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Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

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Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#21

Post by nbaksalyar »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #18
postgeographic wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty bullshit generalisation about Russians. Or as it's. More colloquially known, racist.

My words are true. Our (russians) colloquial lexicon have tremendous amount of words from thieves jargon. Constitution in Russia have less meaning than thieves' laws. Our users, even programmers/hackers are trying to get free any software - it's kind of snobbery to use paid software in Russia. Maybe it's something wild for you, but it's reality in Russia.

I don't get your point. Why generalize over 140M people with your assumptions about illegal software usage and "thieve laws" in Russia in the topic about reverse engineering the Skype client? How does it even relate to Russia?

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#22

Post by EvgeniyZh »

andwur wrote: post #19
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"How dare you show your project when it has flaws!"

"How dare you comment on the flaws found in someone's project!" If issues are never brought to light then it's very unlikely they will ever be fixed. Would you rather everyone just stayed silent? I have great respect for someone that can put in the time and effort to reverse engineer Skype, and brave Microsoft's legal team in doing so, but in its current state this code can't be used safely and is far from easy to un…

I believe that the best way to bring issues to light is pull request. Second best is the issue. Comment on Hacker News is somewhere down the list

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#23

Post by viraptor »

andwur wrote: post #8

I haven't spent much time browsing through the source but the code quality and security is pretty dismal so far. Not to mention the confusing project structure. Magic numbers, ... and strings, all over the place [0]. Memory leak galore (debug code?) [1]. Probably buffer overflows all over the place, here's one I noticed [2]. I suspect others given the proliferation of opaque pointers and memcpy usage. [0] https://git…

The magic values look ok to me. I mean, some values are known, some aren't - it's still early days. Hopefully more will be labeled / split up into components with time.

But I agree that it would be dangerous to use now. And the author isn't a skilled VCS user or open source dev either. (comments say all rights reserved)

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#24

Post by EugeneOZ »

nbaksalyar wrote: post #21
EugeneOZ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My words are true. Our (russians) colloquial lexicon have tremendous amount of words from thieves jargon. Constitution in Russia have less meaning than thieves' laws. Our users, even programmers/hackers are trying to get free any software - it's kind of snobbery to use paid software in Russia. Maybe it's something wild for you, but it's reality in Russia.

I don't get your point. Why generalize over 140M people with your assumptions about illegal software usage and "thieve laws" in Russia in the topic about reverse engineering the Skype client? How does it even relate to Russia?

My reply was to comment about hacking culture. And it's not "assumptions" but experience.

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#25

Post by justinlardinois »

>> whether or not it is a clean-room reverse-engineered code, like Wine/ReactOS

> No. Not clean room, not chinese wall.

If it's not clean room, then there's probably copyright violations. For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design

Also, offering commercial licensing? That's a good way to get a lot worse than just a DMCA takedown.

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#26

Post by michaelmior »

Sephr wrote: post #7
bdcravens wrote: post #4

"Commercial license also avaiable (sic) on request." Seriously?

I see absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to profit from this. You're not being forced to use a commercial license, and the LGPL is adequate for most open source use cases.

Reversing in the first place is almost certainly illegal if you were to check the Skype ToS. Making a profit off it is just asking for trouble. I could be wrong though.

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#27

Post by babuskov »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #18
postgeographic wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty bullshit generalisation about Russians. Or as it's. More colloquially known, racist.

My words are true. Our (russians) colloquial lexicon have tremendous amount of words from thieves jargon. Constitution in Russia have less meaning than thieves' laws. Our users, even programmers/hackers are trying to get free any software - it's kind of snobbery to use paid software in Russia. Maybe it's something wild for you, but it's reality in Russia.

> it's kind of snobbery to use paid software in Russia

Perhaps there's a big percentage of people who feel the same, but there are also many people who pay for software:

http://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-on-piracy-and-steams-succ...

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#28

Post by cmarschner »

I do hope that the Skype people see it as an opportunity to improve product rather than threat / opportunity to sue the hell out of this project. WhatsApp would not have been necessary if they had gotten their act together. But at the time they were seemingly too busy sorting out technical and political ramifications of the MS acquisition and overlap with Lync. A more open approach to clients could save it, especially in the light that people are looking for alternatives after facebook is now starting to monetize WhatsApp.

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#29

Post by _0ffh »

michaelmior wrote: post #26
Sephr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to profit from this. You're not being forced to use a commercial license, and the LGPL is adequate for most open source use cases.

Reversing in the first place is almost certainly illegal if you were to check the Skype ToS. Making a profit off it is just asking for trouble. I could be wrong though.

I suppose it depends on where you are. IIRC some countries explicitly allow reverse engineering for interoperability. Which is arguably the case here.

(Side note: That any kind of reversing is illegal anywhere at all is by itself a testament of the sad state most legislatures are in.)

Re: Skypeopensource2 – Skype client based on reversing Skype 5.5

#30

Post by mac01021 »

postgeographic wrote: post #14
EugeneOZ wrote: post #9

maybe they are just russian. Living in the country of thieves leaves some marks on mentality.

That's a pretty bullshit generalisation about Russians. Or as it's. More colloquially known, racist.

"Russian", is not a race. We should find another word for this kind of prejudice.
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