Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

Thought I would pass on a word of warning about the recently released Skype 5 for Mac. Once installed, if Skype 5 is running (even in background), it will block Flash from being able to access your webcam. This breaks quite a few popular web applications. Unfortunately users will think the problem is caused by Flash, when it is actually caused by Skype.

Examples of sites and applications broken by Skype 5.

http://www.dailybooth.com - core feature of the site http://www.facebook.com - webcam record and "take a photo" feature http://www.picnik.com - image editors that have import from webcam http://www.webcamsnapper.com - webcam photo widget used by brizzly, dailybooth, many other sites. (disclosure: my company built this app) adobe connect, dimdim, etc - online meeting apps

Skype has been aware of this issue since the release of the beta in November and yet they have not fixed it before the general release. According to their issue tracker they say this new behavior is "by design".

https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCM-721

In the old Skype (2.8) this was not a problem, so something has changed. If indeed this is not a bug and is "by design" then it is a very worrying move. Imagine for a moment things were reversed. Say for instance a new release of Flash stopped all video calls working in iChat or Skype. People would be outraged, Gruber would have a heart attack.

Just to be 100% clear, Skype doesn't need to be in a video call for it to block webcam access by Flash. It simply needs to be running. The only fix is to shut down Skype then reload your browser. After this the webcam will start working again in Flash. The only long term fix is to uninstall Skype 5 and install an older version.

More discussion of the issue in Skype forum: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=782411

Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"
jira.skype.com

I have been fighting with this since installing the Beta. Has caused me to stop using skype, and only turning it on as a last resort. Would be curious if anyone has a link for 2.8, as it (unsurprisingly) isn't on their site anymore.

I have no idea what Skype was thinking with version 5 of their client. It is atrocious.

There is so much white space, if your Instant Messenger client takes up more screen space than a web browser, you're probably doing something wrong.

Download version 2.8 - http://mac.oldapps.com/skype.php

Previous Skype extension for Firefox was also causing trouble for many websites. The plugin is common enough to cause a lot of grief.