Kopete/ICQ/About ICQ

ICQ is a proprietary instant messaging program, first developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis. It uses AOL's OSCAR network protocol for sending the text messages. To identify people, it uses a number, called UIN (Unified Identification Number). When you register an ICQ account, you also have to enter an e-mail address. Some ICQ clients support login with that e-mail address instead of your UIN (but not Kopete).

Features

Offline messages
multi user chat
file transfer

Features not yet supported by Kopete

games
sending SMS

Criticism

Privacy: according to the security analyst Jeffrey Carr, the russian secret service could gain access to chat protocols. For further information see here
Spam: there is a lot of spam (unwanted advertisement or viruses) in the ICQ network
Copyright: according to the ICQ Acceptable Use Policy, you allow ICQ to use posted material in any manner they want