If VoIPWiki is to believed then Skype has been cracked. A Chinese company has gone ahead and reverse engineered the Skype protocol. It has stated that their software would not support Skype's supernode technology i.e. this Skype clone would be a free Loader on Skype's network and it would not have the supernode responsibility for helping carrying Skype traffic around the net. This would also enable an ad free alternative to Skype in case ads appear on Skype in the near future.

On the other hand Skype has gone ahead and stated that they are aware of the claim but up till now have no evidence to prove its authenticity. The company stated that even in case it had been accomplished, the software code would lack the feature set and reliability of Skype which was enjoyed by over a hundred million users and any amount of reverse engineering could not threaten Skype's cryptographic security or integrity.

Already Skype is not quite popular in China and there is a good chance that this company would get support in China and since these engineers have gone ahead and reverse engineered a protocol which was not protected by a patent they are likely to escape any legal hassles.

If this is true then money paid by eBay in acquiring Skype has gone down the drain?