Robert.Wultsch@asu.edu asked:
> Ok I have to ask and I am not sure why... is there is an
 > AIM client out there that works on the command line?

I just installed AIM on my work-at-home Win98 desktop,
because some co-workers are relying on it.  I'm not a
chatter myself, I far prefer e-mail - not enough hours
in a day.

Ennaways, the AIM EULA was pretty clear:  I had to promise
not to talk to any of you terrible guys.  ;-)
I'm not allowed to give any "support" to anyone who
will do *anything* in opposition to AOL having a total
monopoly of this protocol.

Is this new with AIM, or have they always been so ugly
about it?  I mean, we're not allowed to try to ascertain
the protocol by sniffing?  That's OK for me, I'm not
intending to Hack AIM or to "support" any effort to do so,
and I doubt that part of the agreement is viable legally,
but this makes me wonder if AOL is on the warpath?
or just making sure they can't be accused of not having
"defended" their rights.

But gee, does Microsoft say you're not allowed to try to
figure out its file formats?  If so, I've never seen it,
and *that* would certainly be a lost cause.

Of course if MS decides to *encrypt* their file formats
to "protect intellectual property", I guess that would
threaten to make a felon of anyone who tried to reverse-
engineer it.  This may be coming with Palladium/Longhorn.

But as long as the data is essentially in the clear, as
long as you were taking a black-box approach to the file
format (or to AIM's protocol), I wouldn't think they have
a leg to stand on.  ...   Right?

I guess if I moved my work-at-home environment over to
Linux, and if I wanted to use an AIM client there,
I would no longer be in compliance with my Win98 AIM
license, and would have to uninstall it from Win98.

(Best solution would be to find a *good* ICQ client for
the one guy who's on a Mac - that's what forced us to
move to AIM in the first place.)

Oh, wait.  I may not be in compliance anyway.  I also
agreed not to take any action to impede the ads they
display, and yet -- bad, BAD consumer that I am --
I clicked "No" when IE asked permission to run a script
when displaying the AIM Buddies List, and thus none of
the ads are appearing.  Alas, I'm a lost soul.

Vic