[citation][nom]-lukin-[/nom]wouldnt you if it was your company? Keeping up with those servers, client updates, uptime and whatever else is involved is expensive to say the least. Offering a free service is difficult, expensive and doesnt make any sense. Gogo gadget capitalism![/citation]
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Skype has no network for anything, even their video calling is peer-to-peer, correct? So, other than paying for the software development, what grounds does Skype have to charge a monthly fee for something that costs them nothing? I mean, if they were running the servers and handling the data themselves, that's one thing. Instead, they use peer-to-peer and leave your chat session open to the whims of the internet. I can understand charging a one-time fee for the software itself, but a monthly fee for a service Skype isn't actually providing seems dishonest to me.
Imagine if you had to pay a monthly fee for car tires. You go to the tire store, they install new tires, and you pay them $10/month as long as you want to use those tires. Of course, the tires are powered by your own car and drive on city/country/state/country roads, but Sears Auto wants their monthly cut. That would be absurd.