November 30th, 2004
Skype and Kazaa: This Is A Marriage With Problems
As I’ve said before, I am dubious about thebundling of Skype’s free VoIP capability into the newest version of the Kazaa file-downloading software.
Today, Red Herring is out with their own take on what the bundling means. The consensus you get after reading"Bride of Kazaa"is that Kazaa’s existing and huge user base of "early adopters looking for low cost services" will provide Skype with a substantial infusion of new subscribers. In turn, Skype will hit up these new customers for enhanced, revenue-producing services.
Although the business case for the bundling is solid, the article quotes a whole catalog of risks. These include Skype’s association with a product known to evoke "legal issues," and the possibility of SPIT (Spam Over Internet Telephony) raised by a decentralized network distribution matrix like Kazaa’s.
Red Herring also raises a valid, non "red herring" pointabout Kazaa’sreputation preceding it into the office market. As a result, security conscious IT administrators may refuseto lettheir users downloadthe Kazaa-bundled Skype.
I’d especially like to hear from IT administrators about whether the upside of access to free or very cheap Skype calls would be worth downloading Kazaa - with all its attendant risks.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
