Well, guys at Nullsoft did that first thing once AOL hired them...but technically in the TOS they explain how the ads are what's important (you learn so much from reading TOS)
...if this were truly an issue of resources. but it's not. AOL is in business here. AIM attemptes to make money through the ads in the official client. If you're not running the official client, then you have no ads and they have no revenue. TOC is a compromise whereby they'll let you run an unofficial client, but the price you pay for that is loss of some functionality.
A lot of people seem to think that this is an evil and terrible thing. AOL probably thinks those people are just plain crazy and don't understand a thing about business. From their point of view, they're trying to "play nice" while still trying to keep their source of revenue - AOL is not in this for the principle of the thing, and anyone who thinks they should be needs a new opinion.
And just think about it for a moment - if AIM opened up the protocol, how long do you think people would continue to use the official client that makes them watch advertisements in the window? Answer: about as long as it would take them to download a client that didn't have ads. And as has been pointed out, no ads=no revenue for AIM. No revenue for AIM=defunct service. This is why they do things like "break" unofficial clients with checksumming.
Now I posted on this a few days ago when there was an article about it, and I'll repeat what I said there: the way to get AOL to open up is not to reverse-engineer their protocol and give people clients that make their service unprofitable; that will make AOL want to squish you like a bug. Rather, what is needed is lots of people going to other services (can you say Jabber?) - then they're losing their competitive edge and they're motivated to fix it. And what's the best way to be competitive in the IM market? Being interoperable with the other services, of course...
So rather than coming up with a clever hack so you can keep using the OSCAR protocol and a client that can't take advantage of the features, out of some sense of open-source spite, forget AOL and get Jabber...it'll do more to make AOL open up than ten thousand gaim users checksumming away ever will.
"I have every right to say that AOL are a bunch of evil, corporate, power hungry, internet-wrecking bunch of snivelling shits until they decide to cooperate with the rest of the world."
Well, you do have a right to say that. What does it have to do with your right to use their servers?
Now, moving on to reinforcing a couple good points from the parent post in this thread, AOL doesn't have to make their client work with other IM services - they can choose to stay proprietary forever if they want to, and that's their right. It's their server, and the official client is free, but comes with advertisements to defray the cost of running an IM service that supports as many users as AOL's does - in effect, running a third-party client without advertising (which is pretty much all of them I've seen, since most people hate ads) is running a client that makes them lose money; do you expect them to sit back and watch that happen?
The TOC and OSCAR protocol difference is a compromise - TOC lets third-party clients use the AIM servers, but to get all the features, you need acess to OSCAR, which they keep proprietary. Granted, that's anathema to people who like open source and open standards, but from their point of view, it's a concession, and a fair one - we'll let you use our service, but if you want full features, use our client. How is that evil and power-hungry? Keep in mind that AOL is trying to make money, and while they may not be as enlightened about openness as you are, it's not illegal or immoral to try to make money.
If you want AOL to open up, the way to do it is NOT by coming up with clever hacks to use their servers when they don't want you to - that makes them want to squish you, not cooperate with you. If you want them to open up, encourage people to use other services - Jabber is a prime example, and a good idea. That's the way to get them to start playing nicely with other people's clients and protocols, though it may be self-defeating in the end - AOL will still want to tmake money, and if everybody has a third-party client, you know how they'll do it? Subscription fees for the service.
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Well, guys at Nullsoft did that first thing once AOL hired them...but technically in the TOS they explain how the ads are what's important (you learn so much from reading TOS)
...if this were truly an issue of resources. but it's not. AOL is in business here. AIM attemptes to make money through the ads in the official client. If you're not running the official client, then you have no ads and they have no revenue. TOC is a compromise whereby they'll let you run an unofficial client, but the price you pay for that is loss of some functionality.
A lot of people seem to think that this is an evil and terrible thing. AOL probably thinks those people are just plain crazy and don't understand a thing about business. From their point of view, they're trying to "play nice" while still trying to keep their source of revenue - AOL is not in this for the principle of the thing, and anyone who thinks they should be needs a new opinion.
And just think about it for a moment - if AIM opened up the protocol, how long do you think people would continue to use the official client that makes them watch advertisements in the window? Answer: about as long as it would take them to download a client that didn't have ads. And as has been pointed out, no ads=no revenue for AIM. No revenue for AIM=defunct service. This is why they do things like "break" unofficial clients with checksumming.
Now I posted on this a few days ago when there was an article about it, and I'll repeat what I said there: the way to get AOL to open up is not to reverse-engineer their protocol and give people clients that make their service unprofitable; that will make AOL want to squish you like a bug. Rather, what is needed is lots of people going to other services (can you say Jabber?) - then they're losing their competitive edge and they're motivated to fix it. And what's the best way to be competitive in the IM market? Being interoperable with the other services, of course...
So rather than coming up with a clever hack so you can keep using the OSCAR protocol and a client that can't take advantage of the features, out of some sense of open-source spite, forget AOL and get Jabber...it'll do more to make AOL open up than ten thousand gaim users checksumming away ever will.
"I have every right to say that AOL are a bunch of evil, corporate, power hungry, internet-wrecking bunch of snivelling shits until they decide to cooperate with the rest of the world."
Well, you do have a right to say that. What does it have to do with your right to use their servers?
Now, moving on to reinforcing a couple good points from the parent post in this thread, AOL doesn't have to make their client work with other IM services - they can choose to stay proprietary forever if they want to, and that's their right. It's their server, and the official client is free, but comes with advertisements to defray the cost of running an IM service that supports as many users as AOL's does - in effect, running a third-party client without advertising (which is pretty much all of them I've seen, since most people hate ads) is running a client that makes them lose money; do you expect them to sit back and watch that happen?
The TOC and OSCAR protocol difference is a compromise - TOC lets third-party clients use the AIM servers, but to get all the features, you need acess to OSCAR, which they keep proprietary. Granted, that's anathema to people who like open source and open standards, but from their point of view, it's a concession, and a fair one - we'll let you use our service, but if you want full features, use our client. How is that evil and power-hungry? Keep in mind that AOL is trying to make money, and while they may not be as enlightened about openness as you are, it's not illegal or immoral to try to make money.
If you want AOL to open up, the way to do it is NOT by coming up with clever hacks to use their servers when they don't want you to - that makes them want to squish you, not cooperate with you. If you want them to open up, encourage people to use other services - Jabber is a prime example, and a good idea. That's the way to get them to start playing nicely with other people's clients and protocols, though it may be self-defeating in the end - AOL will still want to tmake money, and if everybody has a third-party client, you know how they'll do it? Subscription fees for the service.