<font size="3">Microsoft Messenger upgrade boots unlicensed clients out</font>
So what about Trillian and Gaim?

A SIDE EFFECT of Microsoft's determined push to get people to upgrade its new version of Messenger is that from October 15th "unlicensed clients" will get the heave-ho.
We say it's a side effect. But we wonder if it's a dose of "you probably weren't expecting this" software licence stuff.

The Great Vole said that it's going to dump support for ancient forms of IM it's made and the reason it's giving is its Rustworthy Computing initiative.

According to W2K News, MSN Messenger 6.1 will beta test real soon now.

But, as the site points out, Microsoft is telling people that from October 15th it wants, needs, no demands a licence for third party messenging clients to connect to .NET. So where does that leave said clients? Queuing up to pay the Vole the modern equivalent of doubloons and pieces-of-eight, we'd suspect.

Source: www.theinquirer.net