Skype and iChat both did direct client-to-client communication. Skype was bought by MS, and Apple got sued by a CIA front company over iChat. The result was the

Skype and iChat both did direct client-to-client communication. Skype was bought by MS, and Apple got sued by a CIA front company over iChat. The result was the same both ways: all comms started getting routed through a central server that could log metadata.