AOL Forces Gaim Name Change

The popular, multi-protocol instant messaging client Gaim has, due to legal pressure from AOL regarding the trademarked name AIM, changed its name to Pidgin. This marks the second time the developers have changed the project name to appease AOL.

In the early days of development the project was known as “GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger,” but AOL threatened to sue and so the name was changed to Gaim. Shortly thereafter AOL began referring to its IM service as AIM and the legal threats began anew.

In a post at the new Pidgin domain, the Pidgin, n???e Gaim, developers recount the long tale of legal battles, secrecy and beta releases leading up to the name change decision.

Each time a new Gaim developer was threatened, we had to look at new legal support, to prevent a conflict of interest.

This process could not go on forever. As a result we ended up forming the Instant Messaging Freedom Corporation, and making it legally responsible for Gaim. We also had our new legal support work to create a real settlement with AOL that would get this issue dismissed from our lives forever.

…

At long last, I am pleased to announce that we have a signed settlement and can release our new version. There is one catch however: we have had to change the project's name.

The developers also note that the new URL will be the permanent home of Pidgin though for the time being SourceForge's mirroring system will be used for new releases.

Gaim was, and the new Pidgin will be, a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, OS X, and Windows. It's compatible with AIM and ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, other popular networks.

The name change also means that a new release is on the way. Version 2.0 of Pidgin will reportedly add an API compatibility layer for plugin authors among other changes. While website doesn't give a specific date, the developers say they hope to have the release up in the coming week.

The screenshot below (found via Digg) is reportedly of the new version. We'll be sure to post a review once we get our hands on a copy.