Recently in Skype Category

Skype Journal wrote about one of the coolest mashups I've ever seen. Certainly one of the coolest VoIP mashups. Skype Journal explains PhoneFromHere Tim Panton's demo that he gave at Astricon where Tim mashes up Google Wave, Skype, Asterisk running Skype for Asterisk and Ibook to make Skype calls from within a browser-based Google Wave.


Not only is it sans Skype client, but it has recordings (labeled by person speaking) of individual utterances, so you can quickly playback what a particular person said at a certain point in time.

It's amazing to make a Skype call from a browser without running the Skype client. How do you ask? Well, it uses a browser-based Skype client using a IAX2 Java client to communicate with Asterisk which then communicates with the Skype network cloud. On top of it all you get Google Wave's powerful collaboration capabilities.

Perhaps some IP address geocoding combined with Google Maps to show the speakers' locations might be nice addition to this mashup. Or even pulling down Facebook profile pictures. There is definitely some awesome potential for this. Maybe Google can even stick your Google Wave/Skype/Asterisk collaboration sessions into their newly released, centralized, Borg/hive, data-collecting, privacy-busting Google Dashboard?

Gigaom reports that there is a good chance that a resolution of the lawsuit between the Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis and eBay's Skype could be announced as soon as this week.

According to Gigaom, a group of private equity investors led by Silver Lake Partners are close to settling their legal dispute with Niklas and Janus which will allow eBay to sell 65 percent of Skype for around $2 billion. This means that Index Ventures and Michelangelo Volpi, former CEO of Joost are on the "outs" to buy Skype. It's important to note that Joost also uses the proprietary P2P protocol that is the core engine used in Skype. With this knowledge of the core guts of the P2P engine, Volpi attempted to bid for Skype along with Index Ventures.

There is no love lost between Volpi and the founders of Skype who also founded Joltid.  JoltId accused, "Volpi has repeatedly failed to comply with Joost's demands that the return his computer and all Confidential Information he obtained in the source of his fiducisary relationship with Joost."

According to Om, "Zennstrom and Friis will have a board seat on the newly independent Skype, which would be allowed to use JoltID's technology."

Slashdot was abuzz with the news that Skype was going open source. Not so fast my friend. Have you not forgotten Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis who now run JoltId are in a legal fight with Skype?

Surely Skype wouldn't be so bold as to release their P2P 'secret sauce' while still in court litigation with JoltId. Who would want to thumb their nose at the all-powerful judge? In fact, the lawsuit reads: "A source code version of the GI Software (Global Index Software) is licensed by Joltid to Joost, allowing Joost to be the first company to successfully deliver television and other video content in real-time over a peer-to-peer network. An executable-only object code form of the GI Software was licensed by Joltid to Skype, a well-known Internet-based company that providers users throughout the world with free or low-cost telephone services over the Internet. Skype did not obtain a license to the GI Software source code, however, and the license it did obtain was terminated based on Skype's breaches of the license agreement."

Well, it turns out Skype doesn't have balls of steel, but rather they are making the GUI open source on the Linux platform. Whoopdeedoo. So the graphical user interface is going open source. Move along, nothing to see here.

Video gamers love VoIP in video games but have often been disappointed with poor voice quality - including jitter, lag, and choppiness, inability to continue to talk via VoIP once you close the game and just an overall poor user experience. Well, Blabblelon aims to change all that with the launch of their browser-based VoIP application which uses a mix of Java and Flash to VoIP-enable any PC, Mac, or Linux computer. The beauty of Blabbelon is that it works at the browser-level, so you can VoIP your friends whether you are inside the video game or not. With Blabbelon, you can blab all you want - even start your own blab-a-thon if you want.

Blabbelon is not to be confused with Babylon where the story goes that God wasn't too pleased with the Tower of Babel the people built, so he took one common language and confounded it into many so they couldn't understand each other. Well, Blabbelon may not be a Star-Trekkian universal translator-- or some anti-Tower-of-Babel gizmo helping you to understand what that French guy who just fragged you said, but it will give you crystal clear wideband HD voice.

Leveraging Skype's wideband SILK codec the audio quality is superb. In fact, as far as I know, this marks the first time anyone has embedded the SILK codec into Java. When I interviewed Blabbelon, I asked them if anyone else had successfully embedded Skype's SILK codec within Java and they confirmed they are the first. They pointed out that it took serious coding and some tricks to get the SILK codec embedded into Java. Dean Elwood, CEO of telecom provider Voxygen Limited and chief technology strategist of Blabbelon explained they are using a LAMP architecture on the back-end and the front-end is a combination of Java and Flash. Dean said, "Because Skype is only releasing binaries and not source code. The naked binaries are not Java, so we had to do a few tricks to get Java to work nicely with binaries for Mac and Windows. It's not an easy thing to do. Getting it into the browser we had to do some work."

The browser-based VoIP chat tool not only leverages Skype's SILK super wideband audio codec, but it can handle thousands of simultaneous users - up to 7,000 in fact. According to Blabbelon, "Blabbelon provides a platform for a wide variety of users such as: gamers securely competing in team-based quests; businesses running 7,000 person global conference calls; or grandparents taunting grandkids over a game of Facebook Scrabble."

I took it for a test drive and it worked pretty well with very good voice quality. I was able to hit a "hot key", by default the right Ctrl-key and then talk to my other test account. Here's a screenshot (click for larger image):

Ring2Skype, a new startup, brings yet another way to have free calling by leveraging both Skype and the PSTN. Ring2Skype allows you to have a free local number (in NYC, London, Madrid, etc.), forwarded to your Skype (wherever you are) -- once again for FREE.

I should point out that Skype charges you for a PSTN telephone number while Ring2Skype offers you a free number. Also, Ring2Skype provides numbers in more than 100 destinations, while Skype only has about 20. You just need to select the city where you want the number and Ring2Skype emails you the telephone number, which you can share with family and friends. Example: 212-555-1000 x1000. The local phone number assigned is shared amongst other Ring2Skype users, so you have to enter an extension, but hey it's free, so you can't complain!

Skype for SIP keeps adding more SIP-based IP-PBX solutions to their interoperability list. First they had Shoretel, then SIPfoundry's sipXecs and now today they announced that they are interoperable with Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business.

"In today's tough economy, executives of smart small and medium-sized companies realize that effective communications with customers, partners and employees are a key to helping them grow their business," said Stefan Oberg, VP and General Manager of Skype for Business. "By certifying Skype for SIP as interoperable with the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series, we are providing a single offering that will help many SMBs around the globe save money, save time and stay ahead of the competition."

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Maybe the end of Skype is not near? The plot thickens as Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, both founders of Joost and Joltid, today announced that they have filed a lawsuit against Mike Volpi, Joost's former president, CEO and chairman. The suit also names his current private equity firm (and Joost investor) Index Ventures. The legal documents say that Volpi obtained confidential information in his role as CEO of Joost about how to circumvent Joltid's intellectual property - the very same intellectual property needed to run Skype.

According to Newteevee.com, "The gist of the lawsuit is that Volpi learned how to modify Joltid's proprietary software to run on the web without the aid of peer-to-peer software when he was transitioning Joost from a peer-to-peer service to a web-based Hulu clone. With this knowledge, he was able to pitch a version of Skype that buyers could take over from eBay while side-stepping ongoing litigation."

The lawsuit reads: "A source code version of the GI Software (Global Index Software) is licensed by Joltid to Joost, allowing Joost to be the first company to successfully deliver television and other video content in real-time over a peer-to-peer network. An executable-only object code form of the GI Software was licensed by Joltid to Skype, a well-known Internet-based company that providers users throughout the world with free or low-cost telephone services over the Internet. Skype did not obtain a license to the GI Software source code, however, and the license it did obtain was terminated based on Skype's breaches of the license agreement."

It goes on to say that "Volpi has repeatedly failed to comply with Joost's demands that the return his computer and all Confidential Information he obtained in the soruce of his fiducisary relationship with Joost." Wow, holding onto a corporate computer with trade secrets? Doesn't look good if this in fact true. Volpe apparently began working with Index Ventures back in May to try and acquire Skype, before stepping down from Joost in July.

So the gist of this allegation is that Volpi worked for Joost, attained the "secret P2P sauce" (source code) used in Skype, then approached Index Ventures with this trade secret, (no doubt in exchange for millions of dollars) and then with this "secret P2P sauce" in hand, Index Ventures purchased Skype for $2.75 billion. I knew there was no way someone would waste $2.75 billion without having an ace up their sleeve! We shall see if Index Ventures has a royal flush to beat Joltid's four aces.

The lawsuit is below (ditto Newteevee's thanks to TechCrunch for posting an embeddable version):


For more read Techcrunch and NewTeevee

According to the Skype blog, new data released by the exo.performance.network shows that Skype has eclipsed Windows Live Messenger as the #1 IM application. Skype just squeaked by with 17% vs. 16.7% for Windows Live Messenger.

Nicely done Skype! I just hope the end is not near.

As you probably heard, Joltid has sued eBay and now the new consortium of buyers, over the P2P licensing rights used in Skype.

Brad from the 'Twilight in the Valley of the Nerds' blog emailed me to say he read my Joltid article, including the comments from Julian Cain, a former Kazaa employee, where Julian commented that Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Fris can remotely shut down Skype by remotely revoking the cryptographic keys.

In my article, Cain wrote in the comments section:

I worked on Kazaa at the same time Skype was being developed in the labs at Joltid.

There is a history of this greed so let me lay it out:

Kazaa was built as a client on top of a p2p library named FastTrack.
Joltid which was known as "consumer empowerment" at the time licensed the FastTrack p2p stack to Grokster. Having said that the Kazaa client was made brand-able. The 3 guys that built the original FastTrack library did not use proper Cryptographic code at the time and decided to build their own because Nick and Janus wanted the protocol to be protected so they could build the empire. Now back to Grokster, this same thing happened to them but it was supposedly due to default payment for the FastTrack license. In this case both parties denied what really happened and we do not know the real truth to this day.

Here are some facts:

The FastTrack p2p library has built in code functions to disable encryption, much like revoking a signed key, just using really bad crypto code. The end result is an inoperable p2p library.

Skype wasn't built directly from the FastTrack p2p stack, it is another source tree/ project and uses PKI properly instead of home grown crypto code.

Joost wasn't built from the FastTrack nor Skype source tree, it too is another project.

So what we have here is very simple, Joltid doesn't and never has sold their p2p code to anyone, ever. I tried to make this public to ebay at the time of acquisition but as the first poster said it was a "rushed decision" so nobody cared.

This is a trend with Zennstrom and it is how he wins every time.

Lastly, I personally believe that they can take Skype off the internet remotely as they did to Grokster and since they did it to a very large audience I don't see why this case is any different from the first.

Conclusion: Buyer beware and don't lease software that can be disabled remotely by the vendor. Also, never purchase or lease software that is self encrypted, compressed or obfuscated because it's not intellectual property that is being hidden, it's always something else, and I say this because I can circumvent their "binary protection" code and what I have seen is nothing short of scary.

Scary indeed. While Skype could be shut down I would think Skype would negotiate before it gets to that level. But perhaps Niklas's "asking price" is too much? The alternative is for Skype to develop something in-house and get around the licensing issue. Well, Brad spoke with Julian Cain and gave some additional insights, including the fact that eBay can't simply replace the Joltid code.

"Ebay, Inc. is not building their own technology to replace SkyLib as it's a technical impossibility without starting over again from GUI to guts."

Yikes! If true, the only alternatives are to fight in court against Joltid and win or settle with Joltid.

Even scarier, here's what Cain told Brad: (make sure to read whole article too)

Ebay, Inc. and Joltid, Inc. are keeping a lid on the infraction. Nobody is reporting anything because they do not know the details. In fact, they (Joltid) were here in the USA last week in California, but have since departed.

But to answer your question (about whether Skype could be brought down remotely by Joltid), yes, they have the technical ability to revoke the rights of the SkyLib (a cross-platform library written in C++ that underlies the functionality of Skype on all client platforms) remotely. Joltid CAN inject algorithms into the SkyLib ad-hoc overlay network remotely. What they did with Grokster was not advanced and also didn't use cryptographically secure methods, as they were home rolled. SkyLib does, however, use a proper PKI.

The question you must ask yourself is this: Did Joltid, Inc. hand over their Root Certificates with the acquisition of the Skype Client? No, they did not.

This is a political agenda and not what you might think.

So let me get this straight - Skype was purchased by eBay for roughly $3 billion and then sold to a buying consortium for roughly $2.75 billion. I thought it was crazy when eBay bought Skype for $3 billion and I think it's even crazier for this buying consortium to buy Skype knowing that Joltid could shut Skype down. Who gambles with $2.75 billion with the possibility of that money being wasted? Nobody and I mean NOBODY is that stupid or wasteful with money.

What's that you say, Chuck Norris? You disagree? Oh, I forgot about the $700 billion bailout, $410 billion omnibus spending bill, and the other recent government bailouts. My bad, Chuck - I forgot about Congress. Besides, who am I to disagree with Chuck Norris.

I tested Siphon, a SIP-based VoIP application for the iPhone, in California at ITEXPO. Interestingly, Siphon worked perfectly in California over AT&T's 3G data network. Yes, you read that right - VoIP over 3G! I couldn't contain my giddiness when I realized I could now register my iPhone with TMC's Asterisk-based IP-PBX and make/receive calls. I've tried Siphon a few times in the past and it never worked over 3G - only WiFi. I thought perhaps AT&T was now easy their restrictions and allowing it. (silly me)

However, once back in Connecticut I tested it again and it didn't work. Apparently, in some parts of the country AT&T is blocking port 5060, the default SIP port. I did some port testing on my iPhone and indeed AT&T is blocking outbound port 5060. While I was in Los Angeles I was able to use Siphone to make & receive VoIP calls over the 3G data connection through my corporate Asterisk-based PBX. I was able to receive calls to my TMC extension as well. Guess it was good while it lasted...

Now, Siphon does let you change the local SIP port from the default 5060. In theory, the Siphon application can be modified to use a different outbound port and then you could setup some port forwarding rules on your firewall, i.e. map the 'always open' port 80 (web) on your firewall to forward to port 5060 when connecting to your SIP-based IP-PBX's IP address. Or if you IP-PBX is already using port 80, there are plenty of other outbound ports that AT&T doesn't block.

Apple has rejected and blocked Siphon from the App Store. Interestingly, Apple allows other SIP clients (WiFi-only) to be downloaded from the App Store, including iPico, fring, iSip (supports push notifications of calls), Acrobits Softphone, WeePhone SIP, and Nimbuzz. What's interesting about the Siphon app is the whole saga the developer had to go through with Apple when submitting this SIP application to the App Store. It wasn't pretty...

The short story is that even when Siphon didn't support VoIP over 3G a few versions ago, Apple still rejected the app providing a lame excuse. Then after several attempts, Siphon went "underground" and provided their SIP app to Cydia, the primary jailbroken app store - with full VoIP over 3G functionality. If you can't beat em', screw em'! That's why a lot of apps have gone to the Cydia App Store to get around Apple's ridiculous restrictions.

Check out this screenshot of my iPhone showing how you can enable Siphon over EDGE/3G:



Unfortunately, like I said earlier, AT&T is blocking outbound port 5060 in some parts of the country, so simply enabling Siphon over Edge/3G by itself won't work if they block it. Apparently, the AT&T cellular network in Los Angeles, California works though. If anyone else has gotten Siphon to work over the AT&T 3G network, post a comment - or even if it didn't work. Would be a good gauge of how widespread they allow/disallow this.

The day is coming when the carriers will have to allow VoIP over 3G. Look at what VoIP, and especially Vonage did to the traditional landline industry. We went from paying long distance minutes by the minute to an UNLIMITED plan with UNLIMITED minutes for a flat rate. The mobile industry will soon have to follow suit.

In fact, the first wireless carrier that lets me register my cell phone to my SIP-based IP-PBX over a 3G data connection will become my new wireless service provider and have my business. I'm sure millions of others feel the same. Heck, charge me a few cents for terminating or originating my SIP-based calls. I'd pay for the ability to use my corporate identity (CallerID) when making business calls on my personal cell phone. Or just count SIP calls as 1.5x or 2x per minute of usage towards my current monthly plan's bucket of minutes. Of course, the carriers would have to detect when a SIP call originates or terminates, which is a technical challenge. They'd have to do packet inspection on a mass scale to support this.

Still, there has to be an appropriate revenue-generating business model for the wireless carriers that will allow their customers to use SIP over 3G. Make it $5/month extra or something. Vonage took the traditional landline providers by surprise, causing the defection of millions of users. So if the wireless carriers wait too long, some new wireless carrier is going to come along and do the same by offering VoIP/SIP over 3G. You mark my words...