When the Russians bought ICQ from the dying AOL and relaunched it, the same protocol was still available and Pidgin worked. But they turned it off after a while

When the Russians bought ICQ from the dying AOL and relaunched it, the same protocol was still available and Pidgin worked. But they turned it off after a while, and what a shock, everyone left. I contacted the company, suggested they bridged it to other protocols, and pointed them at FOSS code that would let them do it. I got a snarky email back saying that what I proposed was impossible -- even though others had done it before. Idiots. -- 73187508