According to News.com, AMD has send Skype a subpoena for all documents related to the company's deal with Intel to offer 6 to
10 way conference calling exclusively to users with Intel chips in their computers. Background stories on the
hardware requirements and how legitimate the exclusive deal is can be found here and here. SkypeJournal Technical
Editor Bill Campbell said last month that if he really couldn't do Skype conference calls with more than 5 people
just because he has a non-Intel PC he was going to "start a revolution."The subpoena is part of a suit alleging that Intel is using their dominant market share to pressure various vendors throughout the industry to make deals only with them. Infoworld's Tom Yager has had good, ongoing coverage of the lawsuit.
I know that the issue here is Intel's pressure, and Skype's motto isn't "Do no Evil" (nor is it "the world can talk for free, all at one time") but there's something that seems dirty about this. The above background stories that came out before the subpoena are filled with people not wanting to comment but admitting that unsavory things were true. There's no proof of anything yet, but do you trust Skype? Now that they are owned by eBay do you trust them more or less? I don't know how I feel about it yet. It will be interesting to see if any back room deals at the expense of users come out of this subpoena.







