why skype protocol cannot be implemented in pidgin?

[infestor]

as the title asks, what is the reason? or is it not just the protocol?

[Hetor]

Because it's not open source.

[Greg]

I'm not sure, but reasons might include the protocol being closed source, and the fact that libpurple didn't have audio video support until extremely recently.

[Wiebelhaus]

It's not Open.

[infestor]

what about MSN? is Microsoft Notification Protocol open source? 'cos it is in pidgin.

[earthpigg]

the empathy folks are the ones moving forward and embracing audio/video stuff with a great deal of enthusiasm. not pidgin. hence, pidgin was dropped for empathy in karmic... even though, at present, pidgin is probably more fully featured.

and, with the skype client being open-sourced very soon, i expect empathy will be the first one able to serve the additional capacity of being a fully functional skype client.

[ZankerH]

Skype protocol isn't Free, and therefore irrelevant to my interests (and probably the reason it isn't included in $IM_client).