skype

Overview
[|Skype] is a software application that first came out in late 2003. This application allows users to make telephone calls over the internet. Additionally, users can instant message other skype users, share files with other users, and communicate via live video, a feature which was introduced in 2006. One advantage of Skype is that calls to other countries are the same price as calls to others in the same country. Since Skype's initial emergence, several updates have tremendously expanded the amount one can do using Skype software. In year 2009, there was an astounding total of 521 million user accounts. Furthermore, there were 42.2 million active accounts—meaning these users were active on a daily basis. As one would expect, this popularity has translated into a tremendous monetary success for the company. In fact, the total revenue for this product totaled to 185 million dollars in 2009. In January of this year, video calling on the iphone was made possible. This resulted in Skype having a record 27 million users at the same time. One [|interesting news story] suggests that Skype may be helping democratize the criminal justice system. Before Skype and it's video chat function, those financially disadvantaged defendants who could not afford to fly in witnesses would have to suffer the consequences of that injustice. However, now defendants can have their witnesses testify via Skype. This happened just a few days ago in Texas. Although the District Attorney opposed the use of Skype, “arguing among other things that the confrontation clauses of the U.S. And Georgia constitutions require in-person testimony at trial,” the judge allowed the use of Skype in the court room. He affirmed that it worked quite well with the exception of one minor mishap. Despite the presence of the witness, the defendant was still found guilty of cocaine trafficking and sentenced to thirty years in prison. Still, it will be interesting to see what other ways Skype will change our world in the future.

**History**
Skype was founded in 2003 by two Swedish businessmen [|Niklas Zennström] and Dane [|Janus Friis]. The messaging service was originally meant to be called "sky peer to peer" but the domain name was not available so they settled on Skype. In September of 2005, skype was banned in China. A month later, the site was purchased by ebay. In April of 2006, Skype reached 100,000 million users shortly after the video chat was introduced. After coming under ebay's wing, skype was updated for both MAC and PC quarterly as part of an attempt to improve the quality of video chat communications. In 2008, Skype launched skype 3.0 which was designed for use on devices like the iphone and sonuy psp. In 2009, Skype 4 was released and shortly after that ebay announced plans to take skype public in 2010, a goal that was never reached.

**Opinion**
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