Skype video cards: holiday cheer with a side of humbug

From Skype, the people who brought you the Skype Laughter Chain, here's the Skype Video Card service. A little flash widget lets you record a holiday greeting video into your browser. Share it with friends by embedding the video on your blog, emailing a link, or posting it to any of seven sites (facebook, reddit. friendfeed, digg, delicious, furl, or sister eBay company StumbleUpon). It's fun, fast, free and easy. You start. Pick a cover image.  Confirm the image. Let the browser use your webcam. Record your video. Preview your video card Skype says "Free video calls on Skype. Seeing is believing. Download Skype now" Share your card Done. It's lovely. Light. Simple. Elegant. 4 clicks and you're recording. Sweet. Useful. Nicely done.  A few cautions from the fine print: Ownership. Skype reserves the right to use your video any time in any way. For example, they might include it in a television commercial, give copies to YouTube, share them with your next boss.   Privacy/Anonymity. You're giving Skype the right to use your name in connection with your video. You're giving Skype the right to use anyone else's name too. No privacy. No authenticity.  Vague Archival. Skype doesn't promise to keep your videos. They may delete videos when it suits them. Or not. They may keep them until the end of time. This Video Upload and Download Is Unencrypted. Unlike Skype video calls or messages. The video card site doesn't use Skype. At all. No use of Skype names or address books to send video greetings. No use of the Skype client to record the video message. Or to view video messages from others. No use of the Skype client as a way to continue the conversation in a voice, chat or video call. No use of Skype's advanced audio/video codecs for higher quality. Skype Video Card highlights where Skype's technology is creaking with age at the end of 2008. Skype doesn't offer a browser-based client. Rich Internet Apps improve virality and adoption with less downloading and faster time-to-value. Skype's APIs don't expose an open web services platform beyond simple presence. So third parties cannot build Skype into, oh, say, video card apps running in browsers. Skype doesn't support third-party authentication, identity interop, profile synchronization, or personal contact synchronization, or personal contact group synchronization. Far from the data portability ideals. Skype's identity model does not facet identity. So you're stuck with one profile for everyone. For family. For every job. For every relationship. Forever. Skype clients don't support inline media sharing. No playing of images, videos, sounds or other objects during a conversation. Meanwhile, Happy Holidays!