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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.

View: Microsoft apparently spamming IM users
View: Microsoft's IM letter means you agree to pay and upgrade
View: The full story
News source: The Inq

Trillian maker Cerulean Studios is interested in signing a deal with Microsoft, the company's co-founder and head developer Scott Werndorfer said in an e-mail answer to a reporter's questions.

"We're anxious to work with Microsoft on any licensing models they might have," Werndorfer said. He added that Trillian Pro 2.0, which entered beta testing on Aug. 1, supports the latest MSN IM protocol, but did not say if that means that older Trillian clients will be locked out from the MSN IM network soon or if Trillian Pro 2.0 would work with MSN IM regardless of a licensing deal.

Other clients that connect to Microsoft's IM network include Imici and Odigo.

Besides the issue of not wanting to run an IM network for other client makers to exploit, the changes to the MSN IM network also are for security and privacy reasons, Microsoft said.

"If there is unauthorized access to our network, it opens us up to potential security and privacy vulnerabilities," Gurry said. In fact, there is a yet undisclosed security flaw in Microsoft's IM network and clients, she said.

Because of this unknown flaw, Microsoft is forcing users of several older versions of its own MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger clients to upgrade to newer versions. Users that have to upgrade have been alerted via e-mail and will soon start to see notifications in their Messenger client, according to Microsoft.

MSN Messenger is one of the most popular IM services on the Internet, along with AOL's Instant Messenger and Yahoo's Messenger. Microsoft claims about 100 million unique users log on to its service each month. IM services let users exchange text messages in real time and providers have also added video conferencing, PC phone calls, gaming and other features.