Editing SILC (protocol) (section)

==History==
SILC was designed by [[Pekka Riikonen]] between 1996 and 1999 and first released in public in summer 2000.<ref>[http://www.silcnet.org/general/history.php SILC history] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080126151819/http://silcnet.org/general/history.php |date=2008-01-26 }}</ref> A [[client (computing)|client]] and a [[Server (computing)|server]] were written.  Protocol specifications were proposed, but ultimately request for publication was denied in June 2004 by [[IESG]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-riikonen-silc-spec/history/|title=History for draft-riikonen-silc-spec-09|date=23 January 2007 |last1=Riikonen |first1=Pekka }}</ref> and no RFC has been published to date.

At present time, there are several clients, the most advanced being the official SILC client and an [[irssi]] plugin.  SILC protocol is also integrated to the popular [[Pidgin (instant messaging client)|Pidgin]] instant messaging client.  Other [[GUI]] clients are [[Silky (software)|Silky]] and [[Colloquy (IRC client)|Colloquy]].
The Silky client was put on hold and abandoned on the 18th of July 2007, due to inactivity for several years.<ref>[http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=717434 SourceForge.net: project closed<!-- Bot generated title -->]{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The latest news on the Silky website was that the client was to be completely rewritten.

As of 2008, three SILC protocol implementations have been written.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://silcnet.org/community/links/ |title=SILC Secure Internet Live Conferencing |access-date=2008-04-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080402024135/http://silcnet.org/community/links/ |archive-date=2008-04-02 }}</ref>
Most SILC clients use libsilc, part of the SILC Toolkit.
The SILC Toolkit is dual-licensed and distributed under both the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the revised BSD license.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://silcnet.org/software/developers/toolkit/licensing.php |title=SILC Secure Internet Live Conferencing |access-date=2008-05-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516054651/http://silcnet.org/software/developers/toolkit/licensing.php |archive-date=2008-05-16 }}</ref>