Skype Protocol Reverse Engineered

[Guest]

Russian reseracher Efin Bushmanov claims to have reverse-engineered the Skype protocol with the goal of "making Skype open source".

Skype Protocol Reverse Engineered : Read more

 

[cuecuemore]

I love that this happened right after Microsoft acquired it.

 

[Ciuy]

Whats reverse engineering ?;p

 

[Trialsking]

I love the researcher's first name - Efin Bushmanov

 

[Trialsking]

Skype is like "That Efin Bushmanov, he reversed our code!"

 

[jknouse]

So if this researcher learns how to walkabout with Crocodile Dundee, then takes his wife into the Australian outback for some romance...is he a Bushmanov Efin with his wife? *seg*

BTW, I say...wtg...Microsoft pays billions, then someone hacks the updat...i mean, reverse engineers the code. lolz

 

[hixbot]

Why even bother? It's just some VOIP code and an interface. If you want an open source program with similar features just start from scratch, and make it GNU.
Stealing has never been the open source way. Even with the Skype source code you still don't have the copyrights to it. You're in direct breach of license, and no respectable open source community would work with it.

 

[XD_dued]

[citation][nom]Cuecuemore[/nom]I love that this happened right after Microsoft acquired it.[/citation]

That is why he did it. He was afraid Microsoft would provide for poor linux support.

 

[w3k3m]

[citation][nom]hixbot[/nom]Why even bother? It's just some VOIP code and an interface. If you want an open source program with similar features just start from scratch, and make it GNU.Stealing has never been the open source way. Even with the Skype source code you still don't have the copyrights to it. You're in direct breach of license, and no respectable open source community would work with it.[/citation]

Reverse engineering is legal, as long it is done with completely new code. You can't copyright ideas, only the implementation. Otherwise we would have for example only one car manufacturer in the world today. The PC-Revolution would never take place if the original IBM BIOS wasn't reverse engineered.

 

[robisinho]

I don't understand what is the big deal .. it's not like skype releases its server side software, so you're not getting anything but p2p voip .. something any decent c.s. freshman should be able to build to prototype level before a year's time in between friday night parties

 

[hixbot]

[citation][nom]w3k3m[/nom]Reverse engineering is legal, as long it is done with completely new code. You can't copyright ideas, only the implementation. Otherwise we would have for example only one car manufacturer in the world today. The PC-Revolution would never take place if the original IBM BIOS wasn't reverse engineered.[/citation]

I think you missed the part that they didn't legitimately reverse engineer the code.

 

[opmopadop]

Toms Hardware,

I just had a look at fghaamm's profile (the moron posting clothing ads all morning). His profile seems bogus (no message history, gender, DOB etc).

Is it possible someone has found a 'back door' and adding entries directly to the user database directly?!?!

 

[jalek]

I find it funny that since the Cold War, Russian "researchers" keep cracking proprietary systems and releasing code while American "researchers" cry about lost corporate profits based on imaginary extrapolations such as the RIAA assertion that music labels lost hundreds of trillions to torrents.

DISCLAIMER:
Of course I don't actually support illegal and unAmerican activities such as releasing information for free. Leave me alone with your Patriot Act datamining, and yes, people will probably notice if I'm "disappeared". Besides, my tin foil hat will protect me!

 

[Guest]

In Soviet Russia, Skype Protocol reverses YOU!

 

[bellman80]

what is 'reseracher' ?

 

[gti88]

His name is "Yefim".

 

[gti88]

Chek your spelling, Puglas Berry!

 

[Guest]

Reverse Engineering is legit? What happened with CSS which was reverse engineered and than outlawed...

 

[back_by_demand]

It's not the code that is worth $8 billion, it is the branding.

There are plenty of other services that do similar, I have been able to do video calling via Messenger for years and before that did voice calling via ICQ.

What makes Skype so valuable is that the name Skype has almost become the defacto brand for online video chat, the same way vacuum cleaning is "hoovering" or an MP3 player is an "iPod".

So no big deal if the code is reverse engineered, you can't hack brand power.

 

[darkxuy]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]It's not the code that is worth $8 billion, it is the branding.There are plenty of other services that do similar, I have been able to do video calling via Messenger for years and before that did voice calling via ICQ.What makes Skype so valuable is that the name Skype has almost become the defacto brand for online video chat, the same way vacuum cleaning is "hoovering" or an MP3 player is an "iPod".So no big deal if the code is reverse engineered, you can't hack brand power.[/citation]

Nope, branding has nothing to do here, its about connecting to the skype network without the skype client.

Its the protocol being reverse engineered here.