As of today, users with old or non-official ICQ Clients are no longer able to log into the ICQ Network. They received no prior notice and just get the message that their client is too old. The reason for this is still not known, but it has been speculated that it is due to ICQ wanting all users “upgrade” to the new ICQ6 Client. Many users reported the problem in the official ICQ support forum and the first fixes for the problem already appeared in the net.

This incident clearly shows once more that we should not surrender our freedom to communicate to a single power. We should not trust and rely on a proprietary network such as ICQ, AIM or MSN because all our communication can be monitored and restricted by them. If we use such a service, they are able to effectively control a part of our daily communication. That is why everybody should consider switching to the decentral and open Jabber (XMPP) chat network. It’s the community, not some greedy corporation that is in control of this chat service. Everybody can host and control his own Jabber server or choose one that he considers trustworthy. Creating a Jabber account is very easy and there are several free clients out there. Go and get Jabber now!