Skype’s future may be in jeopardy

The future of Skype, arguably the most popular Internet telephony program around, could be in jeopardy, due to an ongoing legal battle.

In a quarterly filing, parent company eBay noted it would be forced to discontinue the service if it loses the right to use part of its peer-to-peer VOIP (voice over IP) software and can’t find a replacement. As CNN, which first reported the filing, points out, though, there’s no immediate danger of Skype going away.

The fight is with a company called Joltid, which claims Skype broke a licensing agreement to use the software. EBay, predictably, said it believes it can win the court fight, but it is developing its own replacement peer-to-peer VOIP as a precaution. There is, of course, no guarantee that development will be successful.

Beyond the potential shutdown of the company, the legal fight creates an additional pair of headaches for Skype. EBay has been eager to spin the company off publicly, with a target of the first part of next year. Looming legal problems could delay that.

In the meantime, Google is in the midst of a closed beta test of Google Voice, which will send calls to users' mobile, home and work phone numbers to a singly number, offer cheap international rates and offer other features, which could be a threat to Skype regardless of its legal situation.

At present, Skype boasts over 480 million registered users, who use the service mostly for video and telephone conversations.