[RU Still Down?]

I don't know how true this article can be. First of all Skype is closed source software. There is no way to verify German Police or Ebay's own (if existent) security claims. It could also be that German Police do know how to break Skype's supposed encryption (which uses AES and RSA according to Wikipedia) but are in the middle of a disinformation campaign to get the public to believe something that is false.

Spyware computer searches are illegal in Germany, where people are sensitive about police surveillance due to the history of the Nazis' Gestapo secret police and the former East German Stasi.

Too bad it's not illegal in the USA -- as the US government has used spyware on its citizens computers in the past to gain encryption pass phrases. I guess us Americans just love and trust the police and government with all our hearts,brains,souls,etc.

Ziercke said they were not asking Skype to divulge its encryption keys or leave "back doors open" for German and other country's law enforcement authorities.

German Police (BKA) have, in the past, ordered specific closed source 'anonymity' softwares (e.g. Java Anon Proxy) to include back doors/ enable spying by their government.

With all that said, I have to admit there is no FOSS voice chat solution, that I know of, that is similar to Skype in terms of its supposed security.

Edit: I have just learned of Zfone. It is a free and open source (dual licensed) and sits on top of your existing VoIP software. Binaries are available for Linux, Windows (only XP) and Mac OS X.

Unfortunately it is in its beta stages and for some reason Phil ZImmernann makes you register (and agree to some garbage) before you are able to download the source or binaries -- for now. :( I wouldn't use it until the final version is out -- which is supposed to be released under GPL.