An unusual Instant Messenger question

[dlapointe at attbi.com (David Lapointe)]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but doesn't GAIM use AOL's protocol?  I send 
an AOL signoff message with it everytime I use it.

http://gaim.sourceforge.net/


On Friday 10 January 2003 08:49 pm, David Kramer wrote:
> On Friday 10 January 2003 05:31 pm, Derek Martin wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > > > This is form of man-in-the-middle attack, and will look great on your
> > > > hacking credentials.
> > >
> > > ... And would almost certainly be a DMCA violation, if you care about
> > > that sort of thing.
> >
> > I really don't think so.  Here, we're not trying to circumvent an
> > authentication mechanism; instead we're trying to impose /additional/
> > means of blocking access.  I'm not accutely familiar with the language
> > of the DMCA, but I don't recall any language that prohibits such
> > additional barriers to access.
>
> It has nothing to do with blocking the port and everything to do with
> reverse engineering AOL's prototol.  I'm not talking about the shutting
> down of the connection but the sending of the sign-off message to his
> friends, which would require proprietary knowledge of their protocol/
>
> > And I seriously doubt that, being
> > implemented in someone's home, for purposes of monitoring their
> > children, it would ever go to court even if there were...
>
> I never said it would.  Only that it was a violation.  Sorry, I forgot to
> put a smiley face after it.

-- 
 .david
 David Lapointe
I used to be an idealist, but I got mugged by reality