The Chinese government, for example, was found to have been spying on Skype conversations already, and they are probably not the only ones. We do not want to encourage the creation of a Skype compatible client, but instead, we want to encourage you to create, contribute to, or promote the use of free software replacements for Skype, such as Ekiga, and to encourage adoption and use of free VoIP, video, and chat protocols such as SIP and XMPP/Jingle.

Ways to help. Developers are needed to work on the projects developing a free software replacement for Skype. There are a number of such programs, such as Ekiga, Twinkle, Coccinella, QuteCom, and Jitsi. Unfortunately, these programs only replace some of Skype's functionality, and only in some situations. The Mingle project builds on Jabber to provide multiparty calling, and is supported by a grant from the NLnet Foundation. NLnet also supports the openMSRP project in this area. Developers should consider helping free software VoIP and video, chat, and multimedia communications projects.

Not a developer? There's still a lot you can do. Using one of the free software Skype replacements listed above is a great start. You can also help by contributing to the documentation and tutorials for such projects, as well as filing feature and bug requests.

Everyone can track progress and stay up to date with replacements for Skype on the LibrePlanet wiki.