Gaim changes name to Pidgin

It is the second time that Gaim has changed its name to appease AOL. When the project was first started it changes its name from "GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger” after AOL had a go at it.

Since then AOL trademarked "AIM" and started referring to its IM services under that name. It also started threatening legal action against developers working on Gaim.

According to a statement from the developers, if AOL received more pushback than they expected, and would sort of let things stand for a while. They they would threaten a different Gaim developer everytime there was a change of staff.

To deal with the problem the developers formed the Instant Messaging Freedom Coporation and maded it legally responsible for Gaim.

One of its tasks was to get legal support work to create a real settlement with AOL.

However, it took a lot longer than anyone thought. Although a deal has now been hatched, apparently Gaim has to change its name again.

Gaim will become "Pidgin" and libgaim becomes "libpurple" for libgaim, gaim text changes its name to "finch" for gaim-text.

The project has a new server here [www.pidgin.im] and here [developer.pidgin.im] More here.