Witch hunting?

Skype continues to force domain names with the name “Skype” in it to close down their site or change the name.

In the past i saw some early developers or even supporters of Skype changing their name after pressure from the lawyers of Skype. And most of them stopped developing, because Skype took away their business idea.

Some examples …

• Video4Skype: the first video conferencing tool for Skype
• VSkype: the second video conferencing tool for Skype

I used both, and they were really added value for Skype, but they disappeared …

Some days ago, Jan from Malaysia was obliged to remove his blog on Skype called Skype-Watch.

Funny and I feel sorrow. Jan has in my opinion the best blog on Skype, followed by the “older” and more famous SkypeJournal. Skype Journal was never threatened like that i guess. And Jan has been a very big promoter of Skype.

Skype Journal also reported about this “incident” some days ago, and in a very surprised way. They don’t understand why! Perhaps they are the next victim? I don’t think so, i think there is some kind of “unwritten” agreement between Skype and Skype Journal.

Phil Wolff says: “My take: Sharma (the lawyer threatening Jan Geirnaert), didn't consult with Skype's PR or marketing communications team before composing her email”. Well, I think Phil is wrong here: Jan isn’t mentioned anymore in the “Friends of Skype” list in the Skype blog! So, there was conversation between the lawyers and marketing!

It is true that Jan has criticised Skype several times, especially concerning some security issues, but so do I, and so does Skype Journal (but, IMHO less than in the past!). It is true (in view of the ads on the blog) that Jan earns probably some “Google” dimes with his website, but so does Skype Journal.

If you want to continue to enjoy the blogging of Jan, look here: www.voip-watch.com.