocol ever used... But hadn't quite finished development of the very latest one. (This was fixed after a few months, when LICQ's authors did finish a working implementation of the latest ICQ protocol.)

But Trillian's authors had no problem putting code in their clients to encourage their users to regularly harass the users of other IM programs.

I still cringe every time I hear the word "Trillian" because of that. I tried to re-watch the Hitchhiker's Guide BBC miniseries the other day -- couldn't do it! Kept thinking about the IM debacle! NO LONGER ENJOYABLE!!!

And if Trillian doesn't have a problem with doing stuff like that... Does anyone really think Microsoft would?

This is a ploy. This is intended to get your friends, family members, coworkers... Your boss... to tell you that if you're choosing to use any IM outside of MSN... (And yes, you guessed it, MSN will only be available for Windows based computers)... You're effectively making yourself less available for communication. Which makes you things like "Unfriendly" "Uncooperative" "Mean" and even "Not a Team Player"... And of course, it puts serious doubt on your technical skill, if you seem to think you can talk to "practically every IM program out there!" but you can't talk to the one that most "normal" people use.

That's what I think.

Sorry, this is Slashdot

[Overly Critical Guy]

This is Slashdot. Even though this isn't news (Microsoft said they were going to do this in the PREVIOUS article!), and even though Microsoft has every legal and moral right to do this, Slashdot needs a bash-Microsoft article to generate page-hits for its parent company.

Mod me down if you disagree, but I think it's obvious. This is a complete non-story, and there are better things we could be talking about. Why would a bunch of *nix nerds want to talk about Microsoft and its IM licensing? The only possible reason is to just bash Microsoft.