[toyg]

> I imagine the "old" Skype was just as easily gamed.

Most European police forces would disagree. For years, they simply would not shut up about how Skype was such a pain in the neck to deal with. There were constant streams of interviews and talks about the need for, basically, either a Skype ban or some other form of pressure over the company. Skype alone was painted as the clear cause of pedophilia, drug and human trafficking, illegal arm trading, the works. This from people with little scruples in terms of enforcement -- French and Italian police are fond of seizing whole server farms when they need to check a few emails from "subversives", so they would have happily nuked Skype from orbit if given half the chance.

As soon as Microsoft "rearchitected" the protocol, poof! All lamentations stopped.